NHL Best Bets
It may be our last chance for NHL best bets, as the Stanley Cup will be in the building yet again on Tuesday night, and the Florida Panthers look to close it out in front of their home fans. The Edmonton Oilers can feel extremely confident about their game for the first time in this series after putting up an eight burger in Game 4.
No matter how the Oilers won the previous game, I am a firm believer that momentum does not carry over from one game to the next, each game has its own story. The Panthers could have lost the last game 15-0, but I still wouldn’t be concerned about them.
The fourth win in a series is always the hardest one to get. That will be the case again on Tuesday night, and if the Panthers are going to do it, they’ll need a much better collective performance.
Let’s get into it.
Edmonton at Florida (-135, 5.5)
Multiple things can be true going into Game 5. The Edmonton Oilers can feel good about their chances to win one game and force a Game 6 back at home, while the Panthers can also love the opportunity to hoist the cup on home ice.
There’s no denying the fact that Game 4 was the ugliest and worst defensive performance of the playoffs for the Panthers. They looked a step behind the entire game, and Sergei Bobrovsky wasn’t on his A-game to bail them out. Bobrovsky struggled on the five goals that he allowed, but the players took ownership in the postgame saying that none of the goals against were the goalies’ fault, and they were right in saying that.
Tuesday night, I don’t expect that to be the case. The series temperature changed from Games 1 and 2 to Games 3 and 4. The first two games were low-scoring, with some great goaltending performances, and in the last two games, the offense finally broke through.
Stuart Skinner probably isn’t being talked about enough simply because the Oilers put up an eight spot, but Skinner’s save on Carter Verhaeghe when the score was 2-1 is a play that should be remembered, not only for that win but for his individual confidence. Skinner boasted a .970 save percentage last game and is at a .901% now for the series. All he needs to do is steal one game on the road, and we will have a series.
Bobrovsky has shown he is reliable enough to have a bounce-back performance, and I can guarantee that we won’t see another lackluster game from the Panthers’ blue line. The Oilers finally scored on the power play, but it was on a 5-on-3, so the Panthers can still feel strong about their penalty kill limiting the Edmonton firepower.
This game is going to be tight right from the opening face-off.
NHL Best Bets: Under 5.5 -115 (play to -130) | Under 1.5 in the first period -120 (play to -135)
June Record: 7-13 (-8.30 units)
2023-24 record: 199–189 (-24.22 units)
