NHL Eastern Conference Preview: Florida Panthers vs. Carolina Hurricanes
We are down to the final four in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The defending Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers, along with the Edmonton Oilers and Dallas Stars, are all back for the second consecutive year, with the Carolina Hurricanes making their second trip in the past three seasons. Today, I will kick off the Conference previews with a look at the East and some of the best series prop plays.
In the East, the Florida Panthers will look to make it three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final as they face the Carolina Hurricanes for the second time in three seasons. This will be their first meeting since January 2. The Panthers won two of three meetings, but in both of those victories, they faced Carolina’s third-string goalie Spencer Martin as both Freddie Anderson and backup Pyotr Kochetkov were out with injuries. The lone Carolina victory came with Kochetkov serving as the starting goalie.
When they last met in the playoffs, the Panthers swept the Canes, winning game one in quadruple overtime, single overtime in game two, before winning the final two games of the series in regulation. Carolina has lost 12 consecutive third-round playoff games. The last time they won a third-round playoff game was 2006, the year they won the Stanley Cup. If Carolina is going to get past Florida, they will need Andrei Svechnikov to continue his playoff goal-scoring touch. Svechnikov, leads the team with eight goals, but in the previous 15 games, he has gone up against Bobrovsky, you and I have scored as many goals against “Bob” as Svechnikov. Seth Jarvis, tied for the team lead with 10 playoff points (four goals and six assists) has scored three goals in six career games against Bobrovsky. Sebastian Aho (20 career games) and Jordan Stall (31 career games) both have 7 career goals versus the Florida netminder.
Last year, I had a weekly segment with Circa Resort VP and VSIN host/contributor Mike Palm which he created called “When Jonathan was right and when Jonathan was wrong”. When it comes to the Panthers and having a deep playoff run, I was dead wrong. I felt that this team wouldn’t have enough left in the tank after two long playoff runs, but all they have done is play better as the postseason has gone on. Florida had 15 different players score a goal in their series against the Maple Leafs, and in all, they have had 17 different players score a goal and 21 with at least one point for the entire playoffs. Florida leads the NHL postseason in both categories. Sam Bennett leads Florida with six goals (three in each of the first two rounds), but he has zero goals in 11 regular-season games against Canes netminders and did not score when the two teams last met in the playoffs. Bennett did have 19 shots on goal in the four-game sweep, recording three or more shots on goal (6,3,4,6) in each game. In their three regular-season games, Bennett had four or more shots on goal in two of the three games and was held to one shot on goal in the other meeting. I still like Bennett’s prop to score three goals or more at (+270), but I will play it small. I will play his individual game, Over shots on goal prop at both 2.5 and 3.5 at plus money, I would also look at the Panthers’ third line of Brad Marchand, Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen point props on a game-by-game basis.
Eastern Conference Series Plays:
Florida Panthers -1.5 games (+162) – 2 units
Aleksander Barkov to lead the series in goals (+1100) – .20 units
Seth Jarvis to lead the series in goals (+650) – .20 units
Sam Bennett to score two or more goals (-120) – 20 units
Sam Bennett to score three or more goals (+270) – .20 units
Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Numbers
| Series – Round 1 | 1st Period BTTS | 1st Period Over/Under | 2nd Period Over/Under | 3rd Period Over/Under | Full Game Over/Under |
| Carolina/ New Jersey | 0-5 | 2-3 | 4-1 | 2-3 | 2-3 |
| Tampa Bay/ Florida | 3-2 | 3-2 | 3-2 | 3-2 | 4-1 |
| Montreal/ Washington | 1-4 | 2-3 | 3-2 | 4-1 | 2-3 |
| Toronto/ Ottawa | 2-4 | 2-4 | 3-3 | 3-3 | 3-3 |
| Colorado/ Dallas | 1-6 | 4-3 | 4-3 | 3-4 | 4-3 |
| St. Louis/ Winnipeg | 4-3 | 6-1 | 4-3 | 4-3 | 5-2 |
| Minnesota/ Vegas | 4-2 | 6-0 | 2-4 | 5-1 | 4-2 |
| Los Angeles/ Edmonton | 2-4 | 2-4 | 5-1 | 5-1 | 5-1 |
| Series – Round 2 | 1st Period BTTS | 1st Period Over/Under | 2nd Period Over/Under | 3rd Period Over/Under | Full Game Over/Under |
| Florida/ Toronto | 3-4 | 3-4 | 4-3 | 4-3 | 5-2 |
| Carolina/ Washington | 1-4 | 1-4 | 1-4 | 3-2 | 1-4 |
| Edmonton/ Vegas | 3-2 | 3-2 | 1-4 | 3-2 | 2-3 |
| Dallas/ Winnipeg | 1-5 | 2-4 | 2-4 | 2-4 | 1-5 |
• The team who lost the previous game scored a first period goal in the next game: 35-23
• The team who lost the previous game scored the first goal of the next game: 36-22
• The team who lost the previous game scored the first goal of the first period in the +next game: 27-31
• Home Teams are 45-25 overall, 13-10 in Round Two
• Favorites are 44-26 Overall,14-9 in Round Two
• 46 of the 70 games have been decided by 2 or more goals, 14 of the 23 second-round games have been decided by 2 or more goals
• 30 of the 44 wins by the favorite have been by 2 or more goals, 11 of 14 in Round Two
• 16 of the 26 wins by the Underdog were by 2 or more goals, but 3-6 in Round Two
• The full games are 40-29-1 (Over/Under), 9-13-1 in Round Two
• Game tied 0-0 after the opening 20 minutes are 10-5 to the Over in the 2nd period 1.5 goals
• Teams winning closeout games have covered the Puck Line in 13 of 17 (13-4)
• Teams staving off elimination have covered the Puck Line in all five games
| Teams | Total number of players with goals | Total number of players with points |
| Florida | 17 | 21 |
| St. Louis | 16 | 20 |
| Edmonton | 16 | 19 |
| Carolina | 15 | 18 |
| Winnipeg | 13 | 20 |
| Vegas | 14 | 19 |
| Colorado | 12 | 17 |
| Toronto | 12 | 18 |
| Dallas | 12 | 19 |
| Los Angeles | 11 | 16 |
| Ottawa | 11 | 14 |
| Washington | 10 | 18 |
| Tampa | 8 | 15 |
| Montreal | 7 | 17 |
| Minnesota | 7 | 15 |
| New Jersey | 6 | 11 |
