NHL Daily Gambling Preview – 5/17/22

I closed out the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs on Sunday with a 6.06 unit win on the two overtime Game 7s, going 2-1 for a 2.56 unit win on my individual game bets and winning 3.5 units on the Rangers winning their series. Tonight the second round begins with the divisional round.

Game 1: Panthers vs. Lightning (7:00)

We got lucky enough to see the Battle of Florida once again this season to determine the winner of the Atlantic Division to advance to the Eastern Conference. As I broke down in my series preview, I expect this to be a very competitive series that ends up going six or seven games and have three units on the series to go over 5.5 games. I think home ice plays a factor in this series and would lean the Panthers win Game 1 with an extra two days of rest but not enough to bet on it. I’ll take the over for 1.5 units.

Game 1: Avalanche vs. Blues (9:30)

Like I broke down in my preview blog of this series, Colorado’s deservingly the favorite to win the Stanley Cup. I think this is actually a closer series than the prices show though. The Blues are a great team that could match up well against the Avs, especially if Binnington plays like he did in the first round against Minnesota and on the Blues cup run in 2019. All three games that these teams played in the regular season went over the 6.5, all four of the Avs first round games went over 6.5 and over 6 in the six games in the Blues first round series went 3-1-2. I love the overs trend in this series and for Game 1 tonight, I’ll go with 2 units on the over. Along with that, I’ll go with a unit each on the Avs TT over 3.5 and Blues TT over 2.5, expecting both teams to score. I think the Avalanche win Game 1 at home but the -285 moneyline isn’t worth betting on but I’ll take the Avs in regulation for a unit.

Game Bets

1u Panthers/Lightning over 6.5 (-130)

2u Avalanche/Blues over 6.5 (-135)

1u Avalanche TT over 3.5 (-160)

1u Blues TT over 2.5 (-139)

1u Avalanche in regulation (-139)

Open Series Bets

3u Panthers/Lightning over 5.5 games (-167)

Futures

.5u Blues: Stanley Cup Champions (+2200)

Record: 872-658-38 (+27.64 units)

Regular Season: 809-605-32 (+19.61 units)