There were a few surprises in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The biggest was the Florida Panthers upsetting Boston. Barely squeaking into the playoffs as the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, the Panthers not only finished 43 points behind the Bruins in the regular season standings, they came back from a 3-1 series deficit handing the President’s Trophy winners their first three-game losing streak of the season. The momentum carried over into Game 1 of their East semifinal against Toronto with the Panthers winning, 4-2. The Maple Leafs advanced past the first round for the first time since 2004 ending a string of six straight early exits. Toronto will attempt to even the series on Thursday, May 4.
There will be a new Stanley Cup champion after the Seattle Kraken ousted Colorado in the first round. The Avalanche were a top NHL pick to repeat but were upset at home in Game 7. Seattle won three times in Denver and opened their Western Conference semifinal with another road win against the Dallas Stars, 5-4, in overtime. Both home teams are big favorites on the NHL betting line to even their series.
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NHL Playoffs Schedule for Thursday, May 4
Florida at Toronto, 7 p.m. ET (TNT)
Seattle at Dallas, 9:30 p.m. ET (TNT)
NHL Playoffs Picks for Thursday, May 4, 2023
The entire Maple Leafs organization and their fans were as happy as the Panthers over Florida’s massive first round upset. Instead of facing the team that set NHL records for wins and points during the regular season, the Leafs get a team they went 3-0-1 against finishing the year with eight more victories and 19 more points. But as we saw in the first round and on Tuesday night, those numbers are meaningless.
It is a new series and everything changes, but Florida continued its run and has been playing playoff hockey for weeks just to get in the tournament. There was no letdown following the first round upset and the offensive fireworks continued on Monday night. Coach Paul Maurice said his club plays its best hockey when facing the most difficulty. That was the case against Boston going down 3-1 in the series and was also the case on Monday with less than 48 hours recover ahead of the Leafs.
The Panthers have scored at least four goals in each of the last four games tallying 15 in the last three games of the Boston series against the league’s best defensive club. Matthew Tkachuk had three assists on Monday recording multiple points in a game five times to take over the playoff scoring lead. Sergei Bobrovsky has given the club a lift in net as well since replacing Alex Lyon. Bobrovsky stopped 34 shots in Game 1 and boasts a .915 save percentage during a four-game winning streak. Toronto has an electric offense led by Auston Matthews and they had chances in Game 1. Converting those opportunities puts this game OVER the total.
Seattle has been a beast on the road improving to 4-1 this postseason with Monday’s 5-4 OT in Dallas. The Kraken advanced the hard way beating the defending champion Avalanche three times in Denver continuing their success from the season when they boasted a 26-11-4 record.
Philipp Grubauer has played well in net this postseason, but the Kraken were middle of the road in keeping the puck out of their net during the regular year while the Stars were one of the better offensive clubs. In fact both teams are adept at putting the puck in the net cashing the OVER in all four games this season.
The Stars got a boost from the return of Joe Pavelski, who was injured in the first round and missed five games. Pavelski provided all the offense scoring four times and I expect the Stars’ stars to be extra motivated on Thursday. Leading scorer Jason Robertson was held without a point after tallying 109 during the season. Dallas lost Game 1 in the opening round before winning the final three giving up just three goals. A different Jake Oettinger in net makes all the difference in the Stars evening the series.
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