Panthers vs. Rangers Game 1 Prediction, Stanley Cup Playoff Odds
The Cats are slight favourites on the NHL odds in Game 1.
Panthers vs. Rangers NHL Betting Odds
Somehow, it’s the first postseason matchup between these franchises since the 1997 first round with the Rangers winning in five. New York is in the Eastern Conference Finals for the second time in three seasons and fifth since 2012. It last reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 2014. Florida is the defending East champion but has never won the Cup.
The Panthers were 2-1 vs. the Rangers in the regular season with the winning team scoring exactly four goals in each. The most recent matchup was March 23 at Madison Square Garden and New York avoided the sweep in a 4-3 shootout victory. Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky started all three in net and had a 2.60 goals-against average and .918 save per centage. Fellow Russian Igor Shesterkin started two of three for the Rangers and was 1-1 with a 2.91 GAA and .898 SV. If both of those guys don’t start every game in this series, something went badly wrong either performance-wise or due to injury.
On the series line, Florida is -135 and New York +115. The favoured exact result is Panthers in six at +380, but my early lean is Rangers in seven at +450. That it goes six games is the +195 favourite, followed by seven at +200. The over-under is 5.5 games, with the over at -200. Florida is -185 to score more goals in the series than New York +140. I absolutely do think the Panthers could have more goals in the series and yet still lose it as I can see one blowout at home for them.
Florida Panthers
We projected the Panthers to win 3-2 in Boston in Game 6 last Friday to finish off the Bruins, and it was a 2-1 final score with the winner coming from Gustav Forsling (second of playoffs) at 18:27 of the third. He became the first defenceman in Panthers history to score a series-clinching goal and second player overall in team history to score a go-ahead goal within the final two minutes of regulation in a playoff game. Sergei Bobrovsky earned his seventh career series clinching win to pass Martin Jones (played for Leafs this past season) for the fourth-most wins among active goalies. Bobrovsky is 8-3 in these playoffs with a 2.37 GAA and .902 SV. He has allowed two goals or fewer in eight of 11. No American player has won the Conn Smythe Trophy since former Blackhawks star Patrick Kane in 2013, but Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk is among the favorites at +850 and leads the club with 14 points in these playoffs. Sam Reinhart led the team with 57 goals during the regular season and has five in the playoffs. He is the +400 favourite to be the leading goalscorer in this series.
New York Rangers
The Rangers have a plus-9 goal differential (35-26) in the playoffs despite a minus-6.4 shot differential. They finished off an excellent Carolina team last Thursday with a 5-3 road win a third-period natural hat trick from Chris Kreider – his first career playoff hat trick. He was only the eighth player in Stanley Cup playoff to record a natural hat trick in the third, and the third player in franchise history to record any hat trick in a potential series-clinching game. Kreider leads the club with seven playoff goals, while Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck co-lead with 14 points each. Igor Shesterkin is 8-2 with a 2.40 GAA and .923 SV. The Rangers became only the sixth Presidents’ Trophy winner to advance to the conference finals in the past 20 years (since 2004) and first since the 2014-15 Rangers. Coach Peter Laviolette has become the third coach in NHL history to appear in the round before the Stanley Cup Finals with at least four franchises. He previously did it with Carolina, Philadelphia and Nashville.
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