The Florida Panthers and the Oilers will renew acquaintances in Sport 1 of the Stanley Cup Last on Wednesday night time in Edmonton.
Although each groups have modified because the Panthers lifted the Cup after Sport 7 in 2024, their strengths and weaknesses stay very a lot the identical.
The Panthers, making their third straight journey to the finals and trying to repeat as champs, are like canine on a hunk of meat.
Florida desires to get pucks behind you, impose their will bodily, and by no means allow you to off the mat.
The Oilers, trying to avenge their heartbreaking loss in final 12 months’s finale, wish to skate circles round you and let their dynamic duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl be the distinction.
Edmonton’s assault is constructed on velocity, creativity, and talent, whereas Florida’s is constructed on power and execution.
Each groups have been wonderful defensively all through the playoffs.
The goaltending matchup for Sport 1 is fascinating.
Sergei Bobrovsky has been stellar for the Panthers within the match, whereas Stuart Skinner began horribly, bought changed by Calvin Pickard, and was thrown again into the beginning position when Pickard bought injured.
Skinner has been lights-out over the previous month.
Given how final 12 months’s sequence went, Florida took a 3-0 lead after which Edmonton stormed again earlier than shedding in Sport 7, you’d think about that each groups will wish to forego the same old pleasantries {that a} Sport 1 can current.
There will probably be no feeling-out course of on this best-of-7. The Oilers will dread the potential of falling behind the Panthers once more, and Florida will should be prepared for the tempo that Edmonton will carry from the drop of the puck.
That ought to create a extra helter-skelter, frenetic tempo to Sport 1 than you’d assume you’d see in such a high-pressure atmosphere.
You’d assume {that a} back-and-forth affair would favor the Oilers, however it’s the Panthers who ought to thrive in that sort of atmosphere.
Florida can beat you in a variety of methods, however the Cats are extremely adept at maintaining their composure amidst chaos.
They’re not going to chase you round and attempt to power the problem, however will sit again and wait for his or her alternative to hit on the counter.
They belief that Bobrovsky and their protection will hold them within the sport till they’ll strike.
Given how I challenge this sport to play out — with these groups buying and selling probabilities and Florida popping out the higher for it — why not construct a same-game parlay correlated to that script?
The primary leg is to again the Over 1.5 objectives within the first interval at -134. I feel this factor flies off the deal with early.
With that being the case, we’ll additionally throw within the Over 6.5 objectives, as a wide-open first interval ought to result in extra of the identical within the subsequent 40 minutes.
From there, we’ll add Panthers -1.5 at +250. If this sport goes to be filled with probabilities, there’s likelihood that it will likely be determined by a number of objectives.
Betting on the NHL?
So as to add some severe juice to this almost 100/1 parlay, we’ll add Anton Lundell (+400) as an anytime aim scorer for the Cats.
Lundell’s line has been excellent all through the postseason, and he ought to get a positive matchup with each coaches taking part in cat and mouse with Aleksander Barkov, McDavid and Draisaitl.
Lastly, we’ll again McDavid to file Over 4.5 photographs on aim at +320. McDavid leads the playoffs with 59 photographs, and if issues do go off the rails, he ought to have each likelihood to clear this mark.
Should you wrap all 5 legs collectively in a same-game parlay, it will pay out 97/1.
Not a foul approach to begin the Stanley Cup Last.
