Avalanche And Leafs Meet In Potential Stanley Cup Preview

Noah Strang breaks down his best NHL plays for Wednesday night's nationally televised doubleheader, starting with the Avalanche and Maple Leafs and wrapping up with the Wild and Blues in St. Louis. He also examines the movement in the futures market, post-trade deadline.

All wagers can be placed with licensed Sportsbooks in the US.

We’ve hit the home stretch of the NHL season with teams having around only 15 games remaining before the playoffs. With this comes a more accurate prediction of playoff seeding and matchups which has led to some slight movement in teams’ odds to lift the Stanley Cup. Let’s take a look.  

Stanley Cup Champion

The seemingly invincible Bruins are still holding onto the top odds with an iron fist and will undoubtedly enter the playoffs as overwhelming favorites to win it all. At +340 their odds rose ever so slightly from +325 last week but they are still well ahead of their competition. They are in the midst of an 8-2-0 stretch, just became the fastest-ever NHL team to 50 wins, and are on track to have the most successful regular season of all time. 

Colorado stayed put at +675 with some good but not great play as of late going 3-1-1 in their last 5. Still waiting to get captain Gabriel Landeskog back, the Avalanche will be a dangerous team in the playoffs. 

The Hurricanes and Leafs also stuck with the same numbers as last week at +800 and +850 respectively. With the injury to star forward Andrei Svechnikov looking serious, the Canes could find their odds ballooning in the coming weeks. 

Jumping up even with the Maple Leafs at +850 and rounding out the top five is the New Jersey Devils. In the midst of a three-game win streak which includes a shutout victory over the Hurricanes, the Devils are playing high-level hockey and have likely cemented themselves as a top-five team in the eyes of the bookmakers. 

A solid value bet could be the Tampa Bay Lightning as in the middle of a tough 3-5-2 stretch, the three-time defending Eastern Conference Champions have seen their odds move all the way to +2000. 

Rash Of Injuries

With the playoffs fast approaching, the last thing teams want to be dealing with right now are injuries. Unfortunately, over the past week, we have seen a couple of key contributors to playoff teams go down with injuries that may jeopardize their postseason availability. Andrei Svechnikov of the Carolina Hurricanes is out indefinitely with a knee injury suffered in Saturday night’s game against the Golden Knights. The team is waiting on a second opinion but fears he tore his ACL which would undoubtedly have him miss the entirety of the playoffs. In the West, Dallas Stars’ forward Tyler Seguin is likely to be out for 3-4 weeks as he recovers from a superficial cut on his leg. Assuming all goes well in his recovery process, he should return in time for round one of the playoffs. 

We’ve seen mixed results from the big trades made before last week’s deadline as some players have excelled and others have struggled thus far to acclimate to their new environment. 

Rasmus Sandin has been on a tear since getting started with the Capitals with 8 points in 4 games. Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs’ return in that trade, Erik Gustafsson has struggled in limited minutes with 0 points in 4 games. Patrick Kane has had a slow start with the Rangers registering just 3 points in 5 games. Most surprisingly, Timo Meier has had a tough time adjusting to his new team in New Jersey as following a goal in his first game, he has gone pointless in the four games since. 

In general news, the Boston Bruins became the first team to clinch a playoff berth on the heels of becoming the fastest team ever to 50 wins on Saturday. The Philadelphia Flyers fired their GM and president of hockey operations Chuck Fletcher and appointed retired NHL veteran Daniel Briere as interim GM. 

Something to keep an eye on. There have been growing rumors over the past week that in the coming years, the NHL could be expanding further with the most likely destinations being named as Houston and Atlanta.

Colorado Avalanche @ Toronto Maple Leafs-140 (6.5)

The Colorado Avalanche visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday in what could potentially be a preview of the Stanley Cup Final. The Maple Leafs have the fourth-best record in the league while the defending champion Avalanche have the 12th best. 

The two teams have met once this season with the Maple Leafs winning convincingly 6-2 in Colorado. Each of these contenders are playing somewhat average hockey as of late with Toronto at 6-4 in their last 10 and Colorado at 6-3-1. 

The Maple Leafs sport one of the very best home records in the entire league at 24-7-4 which has me leaning their way in this game. Due to this excellent home record, the Leafs should be favorites coming in. After considering the value, the Leafs moneyline is worth a sprinkle. 

The puck line is intriguing in this one as the Leafs have a poor 13-22 record of covering the line at home this year. The Avalanche on the other hand are a respectable 16-15 covering the puck line on the road. In a game where both teams are looking to make a statement, the intensity should be high and the will to win will be playoff-esque, leading me to believe this game will be close and taking Colorado on the puck line is a solid gamble.  

If you’re looking for a player prop to add some more excitement to your viewing experience, Mitch Marner’s point total over/under is worth a shot. Marner has had three multi-point games in a row and 20 points in his last 10 games. With the line at 1.5, taking a chance on the playmaker to eclipse that is worth it in my eyes. 

Minnesota Wild-145 @ St. Louis Blues (6)

In the West, we’ll see an intra-division game between the Central’s Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues. The two teams are moving in opposite directions with the Blues having traded some of their better players at the deadline for picks and the Wild battling for home ice in round one of the playoffs. 

The teams have split the season series thus far one game a piece. 

The Wild are currently in 2nd place in the Central thanks to their current hot streak in which they are undefeated in regulation over their past 10 games at 7-0-3. The Blues are experiencing the opposite of a hot streak as they are seemingly tanking at this point going just 3-5-2 in their last 10. 

Minnesota will be without their best player Kirill Kaprizov due to injury but should still win this game fairly handily. There is some value to be had in the Blues’ moneyline as they will be significant underdogs, but the risk outweighs the reward as they haven’t shown much on the ice to signify they will be able to compete with the surging Wild. The Wild moneyline is the play here, though the value won’t be great. 

The under provides better value for a number of reasons. The Wild are just 26th in the league in goals per game and the Blues are 20th. Defensively, however, Minnesota is 3rd in the league in goals allowed per game which shows that they know how to lock it down. The Blues are a measly 28th in goals allowed however without Kaprizov, I can’t see Minnesota single-handedly scoring enough to have the game hit the over. Along with this, Wild unders have hit 55% of the time this season. The line is likely to come in low at 5.5 but with that, you can probably find plus money at around +110 making the under a solid value bet from my perspective.