Mark Lammey
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The Game 1s of all 8 NHL first-round series have wrapped up, so now we’re back for the second games in the 4 series that played on Monday night. It was an exciting night to open up the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and it was a good one for our NHL player props as well. David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins and Viktor Arvidsson of the Los Angeles Kings came through for us, but now we’re focused on their opponents for Wednesday night’s matchups. It’s time for some redemption from some star skaters, so let’s check out our top 2 plays.
Along with our player props, be sure to check out all of our NHL picks for today’s action.
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Aleksander Barkov over 0.5 assists (-125)
David Pastrnak came through for us by scoring the first goal in the Panthers vs Bruins series. Targeting a skater against Boston can be a scary prospect, but the Panthers can find the back of the net. Game 1 was very back-and-forth, and Florida has defeated the Bruins twice this season. Matthew Tkachuk, who has been great to us this season, scored the Panthers’ lone goal on Monday night. While it was unassisted, we’re trusting Barkov to be involved this time.
Barkov notched 2 assists and 3 total points in each of the final 2 regular-season matchups between these teams. Not only does he have Tkachuk to link up with, but he always skates alongside Carter Verhaeghe. He may not get the notoriety of Tkachuk, but his 42 goals were the most on the team. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Barkov will have an increased opportunity being on the first power-play unit. There’s always the risk that he finds the net himself, but 55 of his 78 points this season were assists. Even if he does notch a goal, he has proved he can do both in the same game, even against the Bruins.
Read our full Florida Panthers vs Boston Bruins predictions
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Connor McDavid over 1.5 points (-150)
We went against the grain in the Kings vs Oilers Game 1 on Monday night and it paid off. Now we’re going back to the well and trusting the historic season of Connor McDavid to continue. We’ve gone over his 150-point season, league-leading goals and assists and much more several times this season. That all still holds true; he is all but a lock to win the Hart Trophy for the NHL’s MVP. The finale of the first set of Game 1s in Edmonton was the highest-scoring of the 4 matchups, yet McDavid was inexplicably held pointless. To say that’s a rarity would be an understatement.
That’s evidenced by the price for this prop, but he has proved time and time again that it’s worth it. Teammate Leon Draisaitl was able to notch 2 goals in the opening game, despite the Oilers taking the loss. They still got out to 2-0 and 3-1 leads, and many fans argued that LA started getting a lot of calls from the refs after falling behind. Regardless, we’re willing to trust McDavid to bounce back in a big way before the series heads down to Southern California. When these teams met in the first round last season, McDavid had multiple points in 6 of the 7 games. With that type of track record and the season he just had, we’re comfortable paying the premium for him.
Be sure to check out our Los Angeles Kings vs Edmonton Oilers prediction
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