Ryan Hodges
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Thursday brings an opportunity for teams to clinch in 2 of the 3 games on the slate. All 3 of these series have had dramatic moments, highlight reel goals and some bad blood. This smaller slate will be a great bridge to Friday. The way the Maple Leafs and Golden Knights are playing, a clinch looks likely. But the beauty of the NHL playoffs is the parity and unexpected outcomes. Comebacks are always fun, but Toronto and Vegas look primed to avoid them.
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Toronto Maple Leafs -1.5 (+165) vs Tampa Bay Lightning
New Jersey Devils vs New York Rangers over 5.5 (+100)
Vegas Golden Knights ML (-190) vs Winnipeg Jets
NHL parlay odds: +708
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Toronto Maple Leafs -1.5 (+165) vs Tampa Bay Lightning
Could this finally be the year the Maple Leafs make it out of the first round? It is sure looking like that is going to be the case. Plenty of fans are thinking “I have seen this movie before” with the Leafs. That is valid considering the number of times we have seen Toronto blow it in the first round. It just feels like this is a different Maple Leafs team. Games 3 and 4 were games that in prior years the Leafs would not have won from being down a goal past the midway point of the game, let alone down 3 goals. Trade-deadline additions Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari have come up huge and perfectly supplement the superstars who have carried all the weight and pressure for Toronto in the past. None of this is to say the Leafs are going to win the Stanley Cup, but this team looks ready to advance.
After getting crushed in Game 1, Toronto has won the next 3 games by a combined score of 16-9. That is impressive considering these performances have come against the 3-time defending winner of the Eastern Conference. Obviously, it is all for naught if the Leafs pull and all-time Leafs and blow it. Again though, it just does not feel like that is the case this time. The Leafs will get a bump from home ice and have already run up the score on the Lightning once. If Toronto can smell blood in the water again, they will pounce and look to run up the score on their way to the second round.
Make sure to check out our full NHL predictions for Thursday’s slate.
New Jersey Devils vs New York Rangers over 5.5 (+100)
In the first 2 games of this series, it looked like this one could get out of hand and be wrapped up quickly. But fans will now be treated to what should be a heck of a final 2 or 3 games. The Devils and Rangers have both consistently shown their ability to produce, both overall and head-to-head. The Devils ranked 5th in the NHL in scoring and the Rangers were also above the league average, ranking 12th. Both teams also ranked in the top 10 in the NHL in goals scored at 5-on-5. Strong production is no surprise based on the star talent up and down both rosters. Both teams have solid goal prevention but despite that, the over hit in 3 of the 4 head-to-head matchups during the regular season. A total of 5.5 has been surpassed in 2 of the 4 games in this series and looks good to go over again.
In 8 games between the Rangers and Devils between the regular season and postseason, there have been a total of 44 goals scored. That’s an average of 5.5 goals scored per game. The Rangers have already scored 5 goals themselves in 2 of this series’ 4 games, so we know they can produce on a big stage. A performance even close to that by the Rangers and it would leave just a couple of goals needed by the 5th-best scoring team in the league to take this game over the total. That is very realistic and another over between these teams has decent value.
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Vegas Golden Knights ML (-190) vs Winnipeg Jets
The Jets have had some very good moments in this series but it has just not been enough. After they staged a dramatic comeback in Game 3, the Golden Knights still pulled through for the win. Vegas is up 3-1 in the series and has won by an average of 2 goals. They have scored 14 goals in their last 3 games, which appears to be a pace with which the Jets just cannot keep up. Vegas is another team that just looks ready to put the final nail in the coffin. Despite blowing a big lead, they showed resilience by not folding and going on to win. Game 1 was ugly for the Golden Knights but they have turned things around since then and getting back on home ice with a chance to clinch should have these Vegas players buzzing.
The Golden Knights have a proven coach, multiple Stanley Cup winning players, and a core from their Cup Finals run in 2018 on their roster. This team is good and they have the pedigree. They know how important it is to clinch when there is an opportunity to do so. The last thing the Golden Knights want to do is go back to Winnipeg and prolong this series by another 2 days. The extra recharge days are huge in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Golden Knights will play with urgency looking to wrap this one up. They are already the better team and should it wrap up tonight.
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