We reached out to Mike Korn, trading content analyst from PointsBet Canada, about what he’s seeing on the NHL playoff front in what’s been some great entertainment for Ontario sports betting.
“I would say the main thing going forward for us, in the NHL playoffs, is the overwhelming action coming in on the Avs [Colorado Avalanche],” he said. “The Avs are currently tripling any other team in terms of bet count and doubling in terms of handle.
“Besides the Rangers (just because the odds are so big) the Avs are our biggest liability. They are currently -400 to beat the Blues (80%) and +180 to win the Cup.”
The Avalanche, led by Nathan MacKinnon, are stacked. But the Lightning, led by arguably the best goalie left in the playoffs (Andrei Vasilevskiy) also look strong going into Game 2 Thursday night in against the Panthers — despite the continued absence of Brayden Point.
Updated Stanley Cup Odds
What Other Sportsbooks are Seeing
After speaking with Korn of PointsBet Canada, we scoped around a bit for more feedback on the topic of NHL betting odds and interesting bets being placed.
According to the folks at FanDuel Sportsbook Ontario, the Panthers (-158) and Avalanche (-225) are big favourites tonight in their game 2s. Florida looked awful in Game 1, so that one is a surprise.
FanDuel has the Oilers-Flames total 6.5 Friday night after their 9-6 shootout Wednesday night, which reminded gray hairs of hockey in the 1980s.
The Flames are the -174 favorite to go up 2-0, and are down to +500 to win the Cup, just behind Colorado (+180) and Carolina (+450).
And the big mover in Conn Smythe market earlier Thursday was Hurricanes goalie Antti Raanta following his strong Game 1 performance against the Rangers (a 2-1 OT win). Raanta now has the 8th shortest price on the board at +2100.
Lamenting the Leafs’ Loss
A spokesperson from PROLINE says they expected a drop-off of NHL betting sales going forward with the Leafs out and less games overall, so we’ll see (the Leafs-Lightning were responsible for 34.5% of all NHL hockey sales on the PROLINE front last week, during the heart of that series).
In Game 7 last weekend, a 2-1 Tampa win, 66% of moneyline bets, 86% of puckline bets (-1) and 66% of puckline bets (-1.5) were all on the Leafs.
Over at BetRivers Canada, for Thursday night they have the Panthers at -157, the Lightning at +130, the Blues at +550 and the Avalanche at -835. Conference futures in the West are the Avalanche -155, Flames +205, Oilers +1100, and Blues +1600, and in the East, Hurricanes +170, Lightning +180, Panthers +275, and Rangers +1100.
For the Stanley Cup, the Avalanche sit on top at +145, followed by the Flames at +450. Cole Makar of the Avalanche is on top for playoff MVP at +400, then MacKinnon at +400 and Jacob Markstrom of the Flames at +1000.
