The Florida Panthers and Montreal Canadiens both look to end their season with back-to-back wins, while the Dallas Stars look to defeat the Anaheim Ducks in an attempt to take the first wild card in the West.
Florida Panthers (-300) vs Montreal Canadiens (+240)
FLA: 58-17-6, 4.14 GF/GP, 2.86 GA/GP, L10: 8-2-0
MTL: 21-49-11, 2.57 GF/GP, 3.89 GA/GP, L10: 1-9-0
The Panthers enter tonight’s game as the Presidents’ Trophy winner for the first time in franchise history and look to complete the regular season sweep on the Canadiens. Montreal snapped a nine-game losing skid by defeating the New York Rangers, and they’ll look to close out their season with a win at home. Don’t count out the Canadiens, who have surprised many playoff teams this season and will look to do so one more time.
With Spencer Knight playing last night, expect Jonas Johansson to draw in. He’s 3-3-1 this season with an .877 save percentage and a 3.94 goals-against average. It’s unconfirmed whether Carey Price will be healthy enough to play, and with Jake Allen sidelined, Samuel Montembeault could play for Montreal. Meanwhile, the Panthers have destroyed the Canadiens in all four meetings this season, outscoring them 16-9. As expected, they did rest a number of their players, including Aleksander Barkov, Claude Giroux, and Jonathan Huberdeau, so expect that to be the case tonight. It could mean some good money is available on Montreal under the right circumstances.
Anaheim Ducks (+195) vs Dallas Stars (-250)
ANA: 31-36-14, 2.79 GF/GP, 3.23 GA/GP, L10: 3-5-2
DAL: 45-30-6, 3.46 GF/GP, 2.74 GA/GP, L10: 5-3-2
While the Stars set their focus toward the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Ducks are hitting the green at the conclusion of the season. Dallas had an odd month of April but managed to pull through off efforts from the likes of Jason Robertson and Joe Pavelski. Each of them has points in their last five, and Robertson could be an x-factor in this year’s postseason.
The Ducks will miss the playoffs for a fourth consecutive year and third under the leadership of Dallas Eakins. Their future is bright, as players like Trevor Zegras, Troy Terry, and Jamie Drysdale are all poised to be the future of the team. Despite dropping both games against the Stars this season, they’ve kept it close at 3-2 each time. It’s feasible the final game will also be close, and Dallas shouldn’t have any issue taking the season series sweep. Pairing it with the under (U 5.5, +100) should bring back a good return.
Odds via Yahoo and BetMGM.
The Hockey Writers & THWBets promotes responsible gaming, and provides this content as opinion and analysis with no guarantees or assurances.
For more information about responsible gambling, including help for problem gambling behaviour, please visit these great resource pages:
If you’re in Canada, Rogers Sports & Media has put together a great information and resources page.
If you’re in the United States, MGMResorts has a great page for gambling problem resources.
