With just four NHL teams remaining in this year’s playoffs, it’s time to have a look at the betting odds for both the Eastern and Western Conference Finals, along with who we believe can come away as the series winners and advance to the finals.
Eastern Conference Final: Panthers vs. Hurricanes
Head-to-Head Season Wins: Carolina 3 – Florida Panthers 1
- Carolina Hurricanes Post-Season Record: 8-3
- Florida Panthers Post-Season Record: 8-4
Interestingly, both these teams’ last regular season game of the year was against each other, and with the Carolina Hurricanes ranked 2nd and the Florida Panthers ranked 8th prior to the post-season, these teams hardly expected to meet in the Conference finals.
As we can see from the odds at the top US sportsbooks, the Carolina Hurricanes are best priced at -130 with BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review) to advance into the Stanley Cup finals in this series. The Hurricanes are also ranked as the sportsbooks’ favorites to lift the Stanley Cup at +320 outright odds.
Carolina to End Florida’s Journey
We have to stick with the Carolina Hurricanes to lift this year’s Stanley Cup as we already predicted their chances of doing so in an earlier article which saw us snatch them up at +1200 outright odds at the time. Having now dropped into +320, it seems like a solid investment.
Who Will Dominate the Eastern Conference?
The Florida Panthers have started to look dangerous and they have to be respected, having knocked out both the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs (the top two seeds in the East). That said, we believe the Hurricanes are a step too far for this Panthers team.
The Hurricanes are as solid as they come. Strong defense and the ability to control games should be a huge factor in this Eastern Conference finals, and while the Panthers won’t go down easy. Their gritty gameplay this post-season that has worked on the Bruins and Leafs won’t work as easily on this much grittier Hurricanes team.
We wouldn’t be surprised to see the Hurricanes win this series in five or six games. Having struggled with their offense early on, they got back on track in the previous series scoring 24 goals in five games.
Both these teams have been disrespected thus far in the East and come into this finals for their first playoff matchup, and we believe the Hurricanes will win this Eastern Conference finals 4-1.
Western Conference Final: Stars vs. Golden Knights
Head-to-Head Season Wins: Dallas 3 – Vegas 0
- Dallas Stars Post-Season Record: 8-5
- Vegas Golden Knights Post-Season Record: 8-3
For the second time in four seasons, both the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights meet in the Western Conference finals. Their previous encounter back in 2020 saw the Stars advance to the finals having won 4-1 during the series.
Both teams have been in the finals in recent years. Here are the current odds on both doing so this season.
The Dallas Stars are not favored this time around, as they are +110 to advance into the finals compared to the Golden Knights’ odds of -150, but we tend to believe the value might be on the underdogs here.
Dallas Stars Equally as Strong
We don’t believe these two teams are -150 and +110 odds apart. In fact, the Stars have owned the Golden Knights in recent games, winning 7 of the previous 9. The Stars faced two very strong teams in the Minnesota Wild and Seattle Kraken to get to this point, while the Golden Knights disposed of both the Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers respectively.
Look Out for a Big Upset
Both teams have done incredibly well to get this far, but we are favoring the underdog odds on the Stars in this series. We can’t look past the fact Jake Oettinger is starting to get hot and has had a better record than the Golden Knights’ goaltender Laurent Brossoit.
The Golden Knights did well to knock out the high-powered Edmonton Oilers offense, but this matchup will come down to goaltenders and right now the Stars have the much better goaltender. The Golden Knights have been having issues in the crease all season long and this series could be the final undoing of them.
We recommend this betting pick to be for the Dallas Stars to beat the Golden Knights 4-2 in this Western Conference final.
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.
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