NHL Hockey Betting: Stanley Cup Playoffs for May 3, 2016
Three NHL playoff games on the board for Tuesday:
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING AT NEW YORK ISLANDERS:
The New York Islanders are a better team than a lot of people have given them credit for. I know that I’d underrated them heading into the playoffs. It’s easy to do because they slipped into the top wildcard spot but you don’t see a lot of wild card teams with 100 points. Their drop into the wildcard position had everything to do with the freight train that was the last season Pittsburgh Penguins and nothing negative to do with the Isles. The New York media is savaging them following their Game Two loss in Tampa and accusing them of playing ‘soft’ but the important thing for the Islanders is that they got the split. New York was a mediocre road team this season (20-16-5) meaning the Game One win was huge in terms of the overall series. The local media is making a big deal of the Islanders finally winning a playoff series after a 23 year drought and that sure doesn’t hurt either.
The Islanders are happy to return home–not to the venerable Nassau Coliseum this year but to the posh Barclays Center in Brooklyn which has been as loud as their old digs during the playoffs. That definitely works in their favor but the New York crowd could turn on the Islanders quickly if they don’t start producing more shots on offense. They’re averaging just 21 shots per game in the first two compared to 67 for the Lightning. While they’re at it, they need to defend Tampa Bay better than they have. The Bolts have too many nasty snipers on the team to allow them nearly 35 shots on goal per game.
Another issue the Islanders have to deal with isn’t necessarily a bad one but one that needs to be addressed nonetheless. Starting goaltender (for most of the year at least) Jaroslav Halak is almost ready to return from injury but for now it looks like the team will stick with Thomas Greiss who backstopped the team down the stretch in the regular season and has played well in the postseason.
This is such a tough series to handicap. The Lightning are playoff tested and dangerous but the Islanders are underrated and completely capable of winning this series. We’ll go with the home team here.
BET NEW YORK ISLANDERS -110 OVER TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
DALLAS STARS AT ST. LOUIS BLUES:
Another evenly matched series tied at 1-1 moves to St. Louis. Dallas won Game One 2-1 while St. Louis took Game Two 4-3 in overtime. The Blues played reasonably well in the first game considering they were coming off that epic seven game series with Chicago. But after a tight game in the opener the Blues looked to be the better team in Game Two. The Stars did a switcheroo in net for the first time in this series, yanking Kari Lehtonen in favor of Annti Neimi after the former had allowed three goals on five shots. Now the $64,000 question is who will start Game Three? Does Dallas coach Lindy Ruff go with the guy that ‘steadied the ship’ in Game Two (Neimi) or does he go back to the guy that has been the top netminder during the stretch run and into the first round of the playoffs (Lehtonen)?
Dallas called up a couple of youngsters from the AHL today and might play them to get some more physicality and energy into the lineup. The Stars need to improve on special teams if they’re going to win this series–the Blues were 5-2 in Game Two while Dallas is 7-0 for the series with a man advantage. The Blues are still ‘playing with fire’ as they’re letting Dallas take too many shots–66 in two games including 42 in Game One. Goaltender Brian Elliott has been up to the task but at some point teams that rely on a hot goalie to bail out poor defensive play get burnt.
This liability notwithstanding, we still get the vibe that St. Louis is the better team–especially when it comes to ‘playoff hockey’. Oddly enough, the Blues prevailed in a 4-3 Game Two while the Stars won a 2-1 scoreline in Game One that would have seemed to favor St. Louis. But St. Louis has several things that the Stars don’t. They’ve got a capable defense (though one that needs to tighten up on the shots they’re allowing). They’ve got a #1 goalie playing like a #1 goalie in Brian Elliott. That’s huge–ultimately, the ‘goalie rotation’ just doesn’t work in the playoffs. Teams need to have a definite #1 goalie to get behind and Dallas doesn’t have one–particularly if Ruff decides to go with Neimi in Game Three. Dallas likely has more potent offensive weapons but it’s not like the Blues are bereft of scorers. The Stars badly miss Tyler Seguin but there’s no indication if and when he’ll be returning to action this year. His abortive comeback–when he reinjured his cut Achilles Tendon–was a bad mistake by someone. If it was Seguin’s call to try and play the job of the coaching staff and team management is to stop him from making such a rash decision. If it was a decision by the coaching staff, management, training staff, etc. that’s inexcusable.
Until proven otherwise, the Blues look like the better team and they should get this win on home ice.
BET ST. LOUIS BLUES -135 OVER DALLAS STARS
SAN JOSE SHARKS AT NASHVILLE PREDATORS:
You’ve heard this over and over again but I’ll say it one more time. I just can’t figure out this schizophrenic Nashville Predators team. I wrote them off in the first round when Pekka Rinne was playing like an AHL goaltender only to see the team play two of their best games this season back to back to eliminate Anaheim and cost Bruce Boudreau his job. Now in two games against the San Jose Sharks the opposite has occurred–Rinne has played like a Viking and the rest of the team has disappeared. Nashville has won 4 of the last 5 games against the Sharks at Bridgestone Arena but San Jose won the last regular season meeting between the teams. Just don’t trust Nashville and lest we forget, San Jose was the best road team in the NHL during the regular season.
BET SAN JOSE SHARKS +105 OVER NASHVILLE PREDATORS