NHL Hockey Betting: Stanley Cup Playoffs for April 17, 2016
Four games on Sunday’s Stanley Cup playoff slate including Game Three of the St. Louis/Chicago series which goes at 3:05 PM Pacific. We’ve got two ‘best bets’ on the card:
ST. LOUIS BLUES AT CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS:
The best of seven series between the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues shifts to the United Center for Games 3 and 4. Both teams will publicaly say they’re happy about a split in the first two games but privately are not so sure. Chicago outplayed St. Louis in Game One to lose on a lucky OT goal. In Game 2, the Blues were on the wrong end of a ‘questionable’ offsides call that has St. Louis partisans screaming ‘fix’. Believe me, if the NHL were going to fix a game they’d do it some other way than with a tough offsides call. Anyway, we’re off to Chicago now where things at the United Center are going to be nuts. The local chamber of commerce is warning of fake first round Stanley Cup tickets–how often does that happen?
The Blackhawks are somewhat concerned that their top line isn’t scoring though they have had plenty of chances. Assuming that St. Louis isn’t doing anything special on defense to stop them–and they’re not–this kind of thing will eventually turn around. So far trade deadline pickup Andrew Shaw has been the MVP for Chicago. Both goaltenders have played well but the longer the series continues the more it favors the Blackhawks. Chicago has been here before. In playoff series that are tied 1-1 the Blackhawks are 20-12 all time while St. Louis is 9-17. The Blues were already smarting from their early playoff dismissal at the hands of the Minnesota Wild last year and the vibe around St. Louis is that a decent playoff run was mandatory for the team to continue in the same direction. Of course it’s not quite as bad to be sent packing by the Chicago Blackhawks but given the success the Blues had in the regular season that probably won’t matter.
This game is huge and it wouldn’t surprise me to see the team that wins Game Three to go on to win the series. That’s why I’m backing Chicago.
BET CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS -145 OVER ST. LOUIS BLUES
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING AT DETROIT RED WINGS:
More often than not, you learn something about teams watching them play a game or two in the postseason. They’re either better than you expected or worse than expected. Then there are teams that play to the form you pegged them with before the playoffs began. That would be the Detroit Red Wings who return to the Joe Louis Arena down 2-0 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Detroit media is waking up to the fact that this mediocre Wings’ team has no answer for the ‘Triplets’ line of Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov and Alex Killorn. It’s tough to win a Stanley Cup playoff series if you can’t at least minimize the damage done by your opponents top line. Unless the Wings find a way to get younger and faster before Game Three it’s not going to happen. Detroit just isn’t a contender this year. 23rd in goals per game, 17th goals against per game, 13th on the power play and 14th on the kill. They’re certainly not a bad team but not a contender. Tampa Bay’s massive goalie Ben Bishop has really raised his game this year and the Bolts finished the regular season with the #5 goals against average in the NHL. Detroit fans and media do seem very proud of the massive brawl that Justin Abdelkader started so there’s that.
What’s more concerning if I’m a Detroit fans isn’t the fact that the team is mediocre this year. That happens to every team. More problematic is how poorly Jeff Blashill has dealt with adversity. Blashill is by all accounts a good coach but his ‘blame and panic’ response to every downturn in performance isn’t going to work at the NHL level. He put Petr Mrazek in the doghouse after a run of bad form by the team’s starting goalie and gave Jimmy Howard his old gig back. Now, with their season on the line, they’re going back to Mrazek . The local media seems to think that the Wings are just one quick fix away from a Stanley Cup run–like recalling Anthony Mantha to help on the power play. They’re not.
BET TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING +115 OVER DETROIT RED WINGS