Anaheim is the best value selection of the second round.
When you are making picks in a playoff series, one thing that you need to factor in is head to head match-ups in the regular season, especially recent ones. The reason you do not want to look too closely at head to head match-ups early in the season is because teams change with injuries, trades, and practice. Here are the four second round match-ups for the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs with betting odds and seasonal head-to-head records.
Chicago vs. Vancouver (home ice advantage)
The trouble with this series is that it looks evenly matched. Chicago does have more points on the season at 104 but Vancouver, with 100, gets home ice advantage because they won their division. The season series was split 2-2, but Vancouver won the last two games: 4-0 on March 29th and 7-3 on February 7th. Also, Vancouver looked more impressive in their first round win in sweeping the Blues while Chicago took six games to dispatch slumping Calgary.
Those facts suggest that Vancouver will win the series: they have played better of late, they have home ice advantage, and they have beaten Chicago CONVINCINGLY in their two most recent games.
Odds at BetUS: Vancouver's an ugly -140 while Chicago is ugly at +110.
Anaheim vs. Detroit (home ice advantage)
Finding the able underdog is the key to sports betting.
Detroit should get challenged in this series and while they should win, probably in game six, betting on Anaheim and hoping for them to win might be the only thing to do here given the odds and that there is actually some hope. Anaheim was dominated by Detroit in the regular season, losing 3 out of 4 to the Red Wings although they haven't played one another since February 20th.
What makes Anaheim a good pick here is that they are one of the hottest teams in the NHL and they surged into the playoffs on the strength of 10 wins in their final 13 games. Now, Anaheim has beaten the number one seed San Jose Sharks, proving that they are a strong 8, maybe like the 2006 Edmonton Oilers.
Detroit's odds are ugly at -300 so you might as well get something with Anaheim instead, since they could compete, at +220 with BetUS.
Regular Season Results:
Oct 29: Anaheim wins in OT 5-4
Dec 1: Red Wins win 1-0
Jan 14: Red Wings win 4-3
Feb 20: Red Wings win 5-2
Carolina vs. Boston (home ice advantage)
This is the series with the clearest favorite.
Carolina got totally owned in the early part of the season by Boston and it only got worse as the year progressed as Boston won all four match-ups between the two teams, each one by at least two goals. The total scoring between the two teams for the entire regular season was Boston 18, Carolina 6.
No need to state that Boston is favored with BetUS at -220 while Carolina sits at +175. With Boston sweeping in the first round and Carolina needing all seven games to beat New Jersey, Boston is going to be well rested as well. While -220 will hardly make you anything, you could jump on the Bruins' bandwagon right now and pick them at +450 to take the Cup down.
Carolina, the Cup champs from 2006, will really have to up their game just to get to game six in this series.
Regular Season Results:
Dec. 20: Boston wins in Boston, 4-2
Dec. 27: Boston wins in Carolina, 4-2
Jan. 10: Boston wins in Boston, 5-1
Feb. 17: Boston win in Carolina, 5-1
Pittsburgh vs. Washington (home ice advantage)
One of the more highly touted second round match-ups ever is, of course, very evenly matched in terms of odds. Neither team is producing odds on the 'plus' side at BetUS as Pittsburgh comes in at -105 with Washington at -125. The reason that Washington is getting the nod as a slight favorite must have to do with the fact that they have home ice advantage, as the 2 seed, and that they went 3-1 against Pittsburgh in the regular season.
Washington is coming off a tough first round series where they were pushed to the brink in their own rink in both game 5 and game 7 against the Rangers. Pittsburgh took out Philadelphia in six games themselves. I am picking Pittsburgh in this series because they have been the hottest team in the NHL since the start of March, they made the Cup finals last year, and Sid Crosby is better than Ovechkin.
Regular Season Games:
Oct. 16: Capitals win in Pittsburgh: 4-3
Jan. 14: Capitals win in Pittburgh: 6-3
Feb 22: Capitals win in Washington: 5-2
Mar. 8: Penguins win in Washington, in shootout: 4-3