NHL playoffs best bets: Breaking down the odds, picks to make for Thursday's action
Despite the Tampa Bay Lightning, the heavy early favorite, being swept out of the NHL playoffs, there is still plenty of action for sports bettors to focus on.
In today’s SportsbookWire Best Bets series, we focus on Thursday’s NBA and NHL playoff action. Full breakdowns on each matchup can be found at SportsbookWire.usatoday.com.
Thursday’s NHL Playoff Best Bets
St. Louis Blues at Winnipeg Jets
Moneyline: The Blues were a vastly superior possession team to the Jets throughout the regular season, making Winnipeg’s performance in the past three games seem misleading. St. Louis is the pick at +105 odds, as the series returns to MTS Centre in Winnipeg.
Against the spread: St. Louis is an easier pick to cover +1.5 with -255 odds.
Over/under: The first four games of the series have gone 2-2 against Thursday’s total of 5.5. Take the OVER at a more appealing +111 number.
-- Esten McLaren / Access full story at SportsbookWire
EPIC COLLAPSE: What's next for Lightning?
REDOING CUP PICKS: Who will win it all now?
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Vegas Golden Knights at San Jose Sharks
Moneyline: The Sharks are slight favorites at -115 to stay alive with a win on home ice. Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s return on the backend will help limit Vegas’ powerful offense. Side with the home team to play at least one more game.
Against the spread: The Golden Knights will keep it close if unable to get the outright win. If you must, take them at -270 to cover +1.5.
Over/under: The sportsbooks favor the OVER on the total of 6. We’ll take the UNDER with better value at +111.
-- Esten McLaren / Access full story at SportsbookWire
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Washington Capitals at Carolina Hurricanes
Moneyline: The Capitals are +105 underdogs for Game 4. The Hurricanes’ impressive Game 3 win came with a serious cost with the expected losses of LW Michael Ferland and LW Andrei Svechnikov and the Cup champs should take full advantage to set up a series win on home ice.
Against the spread: The outright win for Washington is a better bet than the -251 odds for them to cover +1.5.
Over/under: Games 1-3 went 1-1-1 against Thursday’s total of 6. Take the under at -105 while the Hurricanes lack some key pieces up front.
-- Esten McLaren / Access full story at SportsbookWire
NHL odds courtesy of PointsBet; for a full listing of today’s odds, check out Paste BN Sports’ odds page.