Stanley Cup Playoff Betting Insights & Best Bets for Tonight

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00:00Well, four games on tap tonight, 7 o'clock, 7.30, 9.30, and 10 o'clock spread out across the board.

00:06And he looks, Tom, tonight on the ice for us.

00:09Let's get started with the early game, and that's going to be the Capitals-Canadians over 5.5.

00:14It was minus 1.30 yesterday.

00:16Really do like this spot, and, you know, we've seen a bit of scoring in a lot of these games early,

00:21whether it was one in Pagan St. Louis, we saw scoring between the Leafs and the Sens last night.

00:25I expect the Caps to win this game, call it 4-2, maybe 5-2, maybe that empty-and-air pushes things through,

00:31but I think we will be cruising towards the over for the majority of the game.

00:34And then we're going to see a point of resistance.

00:35If we do see it move to 6.5 from 5.5 for the next game, it may be 6.5, you know, minus 1.40 on the under.

00:41That's the spot I'll initially be looking, because I think that's where we should be seeing a little bit of scoring early,

00:45and then things come back to the norm, and then we'll start to see a lot of unders.

00:48Four of our five games to start off the Stanley Cup postseason this weekend saw at least six goals.

00:55Only one had five, and that means there was a ton of scoring there as well.

01:01Vecchio and I will look at the quadruple header of Stanley Cup playoff games on this Monday,

01:06but we've got to send Donnie now to the Moneyline.

01:09DRS have a wonderful time on the Moneyline.

01:12We'll talk tomorrow here on TEL.

01:14Vecchio and I round out the show with a focus on the ice.

01:18Up next.

01:20We round out our three hours together here on this Monday on the Early Line on SportsGrid

01:24with TV Tom Vecchio of SportsGrid, looking at our quadruple header of Stanley Cup playoff action

01:30on the ice on this Monday.

01:33Vecchio, what really stands out is the fact the Stanley Cup postseason also began on Saturday,

01:38but just with two games, and then we saw three games on Sunday,

01:42and tonight we have four games, two of which are the opening games of a set,

01:48and the other two are already game number two.

01:52Vecchio, as the hockey guy, how do we make sense of the Stanley Cup playoff schedule?

01:58I hate it.

01:59I hate it.

02:00It should have started Saturday, and it should have been 12-3-7-10 for four games on Saturday.

02:06Do that same thing on Sunday, roughly thereabout, and then maybe then you go to three games on Monday,

02:11three games on Tuesday, whatever it might be, add in the travel days after that.

02:14And then we're at this, you know, even cadence where we don't have Tampa and Florida

02:19are starting tomorrow on game one when we're going to have game twos wrapped up.

02:24I don't like it.

02:25Started on Saturday, four games on Saturday.

02:27You have the time to do so with essentially 12 hours the same way the NBA does.

02:32I don't like it.

02:33Yeah, it's very, very strange.

02:35There is a game one still tomorrow, even after two of our game twos will be in the books as of this Monday night.

02:43But anyway, Vecchio, let's look at the games that we have today.

02:46In our last segment with Donnie, you mentioned the Caps and that game pushing to the over.

02:52Caps and Canadiens over five and a half.

02:54Might Alexander Ovechkin, after making history with his goal scoring, continue that into the postseason.

03:01Of the other three games, Vecchio, what's your favorite play on this Monday?

03:06It's got to be the Blues and the Jets and let's just call it regression to the mean.

03:11And, you know, a lot of people like to talk about like the zigzag and especially in the playoffs.

03:14One game goes over, the next game goes under.

03:17One, you know, the underdog wins.

03:19Then the favorites can win the next game.

03:21Five and a half, under five and a half for Winnipeg and St. Louis.

03:23It is minus 144.

03:24I saw it at minus 135 at some point yesterday on in-game live.

03:29Way too many goals being scored.

03:31And the goals increase the variance.

03:33And especially when we have great goaltenders on both sides.

03:36With Jordan Bittenton for the Blues, kind of Hellbuck for the Jets.

03:40That's just not the style that they want to play or have played really at any point this season,

03:44turning these games into 5-3 outcomes.

03:46The Blues could very well win this game, but increasing the back-and-forth nature

03:51and trying to win a game 5-4, 5-3 is really not the route that they want to go about things.

03:56So I expect the goaltenders to return to form, obviously.

03:59Just the opening excitement of all games causes things to go over.

04:03Yeah, Jets won that game 1-5-3 up in Winnipeg.

04:06Of course, trying to avoid the President's Trophy curse.

04:09You would expect with Connor Hellbuck in net, a lower-scoring game.

04:13And yet, Winnipeg, a minus-5-30 favorite.

04:15Not only a hefty favorite tonight, but minus-5-30 to win the series.

04:20The Avs won game 1 against the Stars 5-1.

04:24Vecchio, Colorado, greater than a $3 favorite to win this series outright.

04:28Those are both game 2s.

04:30Our other Western Conference series beginning tonight is game number 1.

04:34Now, Vecchio, the Oilers are a favorite to win the series over the Kings

04:38around a minus-132 price in terms of that outright number.

04:42But tonight, as you see the Kings with home ice advantage, a minus-125 favorite.

04:48Total is 5-1-2.

04:50How do you make sense of the disparity?

04:52Edmonton, the series' favorite, but the Kings' favorite on home ice for the opening game.

04:57Home ice will give them, you know, that slight favorite in game 1, as you would expect.

05:01But a lot of people, and I assume the public money, would be going towards the Oilers at a certain point.

05:05But the Kings are winning this series, and it's going to take them 6 or 7 games.

05:08But they're going to get some revenge after losing to the Oilers multiple seasons in a row in the first round.

05:14The Kings will get through.

05:15They have a great team.

05:17I'm not going to say they have a superstar like they have with McDavid and Dryside on the other side.

05:20But the depth that the Kings have, combined with the injuries that the Oilers are dealing with,

05:25I think will put the Kings ahead.

05:26I don't know if they win game 1, but I expect them to make very solid changes throughout the series

05:31and, again, win in 6 or 7 games.

05:33This first game probably does go over.

05:35But then I think we are in for very clear unders, not just under 5.5.

05:39I'd be willing to take some alt under 4.5 at some point.

05:43Yeah, Vecchio, to your point, by the way, the last three postseasons in the Stanley Cup playoffs,

05:49the Oilers have knocked out the LA Kings in the opening round.

05:53Last year in only five games, of course, with a ton of expectation for Conor McDavid,

05:57Leon Dreisaitl, and Edmonton.

06:00We'll see what this holds.

06:01LA a favorite in game 1.

06:04Edmonton the favorite for the series at minus 132.

06:08Tom Vecchio, it is always a pleasure breaking things down with you.

06:12By the way, we talked about it during the break.

06:14Nick Castellanos to go yard today for reasons out there, I think, is a great, great look.

06:19Vecchio, enjoy the Monday, my friend.

06:21The jack-of-all-trades always delivers with that prop perspective.

06:26Thanks for being here.

06:27Of course.

06:28Thanks for having me.

06:28We'll look to the Devils goalie for saves in game 2.

06:33Ooh, I like that look, Vecchio.

06:35We'll do that tomorrow when the early line returns at 8 a.m. Eastern here on SportsCenter.

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