NHL Bet of the Week: Playoff Edition
After the first week of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, some teams are looking to advance to the next round, while others are looking to keep their season alive. This article will explain why the Carolina Hurricanes Moneyline against the New York Islanders is the bet of the week in the NHL.
Top Six
The first line consists of Jack Drury, Sebastian Aho, and Seth Jarvis. Teravainen is one of the more underrated wingers in the league and seems to play extremely well with Aho; however, due to injury, Drury has been selected to replace him on the first line.
Sebastian Aho is on the fringe of being the superstar Hurricanes fans have needed for almost a decade now.
While Seth Jarvis was the youngest player in the NHL for a while, he has developed himself as a skilled winger who will do the dirty work that Aho and Drury may not want to do, which makes himself a perfect fit to round out this top line.
The second line also has a player on the fringe of breaking into the superstar category, that being Andrei Svechnikov. Svechnikov has all the puck skills in the world to match his surprisingly aggressive style of play. However, he is also missing in the lineup due to injury.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi centers the second line; he may be the least productive of the top six, but the former third-overall NHL pick still possesses all the talent needed to break out in the years to come. Lastly, Martin Necas rounds out the NHL top six and is currently having a career year.
Necas will need to step huge greatly so all of the scoring doesn’t fall on Sebastian Aho’s shoulder as they look to close out the Islanders
Islanders Lack of Talent
Beside Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat, the New York Islanders don’t have much talent in the top six beside some veterans past their primes. Anders Lee and Brock Nelson have experience and veteran awareness, but they lack the overall skill and talent to totally impact the game.
They have a good defensive defenseman in Adam Pelech. However, they have very little scoring from their blue line and look to shut down opponents rather than trying to score.
Overall, the only real talent the Islanders have is Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat; both are great players. They can score and defend, but it shouldn’t be enough to overcome the loaded Carolina Hurricanes roster.
Hurricanes Defense
Outside of the absolutely ridiculous Colorado Avalanche defensive pairing, the Hurricanes might have the best in the league. A top pair of one of the best shutdown defenseman in Jaccob Slavin, and one of the greatest offensive defensemen to ever play the game in Brent Burns, spell nightmares for opposing teams.
Then Brady Skjei and Brett Pesce come on the ice for the second unit, which may be one of the hardest-hitting pairs in the league. The offense does fall off a little but is definitely not a liability.
Calvin de Haan and Jalen Chatfield round out the defensemen group, and nothing special to say here more place fillers that won’t change a game, but also have proven to be solid pros.
Overall, Carolina is up 3-1 in the series and is at home for game five; with injuries already hurting them, they will need to close this one out in five and rest up for the second round, so go place your money on Carolina Hurricanes moneyline for game five.
