Scoring has come down in the NHL playoffs. Finally.
It’s now at 5.87 goals per game after sitting around the 6-goal mark or higher for much of the playoffs. The UNDER has come cashing in as a result with a record of 4-0-1 in the last five NHL playoff games.
Why?
The goalies are playing better. Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy has been stealing goals off the board from Washington and has at least a .933 save percentage in each of his last four games.
Meanwhile, Marc-Andre Fleury has stolen the show for the Golden Knights on the other side of the continent and UNDER bettors took advantage if you saw the window of opportunity.
Me? I’ve been seeing plenty of opportunity in the playoffs myself. Here are my records heading into tonight:
25-20-3 in the NHL playoffs, which is good for a profit of $546.
24-22 ATS in the NBA playoffs.
Ninja and I break down these games in more detail in the video above. Check us out every weekday at noon ET on Periscope on @OddsShark.
Capitals at Lightning -140, 5.5
Home teams win Game 7 59 percent of the time and these odds suggest the implied odds for Tampa Bay to win are 58.3 percent. So it’s not hard to tell where this line came from.
What the odds don’t tell you is that Alex Ovechkin caught fire a couple games ago in the second period when a lazy backcheck allowed Ryan Callahan to score what would eventually be the Sportsbook. Since then, Ovechkin has been hitting everything that moves and it seems to have electrified this Caps team.
With all that in mind, I won’t blame you a bit for taking the Caps here – they are 8-2 on the road in the playoffs and have won seven games as an underdog. But I’m leaning to the better goalie and home ice. The Capitals are also 4-11 in Game 7s in franchise history while the Bolts are 5-2, if that means anything to you.
Pick: UNDER 5.5 goals
Cavaliers at Celtics +1, 206
When you see the Celtics as an underdog, your eyes have to light up a little. They’re 24-10 against the spread as an underdog this season.
The question for many here is: How do you stop LeBron? I don’t think you do and I actually think it’s more important for the Celtics to stop the three-pointer. They’ve been outshot from long distance in the two losses.
I think they’ll be better at home where they defended the three better in the first two games. Celtics are also 9-0 SU and ATS at home in the playoffs.
Pick: Celtics
