The Colorado Avalanche are the odds on favorite to win the Stanley Cup this season and they’ll face off with the St Louis Blues in Round 2 of the playoffs.
Below, you can check out some of the odds offered on the FanDuel Sportsbook that are worth considering for Round 2 of the Western Conference playoffs.
St Louis Blues (+310) vs Colorado Avalanche (-400)
There are some interesting lines to consider in this series, in what might be the highest-scoring matchup of the second round. The Avalanche made quick work of the Blues in last year’s postseason, but this St Louis team is more built for success, particularly with the development of young stars Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas, to go along with the acquisition of Pavel Buchnevich. The Blues should be much more competitive this time around, especially if they get the goaltending Jordan Binnington delivered after he took over for Ville Husso in Round 1.
The Avalanche are big favorites in this series and for good reason, but they’ve struggled in the second round in years past. St Louis should be able to do enough to keep this series close, but Colorado winning the series 4-2 is great value at +360 and worth considering.
Cale Makar finished the first round of the playoffs in a tie for the most points from a defender with ten and keep in mind he did so in just four games. The flashy defenceman might have taken another big step forward this year, which showed against Nashville.
The Best Bet
The current price for Makar to lead the series in scoring at +1500 is too good to pass up.
Edmonton Oilers (+160) vs Calgary Flames (-194)The Battle of Alberta will go down for the first time since 1991, as the two remaining Canadian teams have hopes of ending the nation’s Stanley Cup drought. The last team from Canada to win it all was the Montreal Canadiens in 1993.
The Flames and Oilers split their season series with two wins each, but the surprise was that they were all high-scoring affairs, which is not the type of hockey that Calgary likes to play. We saw a total of 33 goals in those four matchups and we could be in for plenty more in this series if those trends continue.
There’s not a ton of value right in this series, but if you expect the Flames to win the series and Game 1, you can parlay those two bets together for a total of +104, which is a much better price than just looking at the Flames to win the series outright at -194.
The Oilers are likely to make this series closer than you might expect, especially if you saw the look in Connor McDavid’s eyes and how dominant he was for the majority of their first-round victory over the Los Angeles Kings. Much like in the first round where both teams saw their respective series go seven games, you can see the same thing transpiring in this matchup, where there’s great value at +410 if you side with Calgary.
The Best Bet
I’ll take Calgary in seven for +410.
