Ice Hockey | Thursday, May 18, 2023 9:10 AM

Carolina Hurricanes vs Florida Panthers Best Bet: Game 1 Eastern Conference Semis

IMAGO / ZUMA Wire

US Sports Expert

Carolina Hurricanes vs Florida Panthers Best Bet: Thursday, May 18th

Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals is set for Thursday night as the Canes and Cats battle for the right to play in the Stanley Cup Finals! The Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars will kick off the Western Conference Finals on Friday, and our resident pucks expert Ej Garr will have exciting offers for the next two days. Let’s take it to the ice as the final four teams battle on!

In this article:

Carolina Hurricanes vs Florida Panthers Preview

May 19, 01:05 (UK time)

The Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers each only needed five games in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs to arrive at the Conference Finals, and now they are both just four wins away from an appearance in the finals.

The Panthers first joined the NHL in 1994, and have yet to get their hands on Lord Stanley’s precious Cup. Florida made a finals appearance in 1996, and they have not returned to that stage of the playoffs since.

Meanwhile, the Hurricanes hoisted the 2006 trophy to claim their only Stanley Cup win, and now they are also four wins away from securing another chance to lift the hardware. Carolina reached the 2019 Conference Finals before being swept by the Bruins, and this will mark the fifth time they have reached this stage since joining the NHL in 1980.

The two teams met three times during the regular season, and the Canes earned wins from two of those three affairs.

Panthers goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky has essentially saved the Cats’ chances in the post-season, as Alex Lyon was benched after the third game against Boston in the opening round of the playoffs. Lyon posted a 1 – 2 record before Bobrovsky started Game 4 of that series, and yet he lost his first start leaving Florida on the brink of elimination. Boston was up 3 games to 1 on the Panthers before Florida mounted one of the most impressive comebacks in NHL playoff history.

Boston set all kinds of regular season records, and Florida was left for dead after going down 3 – 1 in the opening series, yet here they are in the Eastern Conference finals. Getting past Boston was impressive enough, but to dismiss Toronto in only five games was another major accomplishment for a team that no one expected to reach at this point in the playoffs.

While Bobrovsky is 7 – 1 in his last eight starts, Carolina has featured all three of their netminders in the post-season. Aanti Raanta started the first five games of the series with the Islanders, and we have not seen him back on the ice since then. Despite getting the Canes to a 3 – 2 series lead against New York, Frederik Anderson was called upon to close out the Islander series, and he is now 5 – 0 in the postseason.