NHL Best Bet: Friday, April 15th

The Florida Panthers play host to the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night and the home team is heavily favoured as they chase home ice throughout the playoffs. The Cats have won their last 8 games and 11 of their last 12 outings while taking command of the Eastern Conference standings. Our resident American puck head Ej Garr is set to bring you another winner as he looks to the total in this contest.

NHL Best Bet: Friday, April 15th

• Florida vs. Winnipeg: Over 6.5 Goals

Odds as of 9 am April 15th, 2022. Odds may now differ.

Florida vs. Winnipeg Best Bet

April 15, 23:00 (UK time)

With the best record in the Eastern Conference, the Panthers are still 2 points behind the Colorado Avalanche for the NHL’s best record. With a potential for the two to meet in the Stanley Cup finals, home ice would be quite useful to avoid the 7th game in Denver but we’re still a long way from there.

The line setters have left us no room on a Moneyline bet in this spot listing the Panthers at an extreme 1.40 and the -1 handicap is still a bit juiced at 1.80 so we look for better value. This is why I have decided to offer this total and I will admit I simply do not like offering the puck line just because we all believe this is a lopsided affair. Many a punter/tipster has gotten caught with a mindset that the line setters are begging casual bettors to lay multiple goals instead of laying heavy juice on the Moneyline.

Winnipeg may appear to be out of the playoff picture because they are 7 points behind the 8th place LA Kings in the Western Conference standings. The Kings hold the final post-season position as it stands now but the season isn’t over and anything can still happen with 10 games left in the regular season.

The Jets have won 5 of their last 6 road games and they are taking a mild two-win streak into tonight’s game which is also why I fear laying a multiple-goal win for the home team. Winnipeg is going to give every ounce of effort they have to get any points they can down the stretch and the Panthers also need every point to secure home ice for the playoffs.

This game is going to be tightly contested and I foresee a 3 – 3 game that might need some extra time to award the extra point to one of the teams. No one is going to suspect the Jets to win this game and take both points in regulation or overtime, but I certainly think this is going to be another 1-goal game, at least. If you haven’t noticed, 6 of the recent 11 wins in the recent 12-game run of results I mentioned above were games that were decided by a goal.

Florida earned a 5 – 3 win over the Jets in January and that is the only other meeting between these two teams since November of 2019. If scoring is your thing, you have enjoyed watching Florida light the lamp early and often this season. The 305 goals Florida has scored easily leads the NHL in scoring and they won’t even come close to having a 50-goal scorer this season.

The Panthers have done it by a committee or scorers and an unselfish approach has become quite useful to keep the wins coming. Florida is on the verge of having 14 players with double-digit goals and 11 of them have already reached the mark. Three players sit with 9 goals apiece and we all know the big names doing the heavy damage. 

Aleksander Barkov (34) leads a list of 7 Panthers with 20+ tallies so there is no surprise that the total comes as our best bet of the night from the pair of NHL games being played on Friday night. 

• Selection: Over 6.5 Goals
• Best Odds: 1.89 (Pinnacle)
• Stakes: 4/10

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