The New York Islanders and Carolina Hurricanes will get the 2023-24 Stanley Cup Playoffs started on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET.
The Hurricanes are a -230 favorite to win Game 1 and are currently -340 to win the series.
Will this be as straightforward as the odds suggest? Or will the Islanders prove to be a trickier opponent than these odds suggest?
Let’s take a look.
Islanders vs. Hurricanes odds & pick
It’s been a tale of two seasons for the Hurricanes.
It’s not like Carolina was bad in the first few months of 2023-24, but it took some time for the Canes to get on a roll due to some poor goaltending and uncharacteristically sloppy play.
Carolina was just 17-13-4 going into the Christmas break and it looked like they could need to scrap to just get into the postseason.
Most punters believed Carolina would turn things around eventually, but the Canes went above and beyond that after the holidays.
Carolina posted a 35-10-3 record after Christmas and carried a +62 goal difference in that span.
The goaltending improved drastically, especially when Freddie Andersen returned to the lineup, and Carolina posted some of the best 5-on-5 numbers in the league.
The Hurricanes play a chaotic, all-action style of hockey predicated on suffocating their opponents with pressure and physicality.
Very few, if any, teams play like the Canes and that makes them a tricky group to prepare for.
It’s been a tale of many seasons for the Islanders.
The Isles were inconsistent at best out of the gates, plagued by terrible defense and some injuries, but looked like they righted the ship in the middle of December.
But that things got more maddening from there and led to a coaching change with Patrick Roy replacing Lane Lambert.
Betting on the NHL?
The move from Lambert to Roy paid dividends, as the Isles played at a 100-point pace under their new head coach and made massive improvements defensively.
Those defensive improvements will be put to the test against the Hurricanes, who posted elite 5-on-5 numbers on the season and had the NHL’s second-best power play.
While the Hurricanes deserve to be a sizable favorite in Game 1 and beyond in this series, the Islanders won’t be an easy out and have the goaltending and defensive fortitude to hang around and provide value at this kind of price.
The bet: Islanders +185 or better (FanDuel Sportsbook)
