Bet on a big game from Bruins’ David Pastrnak in Saturday’s NHL playoff action

The 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs commence on Saturday evening with Game 1 of Islanders-Hurricanes and Maple Leafs-Bruins.

The New York Islanders are given a chance for redemption against the Carolina Hurricanes one year after getting eliminated from the first round by them in six games last year.

Boston and Toronto both have plenty at stake. The Bruins look to rebound from their first-round loss after setting the all-time greatest regular-season record last year. This is all while Toronto still attempts to pry the prolonging monkeys off its back in the playoffs.

I’ll dive into a few best bet picks we’re targeting off the board throughout both matchups.

Make no mistake, the Hurricanes still hold a considerable edge here; they enter the playoffs as +600 favorites to raise the Cup in June.

Gaining zone entry and generating any kind of offense is no easy task against the Hurricanes. They are the toughest team to contend with at five-on-five play, completing the year at No. 1 in puck possession.

They also kill off a league-leading 86.4% of penalties, which is an uphill climb for an Islanders group that scored at a mediocre 20.3% share with the man advantage.

It makes for stale, uneventful hockey if the opponent can keep pace with the merely flawless structure of hockey that Rod Brind’Amour is deploying.

The Islanders took the Hurricanes to overtime twice in four contests. They are sprinting into the playoffs after going 7-0-1 in their last eight games.

Since Patrick Roy took over behind the Isles bench, he has found a way to make lemonade with his personnel. The Isles have been getting contributions from every line along with significantly improved five-on-five play that shows unification in all three zones.

It’s worth the roll on this one to reach overtime as both these teams are all too familiar at this point.

As per usual, if the Islanders are going to have any chance of hanging in this series, they will need the most from Ilya Sorokin in the cage.

Sorokin didn’t perform with nearly the same prowess as he did in 2022-23, but he still claimed points in 44 of his 63 appearances. He accomplished this while facing 32.54 shots per game with plenty of inconsistencies happening on the ice in front of him.

In Sorokin’s three starts against Carolina, he saw an average of 39.7 shots and managed to stop 36 for a .908 save percentage.

When he faced them in the 2023 playoffs, he still posted more than his line of 29.5 for Game 1 with 32.3 for a save percentage of .924 through the six games.

Carolina directed 33.3 shots on goal in the regular season, but wasn’t a high-scoring team, scoring on 10.1% of shots, which ranked 15th.

Sorokin has too much action on his hands Saturday to ignore the over on his saves prop. Great goalies rise to duty against high volume.

» READ MORE: Stanley Cup Playoffs predictions: Best bets for each conference, finals winner

Speaking of players that teams rely on to win games.

The Bruins were exposed a bit more this season after a mortifying conclusion to a historic campaign last year.

David Pastrnak was one of the few factors that remained consistent. With no pun intended, this guy has been the bread and butter of the power play, accounting for 22.2% of the unit’s goal output.

The Bruins didn’t deploy the most potent power play, but Pastrnak finds shooting lanes no matter what the scenario. He followed up with another triple-digit point season and reached 13th in five-on-five expected goals.

Pastrnak averaged 4.6 shots on goal while logging 19:56 of ice time as the most active forward on the Bruins throughout a full 82-game campaign.

Boston dominated Toronto with a 4-0 record while Pastrnak generated six shots on goal in those contests.

If you’re not already convinced about his potential to clear the bar here, he led the league in shots on goal per 60 minutes.

It’s a slightly generous price that stands out with a chunk of the Bruins offense running on Pastrnak’s stick.

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