Back Predators to overcome series deficit against Canucks in Stanley Cup playoffs

Tuesday has potential to be one of the most exciting nights of the entire NHL season.

The night gets started at 7 p.m. ET with an elimination game in Boston between the Bruins and Maple Leafs and will go deep into the night with three more do-or-die contests between the Islanders and Hurricanes, Avalanche and Jets, and the nightcap between the Predators and Canucks.

The Maple Leafs, Islanders, Jets and Predators all face elimination.

Let’s get to the bets:

This line has been bouncing around quite a bit for a couple of reasons.

The most obvious is the status of Auston Matthews. The league-leader in goals was pulled from Game 4 after the second period due to an illness and he missed practice on Monday, leading to most people to doubt his availability for Game 5 on Tuesday night. Head coach Sheldon Keefe said he was “hopeful” Matthews would play, but there isn’t much optimism about it around the team.

It is obvious to say this about the league’s best goal-scorer, but Matthews is a needle-mover and his status will impact the betting market in a big way. The second he’s confirmed out, this number will continue its move towards Boston. If Matthews plays, the opposite will happen.

The other external factor that is impacting the odds is the media maelstrom that is engulfing Toronto right now. The Maple Leafs are on the verge of one of their most disappointing playoff performances in this generation and cameras caught three member of the team’s “Core Four” (Matthews, Nylander and Mitch Marner) arguing in the middle of their uninspired loss on Saturday night. That clip made the rounds and got everyone in hockey speculating that this is the end of the road for this group.

Everyone in Toronto -- and the hockey world -- seems to believe this team is cooked. And that has caused this line to jump.

The Matthews situation is absolutely worth monitoring, but consider that the line for Game 1 (which was in Boston and featured the same goaltending matchup with Toronto missing one of its best players) closed at +124. It’s now at +140 and could close even higher. It’s ugly, but it’s Leafs or nothing.

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Like the Leafs and Bruins, this series features a road underdog fighting for its season. But unlike that best-of-7, this one has not seen much market movement from the first two games in Carolina. They both closed right around this price.

What’s interesting about that is that the Islanders have actually played pretty well in this series so far. The Isles put forth a strong effort in Games 1, 3 and 4 but only got one win from that batch. Even Game 2, which was not a good showing from the Isles, saw them skate out to a 3-0 lead before blowing it in heart-breaking fashion.

The Isles and Canes have each scored six goals at 5-on-5 in this series and that’s a pretty fair assessment of how this series has gone.

The Islanders may not win on Tuesday, but this price is certainly playable given how these games have gone.

There’s been plenty of drama in this series both on and off the ice. The Canucks are now down to their third-string goaltender, but they just keep finding ways to win. The most dramatic of these victories came in Game 4 when they erased a two-goal deficit and sent the game to overtime with seven seconds on the clock.

That kind of loss can deflate a team, but the Predators have proven to be a resilient bunch this entire season and they’ve been just as good as Vancouver every step of the way in this best-of-7.

The goaltending situation leaves a door open for the Predators to come back in this game and series.

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