Bruins vs. Panthers betting preview: Latest odds, props for first-round series originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Bruins just completed the most impressive regular season in NHL history, but all of that is now in the rearview mirror with the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs scheduled to begin Monday.
The Bruins’ road to the Stanley Cup Final begins with the Florida Panthers, who won the Presidents’ Trophy last season but struggled to repeat that success in 2022-23.
Bruins vs. Panthers first-round playoff preview, odds and prediction
However, the Panthers are fully capable of making this a competitive series. Florida finished the season strong with a 12-5-2 record after the March 3 trade deadline, including a 6-1-1 record in the last eight games that secured them a wild card playoff berth. Florida also is one of only two teams that beat Boston multiple times during the regular season. The Panthers are a highly skilled team that ranked fifth in goals scored per game and 10th in power-play percentage.
Despite all of the Panthers’ talent, the Bruins are heavy favorites to win the series, which makes plenty of sense when you consider all of the records they broke this season. The B’s also finished as the second-highest scoring team and allowed the fewest goals. Boston’s power play ranked No. 12 and the penalty kill was the best in the league.
Projected Bruins lines, pairings for Game 1 of playoffs
Boston’s regular season success doesn’t guarantee playoff glory, though. The Bruins won the Presidents’ Trophy with a 65-12-5 record. The last eight Presidents’ Trophy winners all failed to reach the Stanley Cup Final and eight of them failed to advance to the conference finals. One of them — the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning — was upset in the first round.
Here are the latest odds and props for the Bruins-Panthers first-round series, via DraftKings Sportsbook.
Series winner: Bruins -320, Panthers +250
Series total games: Four games (+450), five games (+235), six games (+225), seven games (+240)
Series correct score: Bruins 4-0 (+500), Bruins 4-1 (+300), Bruins 4-2 (+380), Bruins 4-3 (+425), Panthers 4-0 (+3500), Panthers 4-1 (+1500), Panthers 4-2 (+850), Panthers 4-3 (+800)
Any player to record a hat trick: +195
Series most goals: David Pastrnak (+220), Matthew Tkachuk (+650), Patrice Bergeron (+800), Carter Verhaeghe (+800), Jake DeBrusk (+1000), Brad Marchand (+1100), Sam Reinhart (+1300), Aleksander Barkov (+1400), Taylor Hall (+1900), Tyler Bertuzzi (+2500)
Series most points: David Pastrnak (+175), Matthew Tkachuk (+450), Brad Marchand (+550), Aleksander Barkov (+900), Jake DeBrusk (+1100), Patrice Bergeron (+1400), Charlie McAvoy (+2000), Carter Verhaeghe (+2000), Pavel Zacha (+2500), Hampus Lindholm (+2500)
