2021-22 Stanley Cup predictions and NHL playoff tips: Hurricanes to hit the East

Free ice hockey betting tips, best bets and analysis for the NHL Playoffs, which start in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

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Premier Sports, from midnight Monday

Best bet

Carolina Hurricanes to win the Eastern Conference
1pt each-way 11-2 Hills

Already advised

Colorado Avalanche to win the Stanley Cup
2pts each-way 11-2 October 11

NHL Playoffs preview

How do you stop an Avalanche? That’s the question being posed to 15 NHL teams ahead of the start of the playoffs.

Colorado entered the campaign as favourites to lift the Stanley Cup for the second time in the franchise’s history and the Avalanche’s performance over the course of the regular season has done little to deter the layers.

The last seven Stanley Cup champions have gone into the playoffs at odds of 13-1 or shorter and the Avs having avoided the curse of winning the Presidents’ Trophy, certainly fit the description of potential winners.

Colorado have been a tour de force in the second half of the season, going 39-10-5 since the start of 2022 and capturing the top seed in the Western Conference with a franchise-record number of points.

They are strong all over the ice, ranking fourth in goals scored per game on average, ninth in goals allowed and have a goalie in Darcy Kuemper with the fifth highest save percentage on the season.

The Avalanche are expected to emerge from the west, which contains some talented but flawed teams, headlined by the Edmonton Oilers and Minnesota Wild.

The Oilers’ Connor McDavid leads the league in points, while Kirill Kaprizov is a rising star for the Wild, busting through the 100-point barrier, but both could be held back by understrength defences and leaky goaltending.

While Colorado are ready to be anointed kings of the west, the Eastern Conference appears far more competitive and it’s worth opposing 12-5 favourites Florida.

The Panthers blasted their way to the Presidents’ Trophy but only three teams in the last 18 years have followed up winning the regular-season crown with lifting the cup.

A hot-shot offence, led by Jonathan Huberdeau and averaging over four goals per game, has covered up for a team that’s become far too easy to score upon in recent months. They’ve also been trailing 27 times entering the third period of games, a trend that could spell trouble in the playoffs.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are worth considering at 11-2 to retain their Eastern Conference title as they chase a third successive Stanley Cup but they face a tough first-round matchup against a Toronto Maple Leafs team who can call upon the league’s top scorer Auston Matthews.

Instead, it's the Carolina Hurricanes and their top-ranked defence that may end up grinding out a place in the finals. The Metropolitan Division winners have a slightly easier route through the playoffs, opening up against old foes Boston.

No team have allowed fewer goals on average than Carolina (2.44) thanks in large part to the excellent goaltending tandem of Antti Raanta and Frederik Andersen. The latter is a doubt for the start of the playoffs through injury but the Canes are good enough on defence to cope without him for the time being.

A relatively young Hurricanes team have accumulated valuable playoff experience over the last three years, have a well-built roster that can withstand a few injuries and look ready to make a deep run.

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