Venue: PNC Arena.
After two wins to start the series, Rod Brind’amour’s team suffered two straight defeats. Can Carolina regain the lead against Nashville? We predict that the Hurricanes will be closer this time.
Carolina’s current form
Carolina are still a young, but already experienced and very ambitious team that won the Central Division at the end of the regular season, which speaks to their ability to spread themselves over the distance. Perhaps it stopped working in the playoffs, as Rod Brind’amour’s men showed near-perfect hockey in the first two meetings in the series with Nashville, which helped them win 5-2 and 3-0. It seemed as if the Hurricanes would crush the Predators without noticing any trouble, but in the next two meetings the game went into overtime and in both cases, Carolina were defeated 4-5 and 3-4.
Nashville’s current form
Nashville failed the starting part of the regular season, so all the second half of the season they had to reduce the gap from the cup four. It seemed that having coped with this task, John Hines’s side somehow relaxed, and they lacked energy and emotion in the first two meetings of the series with Carolina, so they lost 2-5 and 0-3. Nevertheless, for the home games the Predators managed to transform themselves, they continued to concede as much, but they began to be more productive on offense which resulted in two victories in overtime, both times they used the mistakes of the Hurricanes - 5-4 and 4-3.
Expert Betting Tips
The encounter between Carolina and Nashville this season turns out to be very much a home game. In the last ten face-to-face meetings, the victory was celebrated exclusively by the host side, and the Predators lost all six previous meetings at the PNC Arena this season with a total score of 7-23. With such results, do John Hines’ boys plan to win the series? Yes, they have won two games in front of fans, but in Raleigh it’s a different story, making the home team the favourites. As a result, we suggest betting on a Carolina win for 1.95.
Carolina and Nashville are two systematic and organized teams that are excellent defensively. What has come over them in the current series is a big question, but almost all matches between them turn out to be very productive if you look at the three periods, as in overtime everything becomes all right again with the defense. In the four previous games, however, the opponents combined for 24 goals (6.00 goals per game on average), so Total Over 5.5 goals, with odds of nearly 2.10, would seem to be a good option.
Jordan Staal is reminding us more and more in the playoffs that he’s a truly elite forward. In the regular season, he can be prone to occasional lapses, although he finished with 38 points (16 goals + 22 assists) in 53 games, he even managed to add in the Stanley Cup. In his previous four games with Nashville, he has already scored three goals and one assist, so it might be worth taking a closer look at Jordan Staal’s Total Over 0.5-point at around 1.85.
Other predictions
