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With everything else going on at sportsbooks today its easy to forget about NHL betting, but we like a position in the opening game of the Western Conference semifinal series between Vancouver and Chicago.  Both teams recovered nicely late in their opening round series to advance, and this could be one of the most entertaining matchups of the entire playoffs.

Vancouver Canucks at Chicago Blackhawks
May 1, 5:00 PM Pacific

This is really a good matchup for both teams, and should make for some entertaining hockey.  Both teams can score goals, but there are questions on the defensive end of the ice.  In fact, that makes the matchup even more intriguing as the Blackhawks’ strength in that area is the Canucks’ weakness and vice versa.  The biggest rap on the Blackhawks heading into the postseason has been their goaltending.  Cristobal Huet and Antti Neimi have split time between the pipes this year without either really emerging as the top man.  There’s no question, however, about the Canucks’ goaltending as Roberto Luongo is about as good as it gets.  The Blackhawks have made their goaltending issues less relevant by playing good defense in front of the net.  Chicago led the NHL in shots on goal against this season, allowing a stingy 25.1 shots on goal.  They also had the best shots for/shots against per game differential in the NHL.  Vancouver’s problem is they often make Luongo face too many shots and thus work harder than he should have to.  He’s very good at handling the heavy load most of the time, but making your goalie face too many shots is always a potential disaster.

The Blackhawks gave Luongo trouble in last year’s playoffs, but the way the Canucks played in the last three games of their opening round series with the Kings they’re going to be a handful for anyone.  Vancouver scored 17 goals in the last 3 games against Los Angeles, and may be peaking at the right time.  Head to head, its been a very even series this season with the teams splitting four games and winning once on their opponent’s home ice.  Going back even further, the last 18 meetings are a 9-9 split with each team holding a slight 5-4 advantage on home ice.  This looks to be a very even series and we’ll gladly take the value in game one with a Vancouver team that looked unstoppable on offense in their recent games.

Play Vancouver +140 over Chicago

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