The NHL has a rare scenario on its hands where the four of the best teams actually made it to the conference finals.

The New York Rangers and Florida Panthers start the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday, while the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers begin the Western Conference Finals on Thursday.

At a ballpark +230 number, Florida is the betting favorite to hoist the Stanley Cup. Makes sense. After all, this is pretty much the same team that fell to the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final last season.

Dallas (+240), Edmonton (+270), and the Rangers (+380) round out the odds.

Florida and Dallas are not the two locations you think of immediately as hockey hotbeds, but they have the two deepest teams left in the postseason. The Rangers and Oilers each have qualities that could lead them to upset wins in their respective matchups, but the Panthers and Stars are better overall teams.


Eastern Conference Final

Panthers (-150) vs. Rangers (+130)

New York owns home-ice advantage after winning the Presidents’ Trophy.

The Rangers are 4-1 at home in the postseason with at least four goals in all of those victories.

Florida is 4-1 on its travels in the playoffs and it won all three games in Boston in the second round.

The Panthers had five or fewer goals scored in each of their last three games and in five of their 11 postseason contests. The Rangers only played in one game with less than five goals.

A lot of unders should be in play in this series because there are two elite goalies going head-to-head in Igor Shesterkin and Sergei Bobrovsky.

Both teams will probably shoot the puck a good amount. Florida ranks third in shots on goal in the playoffs. I would lean more toward shots on goal props than goals and points props at least at the start of this series.

The Panthers trio of Sam Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk, and Carter Verhaeghe all rank in the top 10 in playoff shots on goal. I would explore DraftKings series props for all three players. Reinhart and Verhaeghe are both listed for 25+ SOG at +380 and +350, while Tkachuk has a 28+ SOG prop for the series at +450. As you peruse NJ sports betting apps and PA sports betting apps, I would look more into those props instead of X player to record X shots in every game of the series.

As for the Rangers, they only have one player in the top 20 in playoff SOG in Chris Kreider, who scored a hat-trick to eliminate the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round. You can get Kreider to have 20+ series SOG at +800. The Rangers’ shot production is more spread out, but if you subscribe to the big-time players show up in big-time games theory in the playoffs, Kreider is your guy.

I would also recommend betting the series to go six or seven games. Each goalie is capable of stealing one or two games and this should be a battle until the end.

Western Conference Final

Dallas (-125) vs. Edmonton (+105)

Simply put, the Western Conference Final is down to best team versus best individuals.

Dallas is loaded with veteran talent, is four lines deep, has a young stud in Wyatt Johnston and a goaltending advantage with Jake Oettinger.

The Stars just dispatched Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche in the second round, so they have no trouble dealing with superstar power.

Edmonton has the best top line left in the playoffs with Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman. Leon Draisaitl rotates in and out of the top line, but he is lethal with McDavid and Hyman on the power play.

If you’re looking at Oilers player props, Draisaitl, Hyman, and Evan Bouchard are ones to target for shots and goals. McDavid has been more of a distributor this season, and while he may score some goals, he has 19 postseason assists.

While the top-end talent is there for Edmonton, it struggles to keep opponents to low scores, and that could be a problem in a series matchup with a strong goalie like Oettinger.

Dallas held Colorado to one goal in three of the final four games of that series and limited Vegas to two goals or less in every one of its first-round wins. Edmonton has held an opponent under two goals just three times in 12 games.

Dallas’ series spread of -1.5 at +170 is intriguing because if the goaltending advantage shows, the season could be over quick for the Oilers.