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Morning Coffee: Expect plenty of goals in showdown between Avalanche, Stars
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On Sunday night, we said goodbye to the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Last night, we watched the sleeper team of the NBA playoffs put the defending NBA champs on the ropes in their own building.
24 hours after the Vegas Golden Knights were eliminated by the Dallas Stars in the NHL postseason, the Minnesota Timberwolves dealt the Denver Nuggets a humbling defeat in front of their home fans.
The Timberwolves beat the Nuggets 106-80 as a +245 underdog at FanDuel to take a 2-0 series lead on the road.
Denver was bet up from -5.5 to -7.5 at FanDuel following the news that Minnesota would be without Rudy Gobert.
It wouldn’t matter, as the Timberwolves cruised to a 26-point blowout victory.
Meanwhile in the NHL, the Boston Bruins upset the Florida Panthers 5-1 in Game 1 of their second round series as a +134 underdog at FanDuel.
I went 1-1 with the FanDuel Best Bets in Morning Coffee.
Considering how hot I’ve been running of late, the split certainly felt like a blowout loss as far as I’m concerned.
Turning the page this morning, we have a pair of postseason games in both the NHL and the NBA tonight.
I’m already locked in on what I’m expecting to be the most entertaining series of the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with another pair of FanDuel Best Bets.
This is the Morning Coffee for Tuesday, May 7th, 2024.
Expect Plenty Of Goals In Showdown Between Avalanche, Stars
The Stars went the distance against the Golden Knights in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Their path to the Stanley Cup Final won’t get any easier against the Colorado Avalanche in the second round.
Dallas is -115 to win the series at FanDuel.
Colorado is -104 to advance to the Western Conference Final.
With so much star power on both rosters, my money is on this being one of the most entertaining series of the NHL postseason.
If the regular season was any indication, we should see plenty of goals.
Colorado won three of the four head-to-head meetings.
The average total in the four games was 8.75 goals.
While conventional wisdom suggests fewer scoring opportunities in the playoffs, there’s nothing conventional about what we saw from the Avalanche in the first round of the playoffs.
Facing the obvious Vezina Trophy favourite Connor Hellebuyck, the Avalanche averaged a ridiculous 5.6 goals per game en route to eliminating the Winnipeg Jets in five games.
It will be interesting to see if Jake Oettinger and the Stars can slow down Colorado’s high-powered offence.
For the second morning in a row, I’m going to lock in a pair of FanDuel Best Bets in this column.
Nichushkin registered at least three shots on goal in four of the five games in Colorado’s first round series versus Winnipeg.
He averaged 3.4 shots on goal per game in that series.
Nichushkin also averaged 4.0 shots on goal per game against Dallas in the regular season with 12 shots in three meetings.
Skating on the top line with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, I’m confident that Nichushkin can get us the two shots we need to cash this Same Game Parlay.
I’ll lock in Nichushkin 2+ shots on goal and the alt over 5.5 goals at -113 as my first FanDuel Best Bet.
Next up, I want to take advantage of a player that might fly under the radar for the Stars heading into this series in Tyler Seguin.
Wyatt Johnston was the star for Dallas in the first round with a team-high four goals and seven points.
His 31 scoring chances were 17 more than any other player on the roster.
Second on the team was Seguin, who failed to score a goal despite ranking second on the team with 21 shots on goal and second on the team with 14 scoring chances.
While he failed to convert, I expect Seguin to be busy again in this series after scoring six goals in three games against Colorado during the regular season.
Seguin registered 11 shots on goal in three games for an average of 3.66 per game.
Seguin 3+ shots on goal is +132 at FanDuel this morning.
I’ll lock in Seguin 3+ shots on goal at +132 as a FanDuel Best Bet.