Morning Coffee: What are the odds Hurricanes suffer another ECF sweep?

The Florida Panthers are headed back home.

After completing their most impressive road trip of the season, there’s a chance the Cats might not travel again until Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Over a six-day span this week, the Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-1 in Game 7 of their second round series, then outscored the Carolina Hurricanes 10-2 in back-to-back wins to begin the Eastern Conference Finals.

Florida to advance moved from -240 to -650 overnight.

The Cats to sweep that series is down to +200 at FanDuel.

If they follow up a road sweep in Carolina with a home sweep over the Hurricanes, the Panthers won’t travel until Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals at the earliest.

Then again, considering their road dominance this postseason, travel isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

With another dominant win last night, Florida improved to 7-2 as the visiting team in these Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Panthers handed the Hurricanes their worst ever postseason home shutout loss with a 5-0 beatdown.

In their last four road games, Florida has outscored its opponents a combined 22-4. 

The plus-18 goal differential in those victories is the highest in a span of four road games in the history of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Panthers have also scored 43 goals in nine road games so far this postseason – the highest goal total through a team’s first nine road games in a single postseason in Stanley Cup Playoffs history.

On the flip side, Carolina has now lost 14 straight games in the Eastern Conference Finals – an NHL record for the most consecutive losses in the round before the Stanley Cup Final.

The Hurricane are +118 to win Game 3 on the road and +460 to win the series at FanDuel this morning.

Maybe Sebastian Aho and company will fare better on the road.

It’s hard to imagine things getting any worse for the Canes as they attempt to avoid a fourth straight four-game series sweep in the Eastern Conference Finals.

This is the Morning Coffee for Friday May 23rd, 2025.

What are the odds Hurricanes suffer another ECF sweep?

While the Cats have been dominant as the visitors, the Dallas Stars have been nearly perfect defending their home ice so far in these Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Dallas has won seven straight home games this postseason.

The Stars are -118 to extend that streak in Game 2 against the Edmonton Oilers tonight and -190 to win the Western Conference Finals.

Edmonton is -102 to win tonight and +155 to advance.

Of course, the Oilers are in familiar territory after they opened with back-to-back road losses to the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of these playoffs.

However, that doesn’t mean they can afford to go down 2-0 again versus an opponent as talented as Dallas.

Historically, teams that take a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven series have advanced 86 per cent of the time.

That number jumps to 88 per cent for teams that take a 2-0 series lead on home ice.

The fact that the Oilers led by two goals entering the third period of Game 1 – looked completely dominant in the process – and still lost by three goals is an obvious concern.

Still, the Stars needed seven games to get past the Colorado Avalanche in the first round and six games to eliminate the Winnipeg Jets in the second round, so perhaps those no reason for hockey fans in Edmonton to panic until their team loses a game on home ice.

With the Panthers potentially on track for a four-game sweep of the Hurricanes, the winner of the Western Conference Finals may be at an additional disadvantage if this series goes six or seven games, as expected.

I’m excited to see how both teams respond in Game 2.

In terms of a FanDuel Best Bet, I couldn’t buy a winner on Thursday after Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis both failed to register two shots on goal in Game 2 after they combined for 10 shots on goal in Game 1.

The Cats cruised to a 5-0 win in Carolina, which was bad news for somebody who also bet on Sergei Bobrovsky over 25.5 saves in a game in which he was hardly tested.

Turning the page this morning, I thought I might run it back with the builder Same Game Parlay winner I posted from Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Mikko Rantanen to each record 2+ shots on goal.

Unfortunately, that SGP that was -115 on Wednesday morning is now -170 for Game 2 at FanDuel.

Instead, I’ll keep McDavid and Draisaitl to record 2+ shots on goal and pair it with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Tyler Seguin to both record 1+ shot on goal at -122.

McDavid and Draisaitl are a combined 24-for-24 for 2+ shots on goal in these Stanley Cup Playoffs.

RNH 1+ shot on goal is 12-for-12 and he registered four shots on goal on seven shot attempts in Game 1.

Seguin registered a team-high five shots on goal on seven attempts in Game 1 and has recorded one or more in three straight and eight of his previous 10 games.

Hopefully, we can bounce back with a Morning Coffee winner.

I’ll be back with my full card for Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals tonight @Domenic_Padula on X.

Have a great day, everyone!