The NHL playoffs kick off tonight and I still argue that it’s the best postseason in all of sports, this despite the little known fact that hockey is NOT my favorite sport. Go figure.
The fact is, no other sport offers a war of attrition to earn the championship like hockey does. It’s pretty awesome. It can be even more awesome this season when you get involved in the action at the different New Jersey legal sportsbooks. We recommend checking out PointsBet because they are currently offering a $50 free bet with no deposit with code BROADLINES.
While the Flyers aren’t there this year, which isn’t a surprise, that doesn’t mean you can”t enjoy the playoffs. As a matter of fact, they should be a lot of fun, especially in the Western Conference, where nothing would surprise me.
The East is a bit more chalky, although I do think three of the four first round series can be pushed to the brink of a seventh game. Still, the East is top heavy and ultimately, one of the top four teams will reach the Final.
I’m not a peerless prognosticator. In my years of making playoff predictions, I have had seasons where I’ve been superb picking series results in advance and I’ve had years where I like to forget I even made selections.
And while I will give you my first round picks here as well as my Finals prediction, that’s not the purpose of this post.
Feel free to bet my picks but do so at your own risk of peril! Haha.
Instead, I wanted to offer you some perspective, so you can make your own educated betting choices as you decide how best to spend your dollars.
So without further ado let’s get to the matchups and then after that, I’ll give you a few other things to look at when betting individual games during the opening round.
