The Predators opened as -175 favorites (wager $175 to win $100); the total is at 5.5 goals, according to sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark (line updates and matchup report). You do everything you can for one team, and then you feel you’re letting that team down, but you just want to win. One of these teams’ season comes to an end tonight.
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Referee Wes McCauley initially waved off the goal that bounced past Hellebuyck for high-sticking, but it was determined after video review that Arvidsson’s stick was below the crossbar on the tip. Dating back to Game 4, Jets fans haven’t seen a home goal in nearly five and a half periods of play.
Tyler Myers was behind the goal line when he threw a seemingly harmless puck at Pekka Rinne’s crease, but it clicked off the Finn’s blade, sneaking in short side and sucking the energy out of a building that had gotten all riled up by a singing Sheryl Crow, a towel-waving Eddie George and a couple flying catfish. He also got a puck past Predators backup Juuse Saros with the extra man in the third, once again capitalizing on a rebound opportunity. With that in mind, bettors can expect Filip Forsberg to lead the Preds to another victory and ultimately to the Western Conference championships. Doing so, however, is going to require Winnipeg to play a more straightforward game, one that’s more about doing what’s effective than it is making it look pretty.
Compared that with his regular season stats and there is quite a difference. “They could’ve gone either way”. Winnipeg’s 23-23 SU as an away team this season. The Preds have been the best team in the league all year, while the Jets have been the best team in the league down the stretch of the regular season. On the other hand, its penalty kill unit is ranked ninth overall. Defensively, the Jets are yielding 2.5 goals and 81.9 penalty kill per game.
There have been 170 previous Game 7s in Stanley Cup playoff history. Its roster has a combined 45 games of Game 7 experience, as opposed to Winnipeg’s 12. They came out strong and poured shots on Jets netminder Connor Hellebuyck and couldn’t seem to put one past the Vezina finalist. Hellebuyck has 51 wins, 27 losses, and 10 OT losses to his credit. Jets coach Paul Maurice now is 3-0 all-time in Game 7s all on the road. The road team has also won six of the last 11 games sevens, so blindly backing the home team in these type of games isn’t going to work like it does in the National Basketball Association. Emotional control is the first key to tonight’s game. “Even the games where the score doesn’t really show it, they’re all tight games”. If their defense is like Game Three and Five, then the Predators will be hitting the golf course earlier than they wanted to.
However, if Rinne were to stand on his head like he did in Game 6 then it’d go a long way to redeeming his play after a shaky two rounds of the postseason. He has a 3-3 record, 2.67 goals against average and a.921 save percentage.
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It was the Ducks shedding a Game 7 jinx on Nick Ritchie’s game victor at the Honda Center.
