Here are The Game Day’s Hurricanes vs Predators prediction and bets for the 2021 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, including our Carolina-Nashville Round 1 series preview.
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Carolina Hurricanes vs Nashville Predators Prediction: 2021 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 1 Bet Picks Preview
Carolina Hurricanes Season Recap
The Carolina Hurricanes took the league by storm this season, notching 80 points in the Central Division and finishing with a 36-12 record with 8 overtime losses. This team is amongst the best in the league and they took the one-seed in one of the strongest divisions in the NHL. The Carolina Hurricanes are for real.
Star forward Sebastian Aho led the charge for Carolina offensively, notching team-high 24 goals and 33 assists. The Hurricanes have a very balanced offensive attack, witnessing four others outside of Aho accrue 40 points or more, including center Vincent Trocheck and right wing Andrei Svechnikov.
The Hurricanes wound up having split time between their two excellent goalies of Alex Nedeljkovic and James Reimer this season. Nedeljkovic wound up with an absurd 1.90 goals allowed per game with James Reimer put up an excellent .906 save percentage.
Nashville Predators Season Recap
The Nashville Predators, while not being a lowly team per se, are one of the lower-tier teams in the Stanley Cup Playoffs heading in. Nashville wound up with just 64 points in the standings, making them the fourth-worst team heading into the playoffs out of the 16-team field.
The Predators are a team that pride themselves defensively behind superstar goalie Pekka Rinne. In what will likely be Rinne’s final curtain call in Nashville, you would think he would do his best to show out. The offensive attack of the Predators is nothing to scoff at with centers Filip Forsberg, Calle Jarnkrok, and Mikael Granlund pulling their weight this season.
Carolina Hurricanes vs Nashville Predators Matchup
This is a matchup that could be a close one relative to most one-versus-four seed matchups considering the impact Pekka Rinne figures to have on this series. The Hurricanes are strong offensively — much stronger than the Predators — but if Nashville can get any ounce of goal support for Rinne, they could claw their way into this series.
The Hurricanes had a massive +43 goal differential in the regular season in comparison to the +2 of the Predators. One thing to note, though, is that the Predators’ final regular-season game came against these same Carolina Hurricanes, when they shut out Carolina by a score of 5-0. This could be a lot closer than most expect.
Carolina Hurricanes vs Nashville Predators Prediction & Bet Pick
Hurricanes vs Predators Series Prediction
Carolina Hurricanes in 5 games
Hurricanes vs Predators Bet Pick
Carolina Hurricanes to win series 4-1 (+350) at BetMGM
Carolina Hurricanes to win series 4-2 (+350) at BetMGM
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Hurricanes vs Predators Bet Pick Analysis
The Carolina Hurricanes’ offensive attack will be too much for the Predators to handle and while this series could go longer, I see it ending in no more than six games. Pekka Rinne can only do so much to balance the comparative lack of offense on Nashville’s side of things. The Hurricanes’ series-winning price is currently at -250, and that’s too much to pay. Balance it out with some plus-odds betting on exact series prices.
