The Florida Panthers can seal their place in the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals on Wednesday as they host the Carolina Hurricanes holding a 3-0 lead in the series.
Bookmaker Bovada has the odds at -120 for Carolina to score the first goal in Game 4 and at -125 for Florida to open the scoring.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: May 23rd, 6:00 P.M. (EST)
The Panthers have built their success on superb defensive play and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky has probably played the best hockey of his career in the series. He has limited the Hurricanes to just three goals and nobody in NHL history has produced more saves through the first three games of a Conference Finals/Semi-finals series than Bobrovsky, who has stopped 132 of 135 shots faced.
Dating back to the last round against Toronto, Bobrovsky has recorded a run of eight consecutive games with two or fewer goals conceded. You always need an in-form goalie to win the Stanley Cup, and it certainly looks like Florida has found one in Bobrovsky.
In attack, it’s been the Matthew Tkachuk show for the Panthers. He scored an overtime game-winner in both of the first two clashes of the series and is sitting as the third-highest scorer of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs with 19 points. Only Edmonton’s Evan Bouchard (13) has registered more assists in the postseason than Tkachuk, and he’s definitely a guy the Hurricanes need to shut down to extend the series.
With Aleksander Barkov having left Game 3 with a lower-body injury and his status questionable for Wednesday, Tkachuk and his line’s play could become vital for Florida in Game 4.
Carolina was shut out in Game 3 and head coach Rod Brind’Amour will want to see a big improvement offensively Wednesday. He’s lost a couple of key pieces to injuries upfront in Andrei Svechnikov and Max Pacioretty, but both have been out for a while and this shouldn’t be an excuse for the team.
Sebastian Aho leads the group with 12 points, but everybody has chipped in offensively throughout the postseason and a big collective effort will be needed again in Game 4. A bit more luck would be helpful as well for the Hurricanes. It’s been a very tight series and things could look quite different with only a couple of puck bounces.
The 3-0 deficit looks bad on paper, but the gap in quality definitely isn’t as big between the two teams and the Hurricanes could still make it a series if the team maintains confidence in what they are trying to do and doesn’t lose belief in their ability.
