Top NHL Playoffs Betting Odds & Picks for Friday, May 20 (2022)

Game 2 is set to get underway in the Second Round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs for two different matchups on Friday, with some great betting angles to attack. Below, I give out my two best bets for Friday’s games.

These plays are one unit each, or 1% of your betting bankroll. Follow me on Twitter to get all of my plays on days without full write-ups.

Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook.

Bet $10, Win $200 if Either Team Scores a Goal >>

New York Rangers (+145) @ Carolina Hurricanes (-165), o/u 5.5 (-105/-115)

Following Wednesday’s 2-1 overtime win over the New York Rangers, the Carolina Hurricanes will look to grab a 2-0 series lead before traveling to New York for Game 3. With Wednesday’s win, the Hurricanes are now 5-0 at home this postseason.

Three of those five wins have come by at least a two-goal margin, a trend I think will continue in Game 2. Despite the incredibly slow start from Carolina in Game 1, they returned to their usual selves as they dominated the second half of the game.

After running 1000 game simulations, MoneyPuck.com found that the Carolina Hurricanes would have won that game 54.6% of the time. Carrying that momentum from their stellar play in the third period and overtime, I believe Carolina will start Game 2 much stronger.

Carolina goaltender Antti Raanta continued his excellent play in Game 1 as he stopped 27 of 28 shots for a 0.964 save percentage, generating +1.77 goals saved above expected (GSAx). Both of these figures were better than his counterpart across the ice in Game 1, Igor Shesterkin.

Carolina’s goaltender performed better in Game 1, but their offense was also the better group as they generated three expected goals for (xGF) versus New York’s 2.77 xGF. This postseason, the Rangers are now 1-3 on the road, with two of those three losses coming by at least a two-goal margin.

While Game 1 indicated that this series should be a very tight one and will go deep, there is too much value in Carolina’s puck line to pass up on home ice. I thought Carolina played as poorly as they have all postseason in the first 30 minutes of Game 1, yet they still won despite the horribly slow start.

Best Bet: Carolina Hurricanes -1.5 (+155)

Edmonton Oilers (+155) @ Calgary Flames (-180), o/u 6.5 (-115/-105)

Following one of the craziest playoff games I have ever seen, the Calgary Flames enter Game 2 with a 1-0 series lead following their 9-6 win on Wednesday. While I struggle to find words to encapsulate how Game 1 went, I will just summarize It with one: chaotic.

You may have heard many Calgary players and coach Darryl Sutter discuss how, despite their three-goal win, it was one of the worst games they played all season. While that is a bit dramatic, it does illuminate how important the locker room feels it is to keep these games at a slower pace.

While Calgary certainly does not want the series to crawl like the Dallas series was in the First Round, they definitely do not want to get in a track meet with McDavid all night long. With that being said, I think Calgary makes the adjustment and utilizes home-ice advantage to return the game to their pace of play.

The great news for Calgary is that despite them not loving how they played, the Flames still absolutely dominated the Oilers in the key metrics. After 1000 game simulations, MoneyPuck.com found that the Flames would have won that game 80% of the time.

That is an astonishingly large discrepancy considering the game was tied two minutes into the third period. In Game 1, the Flames generated 5.24 xGF while the Oilers produced just 2.21 xGF.

This deficit tells two stories. First of all, Calgary dominated the game offensively with the high-danger chances they produced.

Secondly, Jacob Markstrom was awful in net for Calgary. It does not take any keen eye or advanced metrics to see that, as he allowed six goals on just 28 shots.

Despite his poor performance, I like Calgary to win and cover in Game 2 again. It is far more likely that Markstrom positively regresses to his mean than it is for the Flames’ offense, one of the league’s best, to regress against an Oilers defense that is arguably the worst remaining in the playoffs.

Best Bet: Calgary Flames -1.5 (+130)

Best of luck!

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Tony Sartori is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Tony, check out his archive and follow him @tony_sartori.