Stanley Cup Betting fans sure are getting their money\u2019s worth from the free NHL picks we give out here at Capperspicks.com. There are now 16 teams competing for Lord Stanley\u2019s Cup. Stick with us for the entire 2015 NHL Stanley cup playoff run.<\/p>\n
\nNHL Playoffs Betting<\/h3>\n
Vancouver vs Calgary<\/strong>
\nSeries Odds: Flames +130 \/ Canucks -150<\/strong>
\nToday’s NHL Lines<\/a><\/strong>
\nToday’s NHL Matchups<\/a><\/strong>
\nNHL Standings<\/a><\/strong>
\n***2015 NHL BONUSES***<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nSeries Schedule<\/h3>\n
G1 Wed., April 15 Calgary @ Vancouver, 10 p.m. ET CBC<\/strong>
\n G2 Fri., April 17 Calgary @ Vancouver, 10 p.m. ET CBC<\/strong>
\n G3 Sun., April 19 Vancouver @ Calgary, 10 p.m. ET CBC<\/strong>
\n G4 Tues., April 21 Vancouver @ Calgary, 10 p.m. ET CBC<\/strong>
\n G5* Thurs., April 23 Calgary @ Vancouver, TBD CBC<\/strong>
\n G6* Sat., April 25 Vancouver @ Calgary, TBD CBC<\/strong>
\n G7* Mon., April 27 Calgary @ Vancouver, TBD CBC<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe Vancouver Canucks and the Calgary Flames return to the playoffs in what is one of the more intriguing and statistically close matchups in the Western Conference. Both teams have exceeded expectations all season long and now one will actually move on to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Both teams won twice in four meetings this season with Calgary gaining the extra point thanks to getting to Overtime in one of the games.<\/p>\n
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So who wins this interesting matchups of the Reclamation Projects? Let\u2019s take a look.<\/p>\n
Offense<\/h3>\n
Both the Canucks and Flames had good offenses this past season \u2013 the Flames ranked fifth in the NHL with 2.91 goals per game while the Canucks were eighth scoring 2.84 goals per game. The depth advantage definitely belongs to the Canucks \u2013 they had 11 forwards score at least 10 goals on the season \u2013 Radim Vrbata led the way with 30 goals and the Sedins both finished inside the top 20 of NHL scorers this year.<\/p>\n
That said the Flames have arguably the best line in hockey the last eight weeks \u2013 Jiri Hudler, Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau were virtually unstoppable at times. The line scored 86 of Calgary’s 237 goals and had 202 points. Calgary has some decent role players that\u2019s for sure but outside of one scoring line, they are a tad suspect.<\/p>\n
Defense<\/h3>\n
Defensively the edge goes to Vancouver as well especially since the injury to Mark Giordano for the Flames. Vancouver ended the season a surprising 18th in the league in goals against \u2013 2.65 per games but allowed two or fewer goals in 10 of the last 20 Regular <\/p>\n
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Season games. Alexander Edler, Christopher Tanev, Dan Hamhuis, Yannick Webber and Luca Sbisa with Kevin Bieksa are a solid top 6 – they are healthy and much more experienced in playoff action than the defensive corp. of the Flames.<\/p>\n
Calgary will rely heavily on Kris Russell and Dennis Wideman – they are an OK top pair that is expected to absorb a lot of minutes against Vancouver. Outside of those two the Flames are a tad thin – Deryk Engelland, TJ Brodie, David Schlemko and Raphael Diaz are largely unheralded guys that like most of the Flames lineup overachieved this year.<\/p>\n
Goaltending<\/h3>\n
Between the pipes is where it gets interesting especially for the both teams. Will the Canucks trust the rusty veteran Ryan Miller or go with the guy that got them to this point down the stretch, Eddie Lack? Calgary also has some question marks in between the pipes \u2013 will it be Jonas Hiller or will injured Karri Ramo return to action. <\/p>\n
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Goaltending is often the difference between winning and losing in the playoffs \u2013 the keeper that gets hot at the right time may lead his team to the next round. That said \u2013 your guess is as good as mine as to who that will be.<\/p>\n
Special Teams<\/h3>\n
Perhaps the biggest advantage that Vancouver will have heading into this series is on special teams. Vancouver finished the regular season with the 8th best power play in the league \u2013 Calgary was 13th. The Canucks had the 2nd best penalty kill in the NHL during the regular season \u2013 Calgary was 22nd. The Canucks haven\u2019t allowed a power play goal in April \u2013 impressive indeed.<\/p>\n
Prediction:<\/h3>\n
Depth and special teams will be the difference in this one. The Canucks have the edge in both \u2013 any one of four lines for Vancouver can and will do damage. The same can\u2019t be said for the Flames. Add in the fact that the Flames lack experience in the postseason and Vancouver looks like the victor in this series.<\/p>\n
My guess is that it goes to seven games but all of the X-factors take the Canucks -150 to an improbable Round 2.<\/p>\n
CappersPicks.com NHL Betting<\/a> and gambling site provides the BEST Online hockey predictions<\/a> for you to bet on for the NHL hockey season! Stick with us all season long!<\/b><\/p>\n
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NHL Predictions: Calgary vs Vancouver Futures Stanley Cup Betting fans sure are getting their money\u2019s worth from the free NHL picks we give out here at Capperspicks.com. There are now 16 teams competing for Lord Stanley\u2019s Cup. Stick with us for the entire 2015 NHL Stanley cup playoff run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":73286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95801"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95898,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95801\/revisions\/95898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}