The Stanley Cup Playoffs continue on Sunday with three matchups. The New Jersey Devils go to the Carolina Hurricanes, the Toronto Maple Leafs host the Ottawa Senators in an all-Canada battle and the Minnesota Wild play at the Vegas Golden Knights. Out of these six teams, the Hurricanes have the best odds to win the Cup, sitting third at +800, and the Knights are tied for fourth with the Dallas Stars at +850. The rest of the teams have odds of 10-to-1 or longer, but there is no clear favorite; the Avalanche lead the board at just +700.
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New Jersey Devils at Carolina Hurricanes
Series odds: Hurricanes -300, Devils +240
The Canes are heavy favorites against the Devils, primarily because of New Jersey’s injury concerns. The Devils won’t have Jack Hughes or Jonas Siegenthaler, which gives Carolina (which hasn’t lost in the first round since 2020) an even larger advantage. Losing Hughes means the Devils have a hole they can’t plug, even with Jesper Bratt’s 21 goals and career-best 88 points.
While the Hurricanes are a great five-on-five team, they and the Devils struggle to convert on their chances in those scenarios. Carolina said goodbye to Mikko Rantanen and hello to Logan Stankoven, who has 1.18 expected goals per 60 with his new team. But Seth Jarvis is still one of the Canes’ best players, with an incredible defensive rating at forward, and he’s a good fit with Sebastian Aho and Jackson Blake on the top line.
The Canes’ second-line? Yeah, still good. Jaccob Slavin leads the defense, and top prospect Russian defenseman Alexander Nikishin has joined the team and could help the Canes make a deeper run. They need him because their goaltending is far from superior, which would give the Devils an advantage if their goaltending were significantly better. It isn’t.
Dougie Hamilton could return and help the offense on the back end, and New Jersey had a top-10 defense during the regular season. But the Devils lost four out of its last five games, with the only win against the Bruins in overtime. Boston handled the Devils just a week earlier, scoring seven (seven!) goals in a lopsided 7-2 win. Realistically, there’s a reason the Devils are a big underdog, which is a shame because Hughes and Siegenthaler would certainly give this team a better chance.
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Ottawa Senators at Toronto Maple Leafs
Series odds: Maple Leafs -200, Senators +165
The two Ontario teams meet in the playoffs for the first time since 2004, when the Leafs won in seven games. Overall, Toronto has a 16-8 record against Ottawa in the postseason. The Leafs have won all four series, although the last two went to seven games in 2002 and 2004. Having won their division, the Leafs are favored against the wild-card squad for good reason and have a 73 percent chance of winning, according to Dom Luszczyszyn’s projection model.
Toronto’s right-wingers, William Nylander and Mitch Marner, have had complete seasons. Nylander was second in the league with 45 goals, while Marner had 102 points (fifth in the NHL). Auston Matthews finished with the seventh-best net rating per 82. John Tavares had 38 goals and 36 assists during the regular season.
In the goal, Anthony Stolarz is third in the league with a 2.14 goals against average and Chris Tanev has tremendously helped Toronto’s defense. However, the team lacks depth which could be costly during the playoffs. The Leafs have lost in the qualifying round or first round in seven of the eight past years. Also, the Senators won all three meetings this season.
Ottawa can win this, but the Sens have a similar offensive build to the Leafs and lack depth after the top four. And, the Sens’ top four is not as talented as Toronto’s. Brady Tkachuk typically shows out for the playoffs, and he’ll have to for Ottawa to stand a chance. Jake Sanderson will be the best defensive player on the ice and gives the Sens an advantage there. Artem Zub helps shore up the defense that will have to hold its ground for the Senators to take the first game and the series.
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Minnesota Wild at Vegas Golden Knights
Series odds: Golden Knights -250, Wild +200
Minnesota is the underdog against the Knights, but Wild star center Kirill Kaprizov is back from injury and can lead his team to a win. He was the Hart Trophy favorite before getting injured and is the only true separator for Minnesota. If he falters, the Wild likely lose, which isn’t unusual in the playoffs, as they haven’t advanced to the second round in 10 years. They sometimes play horizontally, and the talented Mats Zuccarello may not play on the same line as Kaprizov because of it, despite their chemistry.
The Knights won the Stanley Cup in 2023, and Jack Eichel made a name for himself during that run. This season, the Knights finished with the third-most points in the NHL and were 29-9-3 at home, where they’ll be in this one. Eichel is great in transition and gives his teammates chances to score with tremendous passing. He’ll play alongside a healthy Mark Stone and Ivan Barbashev on the top line. The Knights also have depth. Brandon Saad and Tomáš Hertl on the second line generate a 66 percent expected goal rate in their minutes.
Both teams have strong defenses and don’t give up much in transition, which means this could be a slow, wait-and-see game to see who makes the first mistake.
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(Photo of Logan Stankoven: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
