NHL Betting: Western Conference Playoff Series Previews

The theme of the Western Conference playoffs is all about one thing: who can beat the Vancouver Canucks? Find out who we are predicting to advance to the second round of this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The NHL matchups for this years Stanley Cup playoffs have just been scheduled, and it looks as if things in the west could get complicated. Lets take a look at the first round matchups for the Western Conference and decide which pairings hold the best NHL betting values, and which series might be a lot tighter than the NHL odds makers would have you believe.

Here is a quick look at each of the matchups and our NHL picks for the series result.

Check out our picks for the NHL Eastern Conference

Western Conference Breakdown

The St. Louis Blues and Detroit Red Wings faded down the home stretch, the Pacific Division crew of the Phoenix Coyotes, San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings all to be pretenders, the Chicago Blackhawks still have serious issues in net and the Nashville Predators appear to still be a brick short of a load. 

So who can stop the Vancouver Canucks from returning to the Stanley Cup finals? The answer to that question is probably just Vancouver themselves. There’s always the possibility that Roberto Luongo implodes again in the playoffs but they seem to be more prepared with Cory Schneider ready to go. 

If the Canucks can be dropped, than the West is wide open. Otherwise, it’s theirs to lose. Here’s a look at the first-round playoff matchups along with predictions: 

No. 8 Los Angeles Kings vs. No. 1 Vancouver Canucks 

For the Los Angeles Kings, this is a nightmare matchup. They’ve underachieved all season long and after back-to-back losses to the San Jose Sharks at the end of the season, they went from a third seed with home-ice advantage to an eight-seed facing the best team in the NHL. 

The Canucks don’t struggle against teams like this. The Kings are low scoring and their lack of offense is going to limit their advantage in net. That basically means that since they don’t score enough, they’re going to make Roberto Luongo look pretty good. He’s allowed just 15 goals in the last eight meetings and simply put, the Kings won’t win this series scoring one or two goals per game. 

Vancouver just has way more depth, experience and talent than the Kings. Jonathan Quick may be a Vezina Trophy candidate, but we’ve seen what Vancouver does to low scoring, goaltender/defense-oriented teams in the playoffs (see: Nashville last postseason). 

The Canucks enter the playoffs winners in eight of their last nine games. The Kings have lost three of four and five of eight to blow their home-ice advantage. Good luck to them.

Pick: Canucks in Six 

No. 7 San Jose Sharks vs. No. 2 St. Louis Blues

The San Jose Sharks did themselves a big favor by winning their season-ending home-and-home series with the Los Angeles Kings. It means that they know face an inexperienced, slumping, surprise team in the St. Louis Blues instead of the red hot Canucks.

The Blues did get a win in their final game of the year but they still lost four of five and eight of 12 heading into the playoffs.

San Jose is a question mark because of how much they’ve underachieved this year but given their huge edge in experience, they’re capable of springing the upset.

What will probably happen, though, is that the Blues will protect their home ice quite well in this series and beat the Sharks like a drum just as they did in the regular season. The Blues swept the season series, outscoring the Sharks 11-3 in the four contests.

It’s hard to overlook that the Sharks were just 17-24 on the road this season while the Blues were 30-6-5 at home, which is the best home record in the NHL.

Pick: Blues in Six

No. 6 Chicago Blackhawks vs. No. 3 Phoenix Coyotes

The Chicago Blackhawks have a great shot to spring a first-round “upset” because the team they’re facing – the Phoenix Coyotes – actually finished with four points less than their 101. The bigger win for the Blackhawks is that their first-round opponent doesn’t play particularly well at home, which means the Blackhawks could steal home-ice advantage rather easily.

The Coyotes 22 home wins ties them for the fewest of any team in the Western Conference. The Blackhawks were just 18-23 on the road this year but Phoenix can’t be expected to exactly dominate this series when they’re at home, so the scales do tip in Chicago’s favor.

The key to this series is Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith. He’s playing out of his mind right now, winning five straight heading into the playoffs. That includes three shutouts and he’s actually allowed just two goals in those five contests. The Blackhawks are significantly worse in net but significantly better in virtually every other realm, so the Coyotes will need Smith to be the difference.

Smith allowed just four goals in three matchups with the Blackhawks this season and has given up just six in five career outings. He’s 4-1-0 against them with a 1.32 GAA and .956 save percentage. 

Even so, the Blackhawks have the edge in experience and played pretty well down the stretch, going 11-2-4 to end the season. Take the Blackhawks to outlast the Coyotes in this one.

Pick: Blackhawks in Six

No. 5 Detroit Red Wings vs. No. 4 Nashville Predators

I would like to have faith in the Detroit Red Wings but at this point, I wonder if they even have faith in themselves.  They’ve been a sinking ship since the end of February and they went from being a Presidents’ Trophy contender to a team that barely hung on to the fifth seed in the West.

Detroit was 41-17-2 on February 19^th but won only seven of their final 22 games. They’ve won just four of their last 14 games.

The bigger red flag is that they’re not even playing well at home. The Red Wings, who were once untouchable at Joe Louis Arena this season, have lost three of their last four at home.

Nashville got out of the first round of the playoffs last year and nobody can say they’re short on experience now. They’ve still got plenty to prove and they better not assume anything in this series, but the fact that they finished with the fifth-most points in the NHL indicates that they’re for real. They won six of eight to end the year, which includes a 4-1 win in Detroit, so they’re not going to be intimidated.

Don’t put anything past Detroit but with them in decline and Nashville playing well, the Predators get the slight lean here.