Posted at 10:00 AM EST. Odds subject to change.

Pinnacle  -½ +113 BET365   -½ +120 Sportsinteraction   -½ +115 888Sport  -½ +120

Vancouver -½ +120 over Nashville

10:07 PM EST. Regulation only. The Predators were all but written off at the All-Star break, but post-Valentine’s Day, there was not a hotter team in the NHL, as Nashville would string together an 18-game point streak that saw them go 16-0-2 and vault right into the mix of the Western Conference playoffs. While that run was incredible, the Preds did come back down to earth over the final three weeks of the season, where they went 4-5-1 over their last 10 games. However, the Canucks struggled even more, which is one of the reasons Vancouver is not getting the respect that a division winner usually does.

If you listen to the talking heads, you would think the Canucks were a flaming dumpster fire to close out the season, but that final month was not as bad as it's made out to seem, with Vancouver posting a 12-6-2 record from March 13. It must be noted the Canucks were without starting goaltender Thatcher Demko, but he is now healthy after not being rushed back, and it’s not insignificant the Canucks were still able to clinch the Pacific Division crown without their star netminder for such a significant period of time.

Another reason the Canucks are not being given the respect they deserve in this spot is that they have been so awful for so long, as this is the first playoff game they will host in Vancouver since 2015. That Pacific Division crown was also the first one the Canucks have won since 2013. That’s a long time to be bad in a market that has the attention span and the memory retention of a hamster.

With such a long playoff drought, the energy at Rogers Arena is going to be palpable, and it’s a potential obstacle that the Preds are going to have to overcome, as the Canucks’ Tyler Myers describes it best: "A bunch of us have been waiting for this for a long time, being in Vancouver. Fans have been waiting a long time to have playoffs back, and when we step out on the ice for the first time in front of the fans, step into that atmosphere that we know is coming, it's just exciting for a player."

The Preds have admitted that just making the playoffs was a huge goal for them, and if they have anything left in the tank after that late-season run, so be it, but the Canucks are the superior side here and it’s not close. Vancouver is elite and it should be priced like the Rangers or Hurricanes, or hell, even the Panthers, but they are not. That is a market inefficiency we hope to try to exploit. Underlay.

Sherwood

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