Written by Scott on Monday, July 20th, 2020
Follow @BetNHL
Another series that has the potential to be one of the best in the opening round.
This is a rematch from the 2016 playoffs which saw the Islanders win that series against the Panthers 4-2.
Who is going to win the series and how many games will it take? Below we will go over the series and give you our prediction not only on who will win the series but in how many games we think it will take.
Panthers vs Islanders Series Prediction
The Panthers played in 69 games going 35-26-8 for 78 points and finished in 4th place in the Atlantic Division. The Islanders played in 68 games and went 35-23-10 for 80 points and finished in 6th place in the Metropolitan Division.
As you can see from their records this should be a good close series and another that could go the full 5 games. They played each other 3 times during the regular season and it was the Isles winning all 3 games.
The Panthers have a good group on offense as Mike Hoffman, Evgenii Dadonov, Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov and Noel Acciari all scored 20 or more goals and Brett Connolly hit 19. So scoring goals shouldn’t be a problem for the Panthers.
On defense they are a solid group. Aaron Ekblad, Keith Yandle, Mike Matheson, Josh Brown, Mark Pysyk and Anton Stralman are their top 6. Pysyk plays forward too so Mackenzie Weegar plays when Pysyk is at forward.
In goal they have Sergei Bobrovsky who is their number 1 goalie. Bobrovsky is a streaky player who had a down year but he can take over a series with one of his hot runs
The Islanders are led at forward by Mathew Barzal, Anders Lee and Brock Nelson. They have secondary scoring too with Jordan Eberle, Josh Bailey and JG Pageau. Its a strong group but only 2 players scored more than 20 times this season. Pageau did but he was acquired at the deadline.
On defense the are led by Ryan Pulock, Nick Leddy and Devon Toews. They also have Johnny Boychuk and Andy Greene who provide the veteran presence.
In goal the Isles went with the two goalie approach. Semyon Varlamov and Thomas Greiss spilt starts for a while but Varlamov played more and had better numbers.
Yes the Isles won all 3 meetings during the season but all 3 games were close ones. I’m going to go with the better offensive team in this matchup.
Panthers in 4 games
You can bet this series currently at:
Canada: Bovada, BetOnline...
Everyone Else: 888 Sports, BetOnline..
