Back the Rangers to sweep the Hurricanes in Game 4 of second round Stanley Cup playoff series

The Carolina Hurricanes were the Stanley Cup Favorites going into Round 2. Three games later, the Canes are down 3-0 in their best-of-7 series against the New York Rangers.

The Rangers have proven to be a matchup nightmare for the Hurricanes, but the betting market is still giving Carolina plenty of credit ahead of Game 4. The Canes are a -160 favorite for Saturday night’s contest at the time of writing.

The question coming into this series was whether or not the Rangers could keep up with the Hurricanes at 5-on-5. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that the Blueshirts would have the edge on special teams and in goal, but nobody was certain that it would be enough to make up for the gap at even strength.

It turns out that the Rangers were not only up to par at even strength, but their advantages in the other areas of the game are more pronounced than anyone expected. Carolina has gone 0-for-15 on the power play in this series and have given up a short-handed goal, as well.

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Those kinds of splits will always doom a team in a best-of-7, but Carolina’s 5-on-5 play has not been all that strong either. Yes, the Hurricanes are outshooting the Rangers by a wide margin, but the two teams have essentially created the same amount of quality scoring chances and the expected goals are close to 50/50.

The Rangers have proven their formula works against Carolina, so I don’t understand why this number hasn’t moved more towards the Blueshirts over the course of this series. Normally, we see bookmakers attach a premium to the team up 3-0, but the opposite seems to be happening here.

Anything better than +130 on the Rangers is in range for a bet on Saturday night.

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