The 25-16-3-4 San Jose Sharks will head up north of the border to open the Stanley Cup Playoffs as they take on the 26-15-1-6 Vancouver Canucks in a Game 1 of a best of seven series in a pro hockey game on Wednesday night. Game one will face off from Vancouver at 10:30PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by the NBC Sports Network.
The NHL playoff odds from Game 1 have the home team Vancouver Canucks favored by -135 odds with the take back on the underdog San Jose Sharks at +125 odds. The goal over under line is set at 5 goals.
San Jose is 8-14-2-0 playing on the road this season. They finished two points ahead of the ninth seeded Columbus Blue Jackets and tightly contested Western conference playoff race. The team fails to capture home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs off three regulation losses in their past four games to close the regular season. San Jose is just 24th and seven last in the NHL in scoring offense as they average just 2.4 goals a game. They get a lot of shots at 31.8 which is fourth best but just can’t seem to get many post opposing goaltenders.
The Canucks finished off the regular season at 15-6-0-3 on home ice. The Canucks finished in first place in the Northwest Standings just two points ahead of the sixth seeded San Jose Sharks. Vancouver loses four of six to close the season with one win and loss by shootout in that span. They rank in the bottom half of the NHL in all four key categories which are goals and shots per game, power play conversion and face off percentage.
