Carolina Hurricanes (10-3) vs Florida Panthers (9-2-2)
Game Info: Wednesday, February 17, 2021 at 5:00 pm (PNC Arena)
Betting Odds: Carolina Hurricanes -155 / Florida Panthers +135 --- Over/Under: 6.5 Click Here for the Latest Odds
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The Florida Panthers and the Carolina Hurricanes meet in NHL action from the PNC Arena on Wednesday evening.
The Florida Panthers will look to build on a 6-4 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in their last matchup. Jonathan Huberdeau leads the Panthers in scoring with 17 points coming on a team-high 12 assists while 5 goals while Aleksander Barkov has 14 points with 5 goals and 9 assists. Patric Hornqvist and Carter Verhaeghe have 12 points apiece with Hornqvist splitting 6 goals and 6 helpers and Veghaeghe logging 7 goals and 5 assists. Aaron Ekblad has 9 points with 4 goals an5 assists and Keith Yandle has 2 goals and 6 assists to make up his 8 points for the Panthers this season. Sergei Bobrovsky has 5 wins in 7 appearances for the Panthers this season with a 3.33 GAA while Chris Driedger has 4 wins in 6 starts for the Panthers, sporting a 2.31 GAA this season.
The Carolina Hurricanes will look to add to a 7-3 win over Columbus in their last matchup. Jordan Staal leads the hurricanes in scoring with 14 points coming on 6 goals and 8 assists while Vincent Trocheck, Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho all have 13 points with 6 goals and 7 assists coming from both Trocheck and Svechnikov while Aho has 4 goals and 9 assists. Dougie Hamilton and Brock McGinn also have 9 points apiece with Hamilton logging 8 assists while McGinn has 7 goals and Nino Niederreiter has 8 points with 7 goals this season. James Reimer continues to start in goal for the Hurricanes, going 7-1 with a 3.10 GAA in his 8 starts this year.
Florida is 9-4 in their last 13 games overall and 4-13 in their last 17 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 6-0-1 in their last 7 games as an underdog. Carolina is 4-0 in their last 4 home games and 6-2 in their last 8 games following a win while the over is 7-1 in their last 8 games overall. Florida is 1-5 in the last 6 meetings between these two teams and 11-33-2 in the last 46 meetings between these two teams in Carolina.
I have gone back and forth on this game as I just think that you have two sides that have had a lot of success in their current spots, but the fact is that the Hurricanes have just been the more reliable offense up to this point in the year and while the Panthers did well against the Lightning, we saw their true colors in the loss to the Bolts and I’m concerned about the defense across the board and I just think this time it comes back to haunt them. I’ll side with Carolina in regulation to get the job done in this spot.
Chris’s Pick Carolina in Regulation -110
AUTHOR: Chris Ruffolo
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