NHL Betting Guide: Tuesday 5/2/23

The NHL's conference semifinals start on Tuesday, and that begins with one matchup in each conference. Both feature the historic eight seeds that prevailed in the first round.

Where is the best value spot of the day?

Note: Lines are subject to change throughout the day after this article is published. Header links are to numberFire's betting model for each game. All NHL betting odds and totals come from FanDuel Sportsbook.

Seattle Kraken at Dallas Stars

Stars -1.5 (+142)

There is one team incredibly lucky to be playing tonight, and it's not Florida.

It's the Seattle Kraken, who have run quite hot compared to their pace of expected goals (xGF) in the regular season all year, and they followed suit in their franchise's first playoff series. Colorado outpaced Seattle in xGF per 60 minutes (3.29-2.65) in their series, yet they won in seven games.

That was due in large part to Philipp Grubauer, who was fourth in the first round in goals saved above expectation (3.76 GSAx). Despite an opposite trend in the regular season, he outplayed Alexandar Georgiev (0.57 GSAx) of the Avs.

Here's the problem -- Dallas' Jake Oettinger (4.43 GSAx) was even better than Grubauer in the first round; he's coming off a hard-fought series with a better Minnesota offense. Georgiev couldn't match Grubauer on certain nights, but on paper, we'd have to favor Oetter as a starting point.

If that holds, the Kraken should get crushed in this series. Coming off the emotional Game 7 win on Sunday, I wouldn't be surprised if that started with a rout here.