Bet on the Oilers and Panthers to play low-scoring first period in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final

Against the odds, the Edmonton Oilers have clawed their way back into the Stanley Cup Final.

Led by a legacy-raising performance from Connor McDavid, the Oilers have outscored the Florida Panthers, 13-4, in the last two tilts and now have the chance to send this series to a Game 7 after trailing 3-0.

The betting market views Game 6 in Edmonton as a coin flip -- the Oilers are slight -118 favorites at the time of writing -- but the consensus in the greater hockey world seems to be that Edmonton has momentum on its side, especially with McDavid in all-world form.

While it’s hard to argue that there’s heaps of pressure on Florida’s shoulders after losing two on the spin, it is fair to wonder if Edmonton’s blueprint the past two games is repeatable. The Oilers took the lead on a shorthanded goal, added a couple on the power play and were gifted an ugly one by Sergei Bobrovsky.

The other side of the equation is that, after hardly putting a foot wrong this entire tournament, the Panthers have been uncharacteristically sloppy over the past two contests. You’d expect that Florida will want to put an emphasis on playing a crisp, clean game in order to give itself the best chance of avoiding going back to Sunrise for what would be a pressure-cooker of a Game 7 after blowing a 3-0 lead.

The deeper you go in a series, the more things tighten up and I expect this contest to be no different. Both of these teams will want to keep this contest under control and try to avoid making any careless errors to give their opponents an advantage. That should set up for a cagey start, which puts value on betting the first period to be scoreless, and a tight game overall, which makes backing Game 6 to go to overtime an appealing punt.

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