Tonight’s NHL playoff games could see a few series wrapped up as 2 of the three games have a team holding a 3-1 series lead. We are concentrating both our picks tonight on the matchups with the teams one win away from closing out the series.
First, we are taking a look at Washington to wrap up the series with a dominant display on home ice, and we believe they can win this game by more than two goals.
Our second pick tonight sees us head to Florida in a matchup between the Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Picks
- Capitals -1.5 (-135) at Bet365
- Panthers-Lightning Under 5.5 (-105)
*All odds from Bet365 (check our Bet365 Review)
Montreal Canadiens vs. Washington Capitals
Wednesday, April 30, 2025 – 07:00 PM EDT at Capital One Arena
Washington 11-2 in Previous 13 Home Games
The Washington Capitals come into this Game Five with an incredibly strong home record in recent weeks. With an 11-2 record overall, the Montreal Canadiens are 2-8 in their previous 10 road games and 4-11 in their previous fifteen.
Washington has dominated the series thus far with three wins in the first four games. The Capitals topped the Eastern Conference this season and were heavy pre-playoff favorites prior to the first game against Montreal.
The two games, which took place at the Capital One Arena, saw the Capitals defensively dominant, allowing only 1 and 2 goals across the first two games.
Ovechkin has had three goals and one assist thus far this series, out of a total of 14 Washington Capitals goals. Still not a bad contribution for their captain, and we believe he has plenty of room to improve should the Capitals make it deep into the playoffs.
The Pick
The sportsbooks are on the money for this NHL game, as we predicted Washington to win this game by 2 or more goals, and lo and behold, they have these odds juiced.
Admittedly, we don’t see much value in taking the Capitals at odds any less than -135 to win this game on the -1.5 PK line.
We feel the Capitals will wrap the series up tonight, and it’s very likely they can get an empty netter or two should it be required, but we do believe they can have the line beat before the end of the game.
NHL Pick: Capitals -1.5 (-135) at Bet365
Florida Panthers vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
Wednesday, April 30, 2025 – 07:30 PM EDT at Amalie Arena
Florida One Step Closer
Following the Florida Panthers’ 4-2 win last time out on home ice, they now hold a 3-1 series lead and hope to knock their state rivals out tonight with a win on the road.
The Tampa Bay Lightning might have one of the top point scorers in the league in Nikita Kucherov, but he hasn’t been able to produce much thus far, scoring four assists and zero goals in the opening four games.
Yes, four assists is a decent return, but the Lightning rely heavily on Kucherov’s goals, and he hasn’t produced thus far.
All things said, though, Kucherov can’t totally be blamed, as the Panthers have done an incredible job at limiting his shot count thus far this series, having kept him to just 5 shots in four games.
The Pick
The games thus far this series have been unpredictable with the totals, having had 8 goals in the opening game, the next three games produced 2/6/6 goals.
With this game being a win-or-go-home for Tampa Bay, we feel they will bring it tonight, but equally known they need to keep things tight because Florida has a lot of weapons when it comes to their forward line.
The sportsbooks have set the under 5.5 line to -110 NHL betting odds, but we found slightly better with Bet365 at -105, although we would happily lay as low as -115 for this game to go under 6 goals.
There is a lot on the line for both teams, and we feel a 3-1 win for either team is on the cards, whilst our OddsTrader score predictor is predicting a 3-2 win for Florida.
NHL Pick: Under 5.5 (-105) at Bet365
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*The line and/or odds referenced in this article might have changed since the content was published. For the latest information on line movements, visit OddsTrader’s free betting odds tool.
