by Chuck Sommers
Saturday, Jan 14, 2023
Time: 7 p.m. ET
Venue: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise, FL
Where to watch: BSFL, SNP, CITY
Opening Odds at USA Sportsbooks
DraftKings: Panthers -210, Canucks +180
FanDuel: Panthers -215, Canucks +176
BetMGM: Panthers -210, Canucks +170
Caesars: Panthers -208, Canucks +175
Season record
Canucks: 17-21-3
Panthers: 19-20-4
We’ve hit the halfway mark in the NHL season. Yes, you read that right. We’re really hit that halfway mark that quickly. If you blinked, you probably missed a lot of good things happen in the hockey world. And with football about to be out of the way, look for our champion handicappers to get back on the rink. Oskeim Sports is on a 13-5-0 run in the NHL over the last 30 days, as is Will Rogers. Sean Murphy has also cashed in with a 16-10-0 run in the last month. Make sure you’re following our champion handicappers at bigal.com to get on this winning action!
Canucks - Panthers preview, prediction and analysis
Recent results
Canucks: lost 5-4 at Lightning
Panthers: lost 4-2 at Golden Knights
The Florida Panthers will be trying to bounce back after a tough loss in Las Vegas when they host the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.
The Panthers are coming off a 4-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday in which they held a 2-1 lead, before Vegas rallied for three unanswered in the third period despite the Golden Knights playing 50 minutes without Mark Stone. Sam Reinhart and Nick Cousins scored the lone goals for Florida, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves in an effort that he nearly completed all by himself.
Alas, the Panthers — last year’s Presidents’ Trophy winners as the top team in the NHL — are 4-6-0 in their last 10 and find themselves on the outside looking in from the playoff picture. Florida is six points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins having played two more games for the second wild card spot.
"After the first 10 minutes of that game, we were good straight through. That's it," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. "We had the 5-on-3 and don't score, that will be the turning point. We got to finish. When you're on the road, you've got to finish on your 5-on-3s when you get a chance. You've got to finish on your chances."
The Panthers have been struggling to find a groove with their defense and goaltending. Spencer Knight has been injured as of late and now the onus on staying afloat rests on Bobrovsky, but he hasn’t been any better in his last number of starts.
But if there’s a team you can almost assuredly get a win from because of how dysfunctional things are getting, it’s the Canucks. Also losers of six of 10, the Canucks are a few games away from going full firesale mode before the trade deadline.
The Canucks are looking to end a three-game losing streak after losing 5-4 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday. The Canucks have given up 17 goals during this quick slide they’re on and are no where close in getting some sort of help. They trailed 5-2 and scored twice more to make it exciting, but the Canucks ran out of gas.
Quinn Hughes tallied a goal and two assists, and Elias Pettersson had a goal and an assist himself, but they put Collin Delia in trouble early with not enough time to get on track.
"[Defending] is something we've been dealing with all year," Hughes said. "That's no way to win in this league. Putting up four in Winnipeg, whatever it was last game (5-4 loss at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday) and four tonight. We should be getting points in those games. We have to figure out the other side of the ice."
Prediction
I wouldn’t trust the Canucks any time soon. The line is going to be large in this one and to expect Vancouver to figure things out against a Florida team that is more talented and understand the severity of the situation more, things are going to get better before they get worse for the Panthers. Panthers 4, Canucks 2
Betting trends
Panthers are 28-5 at home after allowing 3 goals or more in 2 straight games the past 3 seasons.
Panthers are 34-7 after allowing 3 goals or more in 3 straight games the last 3 seasons.
Canucks are 4-14 against non-conference opponents this season.
Projected lines
Canucks:
Andrei Kuzmenko -- Elias Pettersson -- Brock Boeser
Conor Garland -- Bo Horvat -- J.T. Miller
Dakota Joshua -- Curtis Lazar -- William Lockwood
Ilya Mikheyev -- Lane Pederson -- Jack Studnicka
Quinn Hughes -- Luke Schenn
Travis Dermott -- Tyler Myers
Riley Stillman -- Ethan Bear
Collin Delia
Panthers:
Anton Lundell -- Aleksander Barkov -- Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe -- Sam Bennett -- Matthew Tkachuk
Nick Cousins -- Eric Staal -- Eetu Luostarinen
Ryan Lomberg -- Colin White -- Givani Smith
Gustav Forsling -- Aaron Ekblad
Marc Staal -- Brandon Montour
Josh Mahura -- Radko Gudas
Sergei Bobrovsky
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Chuck Sommers
About the Author:
Chuck Sommers has camped outside of sportsbooks since he can remember, learning the tricks and nuances of the trade. He still has nightmares of betting $5,000 on the Raiders in the Tuck Rule game but has since turned that to 25 years of veteran handicapping greatness. You can find him mostly in the shadows at the Red Rock or Aliante casinos wondering if the over is cashing on any given Sunday.
