Penguins Have Best Odds To Advance Past NHL Qualifying Round

• There's no denying that the upcoming 24-team NHL playoff structure is going to be a lot of fun to watch.

• Here's how it'll work: the top four seeds in each conference will receive a first-round bye. That means that the top squads in the Western Conference (St. Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche, Las Vegas Knights, Dallas Stars) and the top squads in the Eastern Conference (Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals, Philadelphia Flyers) will watch on as the No. 5 team in the conference plays the No. 12 team, the No. 6 team plays the No. 11 team, the No. 7 team plays the No. 10 team and the No. 8 team plays the No. 9 team in a best-of-five series.

• The location of all of these games is currently unknown, but due to current travel restrictions, it's more than likely that they'll happen in a designated location, similar to what the NBA's plan entails.

• The Pittsburgh Penguins (40-29-6) are the No. 5 seed in the East and will take on the No. 12 Montreal Canadiens (31-40-9) in the qualifying round. Per DraftKings, the Pens have -195 odds to win the five-game series while the Habs have +155 odds.

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Important Matchup Trends And Stats

• The Penguins have a +28 goal differential (224 for, 196 against), which is the second-best among Qualifying Round teams (behind the Carolina Hurricanes at +29). The Canadiens have a -9 goal differential (212 for, 221 against).

• Pittsburgh has gone 23-14-4 at home and 17-17-2 on the road this season. Montreal has gone 14-23-6 at home and 17-17-3 on the road. Pittsburgh's home ice advantage is very noticeable, whereas Montreal has played much better on the road. However, it remains to be seen if this will even matter.

• Exactly half of Pittsburgh's games have gone over the total while 51.5% of Montreal's games have stayed under the total. Therefore, it'll be very difficult to project whether the over or under is the preferred bet on a game-to-game basis in this series.

• Corsi is an advanced stat that measures shot attempt differential while at even strength play. This includes shots on goal, missed shots on goal, and blocked shot attempts towards the opposition's net minus the same shot attempts directed at the team's own net. Interestingly, the Penguins rank 4th and the Canadiens rank 5th.

• Fenwick is another advanced stat to measure shot attempt differential while playing at even strength.Like Corsi, it includes shots on goal and missed shots on goal towards the opposition’s net minus the same shot attempts directed at the team’s own net. But unlike Corsi, it does not include blocked shot attempts. The Canadiens rank 2nd and the Penguins rank 7th.

• The Canadiens have ripped shots at their opponents this season and rank 2nd in the NHL with 2,422 shots on goal while allowing the 14th-highest shots on goal by their opponents (2,208). However, this high-volume approach hasn't panned out, as the Habs rank 19th in goals per game (2.9).

• Meanwhile, the Pens have taken 2,204 shots on goal (16th), but average 3.2 goals per game, which ranks 8th. Therefore, the quality of their looks has been noticeably better over the course of the campaign.

• When the NHL returns, we will have best bets, public data, sharp data, projections and more for every single game! The numbers above suggest that this matchup might be tight, especially since Pittsburgh's home ice advantage and Montreal's lack of home ice advantage probably won't come into play.

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