Stanley Cup Finals Game 7 Betting Preview: Top Picks for Oilers at Panthers
Raise your hand if you had the Edmonton Oilers – down 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals – coming back to force a Game 7 on the NHL’s biggest stage against the Florida Panthers. Keep those hands raised if you predicted Edmonton center Connor McDavid would be held without a point in that pivotal Game 6 matchup.
Okay, so no one saw this coming – at least not in the fashion it happened. In fact, a team winning the Stanley Cup Finals after being down 3-0 has occurred only once, dating back to the early 1940s.
With these games as wild and unpredictable as Game 6 was, what can bettors use to guide them toward player prop bets for tonight’s decisive Game 7 finale? We’ll cover that and our best bet for the Stanley Cup Finals Game 7 featuring the Oilers versus the Panthers.
Edmonton Oilers’ Zach Hyman Anytime Goal Scorer (+140)
Oilers left winger Zach Hyman had a career-best regular season in 2023-2024, scoring a career-best 54 goals and his second-best point effort (77) to lead Edmonton into the playoffs. Once there, Hyman poured in another career-best 16 goals in his first 24 games and 22 total points.
Yet in this series, Hyman had been extremely quiet until the past three games as he’s contributed two goals (one in both Game 5 and Game 6) and two assists to spur the Oilers within reach of their sixth Stanley Cup.
With Florida locking in on McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, expect Hyman to break free for at least one goal tonight to cover this player prop bet.
Florida Panthers’ Sam Reinhart Anytime Goal Scorer (+180)
Florida breezed through the first three games with a combined 11 goals. But that offense has faded away, and the Panthers have scored just five goals since to yield only the third-ever opportunity for a team to come back from an 0-3 deficit in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Part of the offensive problems lie in center Sam Reinhart’s lack of production. The 6-foot-2 Canadian has scored only once in this series.
Big moments call for big-time players to respond. Reinhart is a big-time player, so expect the 10-year veteran to score at least one goal this game to cover this player prop bet.
Edmonton Oilers’ Stuart Skinner UNDER 26.5 Saves
Edmonton has been known for its offense, scoring 292 goals for the fourth-best total during the regular season. Defensively, goalie Stuart Skinner had room to be good if not great as his offense has averaged 3.5 goals per game.
Yet Skinner – with the team facing elimination – has been superb over the past three games. The goalie has stopped 95 percent of the shots he’s faced over that period as well as allowed just 1.67 goals per game during this three-game winning streak.
Expect Skinner to bend tonight as the Panthers face elimination for the first time this postseason. Unless Florida puts up 30 shots, it will be hard for Skinner to reach the 27-save threshold in Game 7.
Best Bet: Edmonton (+1.5)
For three consecutive games, I’ve predicted the Florida Panthers to win this series. After the Panthers yielded eight goals in Game 4, I chalked it up to the Panthers’ defense suffering a bad outing.
In Game 5 and Game 6, I again thought Florida would snap out of their funk and win this series convincingly – as it had the entire series to that point. And again, the Oilers pounded one of the league’s best defenses to the tune of 10 goals over that span.
With momentum on their side – and Florida 0-1 in Game 7’s at home – I have to make the change and predict Edmonton finishes off the second-ever comeback from a 0-3 deficit to win the Stanley Cup tonight.
Ernie Horn
Sports Betting Contributor
Ernie is a 25-year veteran of the newspaper industry. He spent those early years working as a sports reporter and editor, but made the move back to the digital world in 2022. Ernie covers college football and NFL betting for Hello Rookie.