Panthers Given +750 Odds to Win Series After Going Down 0-2 to Islanders

• The New York Islanders lead the Florida Panthers in their qualifying series 2-0
• The Islanders have now won six straight games against the Panthers dating back to last season
• The Panthers have scored just seven goals in the five losses to the Islanders this season

The New York Islanders have edged the Florida Panthers in each of the first two games of their qualifying series. That means that on Wednesday, the Isles can advance through this best-of-five series with a win. Are the Panthers worth a flier on the series price in the odd chance they come back or is this series firmly in the hands of the Isles?

Panthers vs Islanders Series Odds

Odds taken Aug. 4th

Panthers Now Sizable Longshot

The series price opened up with the Isles as a -120 favorite to advance with the Panthers at +100 on the other side of the line, but with the Isles up 2-0, the odds have shifted greatly. Now the Isles are a massive -1250 favorite while the Panthers are at +750. It’s clear the oddsmakers think the Panthers have a lot of work to do to make this competitive.

GAME TWO GOES TO THE ISLAND! 🦞

LET'S GO ISLANDERS! pic.twitter.com/6r6E93dTcw

— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) August 4, 2020

Panthers Can’t Figure Out the Islanders

The Panthers and Islanders have now squared off five times this season and the Isles have won every single time. The same theme seems to play out every showdown: the Panthers are an offense-oriented team that wants to play shootouts while the Isles are a defensive-minded team that wants to grind games out. The Isles are dictating the pace.

The Panthers finished the regular season sixth in goals-per-game with 3.30 but after five meetings with the Islanders this season, they’ve scored just seven goals. This team is also seventh in the NHL in shots per game with 32.7 but they’re only firing off 28.0 per game in this qualifying series. Clearly, whatever the Islanders are doing to stymie their offense is working.

Wait for it… Wait for it…𝗕𝗔𝗡𝗚. pic.twitter.com/zASQnj4QGg

— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) August 4, 2020

The main question here is what’s going to change in the coming games? The Isles know how to keep this Panthers offense under wraps and they do just enough offensively themselves to earn the wins. This isn’t just a one-game one-off as they’ve done this in all five meetings this season; the Panthers haven’t scored more than twice in any game.

Florida is going to need to try something completely different or switch something up because otherwise, their season is going to be over in the very near future.

Islanders Will Advance

I don’t love laying this kind of juice but if push comes to shove and I have to make a choice, the Islanders are the bet here. This team started the year 22-7-2 and looked like one of the top squads in the Eastern Conference. They slumped going into the hiatus but they appear to have regained their focus.

THE NEW YORK ISLANDERS WIN GAME 2 pic.twitter.com/n5X2HwUrxO

— mia (@8dobson) August 4, 2020

With Semyon Varlamov playing really well right now and the offense doing enough, this team could make another run in the playoffs like they did last season. I’m not sure that I’d invest in their Stanley Cup odds at this point, although the +5000 is quite attractive, but I do fully expect them to win this series and move on.