Morning Coffee: NHL Eastern Conference playoff race heats up

Alright, hockey fans – the endgame is almost here.

The standings are tight, the playoff races are heating up, and the postseason is right around the corner.

Buckle up.

As if there wasn’t already enough to get to this morning with a full NHL slate on deck, we’ve also got a Canadian dominating in the NBA right now.

Toronto, Ontario’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the betting favourite to win NBA regular season MVP at FanDuel.

He’s also the biggest reason the Oklahoma City Thunder are now a co-favourite to win the NBA championship.

SGA has got my buddies in the group chat telling me they added SGA 20+ points to spice up the Morning Coffee best bet a little bit on a nightly basis now.

You know what? Not a bad idea.

Last night, SGA went off again with a game-high 34 points in Oklahoma City’s 118-112 win over the Boston Celtics.

Gilgeous-Alexander became just the eighth player in NBA history to score 20+ points in 60 consecutive games within a single season.

The Canadian joined Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Elgin Baylor as the only players to ever accomplish that feat.

Elite crew, eh?

The Thunder improved to 2-0 against the Celtics and an NBA-best 11-1 following a loss this season – two key reasons why they are now a co-favourite to win the title along with Boston.

Canadians will be cheering for SGA to win MVP along with a championship run for Oklahoma City this spring.

Unfortunately, the Thunder won’t play again until Saturday night, which means we can’t add SGA to score 20+ points to this morning’s FanDuel Best Bet.

Regardless, let’s try to find another winner or two.

This is the Morning Coffee for Thursday March 13^th, 2025.

NHL Eastern Conference Playoff Race Heats Up

Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat, and Dylan Larkin were absolutely buzzing last night in Hockeytown, USA.

Kane had three points in the first period alone and went on to register his fourth-career five-point game.

DeBrincat delivered a four-point performance.

Meanwhile, the captain Larkin finished with three assists as the Detroit Red Wings cruised to a 7-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

As I wrote about in this column, it was an absolute must-win spot for a Red Wings team that has really struggled of late.

Detroit snapped a six-game slide with the victory.

The Red Wings are now tied with the Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins, and New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference standings with 68 points.

They’re two points back of the Columbus Blue Jackets for the final Wild Card spot.

They’re also five points back of the Ottawa Senators for the top Wild Card spot.

With just over a month left in the regular season, the Senators are -1000 to make the playoffs at FanDuel.

That number represents a 91 per cent implied probability.

After that, the race is considered wide open.

The Blue Jackets are the current frontrunners at +152 to make the playoffs at FanDuel – a 39.7 per cent probability.

The Rangers might be ice cold right now but they are next on the list at +180 to make the playoffs.

Montreal is +500 to get to the postseason – just a 16.7 per cent implied probability.

The Bruins are right behind them at +600 – a 14.3 per cent implied probability.

The Senators are red-hot right now and can take a major step towards locking up a playoff spot with wins over Boston, Toronto and Montreal in the coming days.

Ottawa is currently a heavy favourite to beat Boston tonight at -184 at FanDuel.

The Eastern Conference playoff race will take centre stage tonight with the Senators facing the Bruins, while the Blue Jackets host the Vegas Golden Knights and the Rangers visit the Minnesota Wild.

Plus, we get a showdown between the top teams in the Atlantic Division tonight as the Toronto Maple Leafs host the Florida Panthers on TSN.

The Panthers are currently a -140 favourite to win the division, with the Maple Leafs sitting at +165.

With tonight’s game hovering around a pick’em, and the teams set to meet two more times in early April, the Atlantic Division race could get very interesting.

In terms of a FanDuel Best Bet for tonight, I’ll go with another Atlantic Division team and take the Tampa Bay Lightning to beat the Philadelphia Flyers in regulation at even-money.

Tampa Bay is coming off back-to-back losses to the Bruins and the Carolina Hurricanes in which they were outscored a combined 8-1.

Prior to those two losses, the Lightning were red-hot with a 10-1-0 record in their previous 11 games.

While Nikita Kucherov is less than a hundred per cent, he should benefit from a day off after sitting out the entire third period against the Hurricanes.

Meanwhile, the Flyers have hit a wall of late with five straight losses by two goals or more.

Their schedule doesn’t get any easier with two games against Tampa Bay coming up along with games against the Hurricanes, Washington Capitals, and Dallas Stars.

After they sold at the trade deadline, they’ll have a tough time keeping up with some of the top Stanley Cup contenders and could be a good look to fade.

Hopefully, the Lightning can take advantage tonight with a win in regulation.

Unfortunately, we can’t parlay Tampa Bay to win in 60 minutes with SGA 20+ points to make the number even better.

Regardless, go Bolts!

Have a great day, everyone!