The sheep are piling on the Golden Knights, but Carolina is the BETTER statistical team in this series — outscoring opponents 3.55 to 3.22 and playing at HOME in the Lenovo Center where the crowd will be deafening. Vegas may have taken a 2-0 series lead, but the Hurricanes are a historically dangerous team when backed into a corner, and the line already reflects sharp money on Carolina at -154/170. Fading the Golden Knights bandwagon in a must-win home environment for Carolina is the only play that makes sense.

Carolina enters the Stanley Cup Finals with a remarkable 12-1-0 playoff record and is allowing only 1.6 goals per game — the stingiest defensive performance in the field. While Vegas went 2-0 against Carolina in the regular season, this home-ice playoff version of the Hurricanes is a completely different animal, averaging 3.2 goals offensively while suffocating opponents defensively. Getting the Hurricanes at +170 on home ice in Game 1 of the Finals represents significant plus-money value for the most defensively dominant team remaining.