We'll always be interested in a plus price with the defending champs, considering they hit Sunrise tonight having won three straight and six of seven. Since winning a wild 7-6 verdict over the Blue Jackets on December 6, Florida has tightened its defense considerably; in five of the wins in the six games since, the Panthers have allowed just 8 total goals. Sergei Bobrovsky, back in the nets tonight, has won in his last four starts, and stopped 68 of 73 shots (.932 saves) across the past three of those wins. True, Carolina does come in hot, with five straight wins, but prior to Wednesday's 4-1 win at Nashville, the Canes' previous three wins were all decided via shootout. Play Panthers on Money Line

Do I think the Hurricanes are the better club right now? Yep, but I also say if you get the two-time champs +1 at home that you have to. Almost think the Cats will be offended being home dogs. But I'm slumping a bit across the board at the moment. Sometimes a built-in holiday day off or two isn't the worst thing to just reset. I'm not saying that I'm the Short Circuit robot -- Johnny 5 -- declaring "Malfunction! Need input!" but let's just say El DeBarge is from my hometown. "Who's Johnny?" How did a movie with El DeBarge, a lovable robot, Steve Guttenberg and Ally Sheedy not win an Oscar!?

I'm not one for using narratives to make a bet but when a narrative collides with an undervalued team trending the right direction it creates the perfect storm (pun intended). Carolina has no doubt had this game circled since being dispatched by Florida last postseason and the Canes are playing some of their best hockey right now with the return of Jacob Slavin on D. Florida is also getting results but their xG goal share of 50% is dwarfed by Carolina at 58% over the L5. I may be too high on Carolina compared to market but my fair price for this game is -141 so I'm happy to lay the discounted tag.