ASA TOP PLAY 10* on New York Islanders Money Line (-) over Florida Panthers, Friday at 12:00 PM ET

The Islanders took the first two games of this series and, including regular season action, that made it 6 straight wins for the Islanders in meetings with Florida. The Panthers finally got a win in Wednesday's game as they took advantage of a couple of mistakes by New York. Florida potted two power play goals in the game but, once again, anyone watching that contest as well as having watched this entire series would agree that the Islanders have a "next level" that the Panthers just don't. The reason for the dominance the Islanders have in recent meetings with Florida is because their system frustrates the Panthers and that is why Florida scores so few goals in meetings between these teams. The problem in Game 3 was the Islanders, up 2-0 in the series, relied on that a bit too much and didn't show their "next level" for stretches during that game. Note that this is the first time we have seen these 5-game series in the NHL post-season in about 35 years. They are only being used because of how the pandemic impacted the finish to the regular season. The key point about the 5-game series though is that NHL teams are 56-1 when they take a 2-0 lead in the series. In other words the odds strongly favor the Islanders winning this series and we know they don't want this to go to a winner-takes-all game 5. With that being said, the Islanders bring their "A game" from the opening drop of the puck and that leads to a solid game 4 win. The Panthers have only won one playoff series in franchise history and that was 24 years ago when they made a run all the way to the Stanley Cup finals before falling to the Avalanche in a sweep. Florida has been one and done in the playoffs ever since then and have only scored 1 even strength goal per game so far in this series. The Islanders let Game 3 get away from them but won't make the same mistake here. Even though Jonahan Huberdeau, Florida's leading scorer, will likely find a way to play in this game, his leg injury could absolutely impact his effectiveness. The Islanders are such a frustrating team to play against and they again stifle the Panthers here but you'll also see a little more from New York in the offensive zone in this one too. Before that loss in Game 3, the Islanders had won 6 straight meetings with the Panthers by a combined score of 15 to 8. Per our computer math model here a 3 to 1 win in the forecast for the small money line favorite in this one. ASA TOP PLAY New York Islanders on the money line in very early action Friday.