NHL Best Bets 4/26/26 – Playoffs Round One

Kings forward Quinton Byfield celebrates after scoring an overtime winning goal.

The Kings are facing elimination tonight. Los Angeles hasn't won a playoff round in six previous tries since raising the Stanley Cup in 2014, and has now lost seven straight postseason games dating to last spring. That streak ends tonight or the season does. In elimination game spots, top-line centers don't play their regular season average. They play more, harder, and with more desperation than any regular season game could replicate. Byfield will be on the ice in every critical situation tonight — and his own coaching staff has already made that crystal clear.

Byfield is supposed to be the crown-jewel of the Kings mini-rebuild. You can point fingers of them rushing, or selling the rebuild short but they came out with some pieces. And with Kopitar retiring, Byfield will finally be handed the keys to the kingdom (see what I did there) to become the Kings true top center. And while they haven't won a game this series, Byfield has be LA's top player in all three games. He is elevating his game, and can take another step with a big game tonight.

While Byfield wasn't exactly a SOG prop machine during the regular season, he has not only hit his 2.5 SOG line in all three games this series, he is doing it at high volumes. He has 3,6 and 4 SOG  off of 6+ shot attempts in each playoff game. And in fact, when the Kings were having to win every game to make it to the post-season Byfield stepped up the offensive portion of his game. Over the last 10 games played he is averaging 5.6 shot attempts and had an 8 SOG / 11 shot attempt game in that span. Byfield will have to be a catalyst tonight, and that's exactly why his SOG is an NHL best bet tonight.

When down 2-1 in a series, playing on the road, and needing a win to keep this series close, you often turn to your best player to help seal the deal. And the league's most dangerous winger who is shooting the puck at an INSANE rate in this series. The setup for a Kucherov shot eruption tonight is about as clean as it gets and an NHL best bet tonight.

Kucherov averaged 3.04 shots on goal per game across the 2025-26 regular season — already nearly touching the 3.5 line before accounting for the playoff context. He finished with 130 points and 221 shots on net across 71 appearances, FOX Sports making him one of the highest-volume elite shooters in the entire league. This is not a player who defers or floats. When Kucherov is healthy and engaged, he finds his spots and fires — repeatedly. He has a combined 11 SOG in the first three games of this series (and he only hit the net once last game) off of machine gun rate of 10.33 shot attempts per game. The dude is ripping rubber.

Kucherov is out to prove that his postseason disappearances over the last three seasons — just one goal in 16 games though with 16 assists — are firmly behind him. He broke a stunning 17-game playoff goalless streak in Game 2 of this very series, and he also had an assist on Brayden Point's power-play goal in Game 3  — meaning he's been producing in some form in all three games. The goals-plus-shots narrative is building toward a big individual performance.

But again,the big reason why this is an NHL best bet is that insane volume without any luck in Game 3. Kucherov had 12 shot attempts in a game where only one found the net. That's a player generating an elite volume of looks that simply weren't connecting on the scoresheet. Shot attempts and shots on goal aren't the same stat, but when a player is attacking that aggressively — 12 attempts is borderline extraordinary — the regression toward actual registered shots is virtually guaranteed. The puck luck normalizes. The shooting lane eventually opens. And when Kucherov is generating 12 attempts in a game, clearing 3.5 SOG is a minimum expectation, not a stretch.