The NHL Playoffs begin tonight with Game 1 between the Minnesota Wild and the Chicago Blackhawks. The game is scheduled for a 8:00 p.m. start time and it will be televised nationally on the NBC Sports Network. Currently the odds for the game have the Blackhawks as a big favorite.

Chicago jumped out to a huge lead after winning a whole bunch of games to open the season. They're the top overall seed in the Western Conference and they'll be taking on the eighth seeded Minnesota Wild. Jonathan Toews and his team will be looking to get past the Wild in this opening series and march their way to the Stanley Cup Finals.

If the Blackhawks hoist the Cup it will be the second time in four seasons they've been able to accomplish that feat.

The Wild went out and spent a lot of money in the off-season acquiring both Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. They each got 13-year deals which seems like quite a long time but it worked to get the biggest two free agents from last year's pool to come play for Minnesota. Jason Pominville is also expected to be back in the lineup tonight

Niklas Backstrom has been playing well for the Wild in between the pipes. A big game for him tonight could help keep Minnesota in this game, even though they are big underdogs. The Blackhawks' Ray Emery and center Dave Bolland have been ruled out for tonight's game, so Chicago will have to go to Corey Crawford at goalie, which isn't a big problem.

Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith are going to have to play well tonight for the Blackhawks. The duo, as most of this Blackhawks team, have been through quite a bit of playoff games and that experience is going to help.

Obviously the Blackhawks are the play tonight but it's tough to lay that amount of juice for Game 1 of a series, when you know that Minnesota is going to be pushing hard to try and steal one on the road, which would give them a big advantage. Yet, we don't expect there to be a lot of goals tonight, so we are going to take the under.

Free Pick: Under 5 goals

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