Can McDavid Force a Game 7?

Looking at game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals from a player prop lense

Author

Michael Mohorovich
June 17, 2025

Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals

In 2008, Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins lost Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals to the Detroit Red Wings and the series. One year later, they were back, hungry and angry, and beat the Red Wings in 7 games to win Crosby his first cup and the Penguins their first cup since 1992.

Last year for the Oilers was a movie, with a really bad ending. Coming back from 0-3 to force a game 7 and lose by one goal is cruel. And this year it’s felt rocky at times in the Finals for the Oilers, but none of that matters anymore. Tonight, McDavid and company need a win to force a game 7 back in their building.

Can they do it? Who knows. But in our research for the game, we found two data sets for player props that were intriguing and could make game 6 a little more interesting for the casual fan!

In a series featuring Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart and so many more marquee players, which player do you think has the highest PPG in games 5 to 7 in these playoffs? The Oilers have only played five games 5 to 7’s, while the Panthers have played 6.

Spoiler: it’s none of the players listed above. Here are the top 7:

  1. Eetu Luostarinen, 1.66 PPG

  2. Brad Marchand, 1.50 PPG

  3. Sam Reinhart, 1.33 PPG

  4. Aleksander Barkov, 1.16 PPG

  5. Anton Lundell, 1.16 PPG

  6. Connor McDavid, 1.00 PPG

  7. Leon Draisaitl, 1.00 PPG

Luostarinen has been dynamite late in the series, with 3 goals and a whopping 7 assists in the Panthers 6 games that were games 5 to 7 in a series these playoffs. Luostarinen has also turned it on after a five-game slump, with 5 points in his last three games of the series.

Luostarinen’s points, his last 10 games

Points, assists and goals are all markets that Luostarinen could come through in tonight, but if you’re looking for something a bit safer, he’s also cooked his shots on goal prop in this series.

Luostarinen’s shots on goal in the series

Fact-based news without bias awaits. Make 1440 your choice today.

Overwhelmed by biased news? Cut through the clutter and get straight facts with your daily 1440 digest. From politics to sports, join millions who start their day informed.

On the other side…

Draisaitl doesn’t have a goal in the playoffs in the Oilers’ five games that were games 5 or 6 in the series (they haven’t played in a game 7 yet). That’s…crazy? In the first four games of the series in these playoffs, Draisaitl is averaging 2.75 shots on goal, and in the latter three games of the series, he’s averaging 2.4 shots on goal. Although he has struggled to score and has seen his shots on goal fall as the series goes on, the one thing he’s been able to do is find his teammates.

Draisaitl’s assists in these playoffs

He has 22 assists in the playoffs, and 5 of those have come late in series’.

If you keep scrolling, you’ll see our MLB head-to-head data sheet for batters, but there’s one pitcher matchup that caught our eye, and we wanted to share it with you.

Peterson’s strikeout prop is 4.5 tonight, and although he isn’t an elite strikeout guy (45th percentile), he’s still cleared this line in 69% of his starts this season (averaging 5.5 strikeouts) and Peterson has averaged 6 strikeouts per game in his last 4 starts, going over this number in all 4.

Peterson’s last 5 games

6 players in the Braves’ projected lineup have a K rate that’s 25% or higher vs Peterson, 5 of which have 10 plate appearances or more against Peterson.

Peterson versus this Braves lineup

It’s a solid matchup this season, too. The Braves rank 12th in strikeout rate versus left-handed pitchers this season.

Start learning AI in 2025

Keeping up with AI is hard – we get it!

That’s why over 1M professionals read Superhuman AI to stay ahead.

  • Get daily AI news, tools, and tutorials

  • Learn new AI skills you can use at work in 3 mins a day

  • Become 10X more productive

🔥 Batter vs Pitcher Matchups for June 17th🔥

⚾️ Trea Turner: .444 vs Quantrill - 9 HRR in L2 games. 🚀
⚾️ Ronald Acuña Jr.: .333 vs Peterson - 4+ HRR in 5 of L6, but just .133 vs LHP. ⚠️
⚾️ Gunnar Henderson: .467 vs Littell -  Hitting .373 in June 🔥
⚾️ Jose Altuve: .409 vs Sears - 3+ HRR in both road starts vs LHP. 💣

MLB Head-to-Head Data Sheet for June 17th

Haven’t tried props.cash yet? Use code “NEWSLETTER” for 25% off your first month! Sign up here.

See you Thursday!