Posted at 10:00 AM EST. Odds are subject to change.

Florida +105 over Carolina

5:00 PM EST. Florida walks into Carolina as the underdog, which is a nice little gift for us on Opening Night. The Panthers had a miserable regular season by their standards last year, and apparently that is all the market needs to see to write them off early. This is still a Florida team built to make life miserable for opponents, and adding Brady Tkachuk to a group that already knows how to play nasty hockey gives Paul Maurice another headache to throw at Carolina.

The Panthers have plenty of experience playing in these types of environments, and their physical style travels. Carolina is going to have to earn every inch of ice tonight, and Florida is more than happy to turn this into the kind of game where nobody has much fun.

There's another angle here that shouldn't be ignored, and that's the possibility of a Stanley Cup hangover in Carolina. This was an organization that spent years knocking on the door, getting close and hearing all about how it couldn't get over the hump. Then it finally happened. Carolina climbed the mountain and won the Stanley Cup. That's an enormous emotional release for an organization that had been chasing it for so long.

Now comes the difficult part that doesn't get nearly as much attention: turning the page and starting all over again. After the parade, the celebrations, the shortest summer in hockey and months of being treated like champions, suddenly you're back playing Game 1 of an 82-game regular season. The urgency simply isn't guaranteed to be there immediately. We've seen championship teams need time to rediscover that edge, and it wouldn't surprise us in the least if Carolina's hangover lasted several weeks—or even a couple of months.

Florida comes into this from the opposite direction. The Panthers have something to prove after an extremely disappointing regular season, while Carolina is coming off the ultimate high. One team spent the summer hearing how poorly it performed; the other spent it celebrating the Stanley Cup. On Opening Night, we'll take our chances with the team carrying the chip on its shoulder rather than the one carrying the banner.

The biggest mistake here is treating last season like it is still sitting in the dressing room. Florida has a different look, a different setup in goal and another big body joining the family business, but the identity remains intact. This team is at its best when the game gets uncomfortable, the temperature rises and the opponent starts wondering why every trip into the Florida zone feels like a trip to the dentist.

We're getting the Panthers plus money against a Carolina team that may require some time to come down from the greatest high this group has ever experienced. If there is a Stanley Cup hangover, Opening Night is exactly when we want to try to take advantage of it.

 Sportsinteraction