Thursday night's NHL action gives us eight games to choose from, so I have picked four matchups that I feel hold the best value for NHL bettors. Check out my NHL picks for most of tonight's games, as we try to maxamize out our NHL betting payouts.
Lets check out some of tonight's biggest games and cover the NHL picks I find to have the best chance of in cashing for us as the sportsbooks.
Nashville
Predators vs. Philadelphia Flyers
NHL Odds: Over/Under 5.5
Normally when you think of the Philadelphia Flyers, you
think of high-scoring games and plenty of overs. That’s been far from the case
recently as they’ve struggled to score and even struggled to win.
Claude Giroux has no goals in his last 12 games and
Jaromir Jagr has none in his last nine. Daniel Briere and James van Riemsdyk
remain out with concussions. With the slumps and the injuries, the Flyers have
scored just 13 goals in their last five games.
Improving upon that might be challenging as Preds
goaltender Pekka Rinne is on fire right now and will be aiming for his 11th
straight win. He allowed just 23 goals in 12 January games.
As for Flyers netminder Ilya Bryzgalov, he’s picked up
his game a little bit, giving up just one goal in three of his last four
starts. Take the under.
NHL Picks: Under
Minnesota Wild vs.
Colorado Avalanche
NHL Odds: Avalanche -140
We’re going to do something a little crazy on Thursday
night and no, it doesn’t involve absinthe. Instead, we’ll take a shot with the
Minnesota Wild as a road underdog.
Yes, the Wild have been a pretty bad team since their
surprising start but they seem to have bottomed out and are back on the way up.
They blew a 4-1 lead at home to Nashville on Tuesday but the fact that they
played with one of the hottest teams in the NHL so well is a good sign. Prior
to that, the Wild had won two straight, which includes a 3-2 win in Colorado.
The Avs appear to be trending downward with three
straight losses and defeats in seven of their last 10. They can’t score goals
these days as they have managed just 19 goals in that span.
The Wild have won six of their last seven visits to the
Pepsi Center and 11 of the last 15 meetings overall. They are worth a play as
an underdog.
NHL Picks: Wild
Detroit Red Wings
vs. Vancouver Canucks
NHL Odds: Canucks -120
At first glance, this game might seem to be hard to
handicap because it’s a matchup of two titans but at a closer look, the Canucks
are a strong play.
Vancouver has burned bettors time and time again this
season when facing the NHL’s laggards but they have been money in the bank when
matched up against the better teams in the league. The Canucks are 13-4 against
teams with a winning record for a profit of 9.2 units.
The Red Wings are a much weaker team on the road
(14-14-0), so take a shot with the Canucks as a small sports betting favorite.
NHL Picks: Canucks
Montreal Canadiens
vs. New Jersey Devils
NHL Odds: Over/Under 5
The Montreal Canadiens continue to be a gong show and as
stated in the Tuesday column, we’ve sworn off of them for the rest of the
season. But that doesn’t mean we can’t bet their totals and we’ll do exactly
that in their Thursday contest with the New Jersey Devils.
The Devils are coming off a 4-3 shootout win over the New
York Rangers on Tuesday but even with that win have scored just seven goals in
their last four games. For whatever reason, they’ve had an easier time scoring
goals on the road (2.60 per game, ninth in the NHL) compared to at home (2.46,
25th in the NHL).
Carey Price has a career 2.26 GAA against the Devils
while Martin Brodeur has a career 1.79 GAA against his hometown team. Four of
the last five meetings in New Jersey and six of the last nine overall have gone
under.
NHL Picks: Under