NHL Picks – Jan. 20th, 2018

Man that picture hurts badly.  A lot more so the 13 than the 7.  7 was an absolute bust this season until he got on 13’s line and 13 has been incredible….and should be an Oiler.  Anyway, I’ll cry about the Oil later.  Let’s talk about me for a minute.  3-2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I had a winning week last week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And it wasn’t a fluke either, the fluke was that I didn’t go 4-1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh by the way, f*** you Arizona Coyotes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Maybe try holding on to a one goal lead with 20 seconds to play ya bunch of assholes!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Anyway I don’t have much time to do these so I’ll get to it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (oh, maybe I didn’t need to go with so many exclamation points on that last one…)

Carolina at Detroit

Red Wings -110

So full disclosure, this was going to be a Hurricanes win.  I thought “even odds for both sides, are they kidding?!  The Hurricanes are the much better team!”  That’s how Vegas will get you!  The Hurricanes are playing their first game back after their bye week.  The Red Wings haven’t play in three days, but they’ve been able to practice (teams obviously don’t skate until the day before coming off their bye weeks).  Red Wings should win this game.

Toronto at Ottawa

Senators +130

Just from looking at the standings you think that the Leafs should run away with this game.  Leafs are comfortably in the 3rd spot in the Atlantic division, they’re kind of in no man’s land at this point in the season in that they look locked into playing Boston in the 1st round, no chance of catching Tampa, and no chance of another team catching them.  So I believe they’ve been struggling lately because there isn’t any urgency for them.  And the Sens are a bad matchup for the Leafs.  The Sens are a very patient, boring, technically sound club while the Leafs are at their best when they can run and gun.  No coincidence that the Sens have won the first two matchups this season and I like them to take this one again tonight.

NY Islanders at Chicago

Under 6.5 (+110)

It’s just too high of a number.  And I hate taking the under in any sports event.  You’re literally pulling for a boring game.  But the over in this one is at -130.  So people are betting hard that there will be seven goals scored in this one.  And hey, if I didn’t love betting value, I would love that bet too.  But +110 for an NHL game to go under, it doesn’t much matter who the teams are or who the goaltenders are, it’s just too good of a value pick to pass up.

Tampa Bay at Minnesota

Lightning -120

Not the greatest odds here, but I love this game simply because the Lightning are a top team in the league (they’re THE top team normally, but without Victor Hedman you have to adjust that) and they just had a closed door meeting after the last game.  Now, those are a bit ridiculous I know, but they do seem to give the team a jolt for a game or two.  Add to this, the Wild aren’t really anything.  Yes they’re battling for a playoff spot, and they’re capable of rattling off five or six in a row and beating top teams once in a while.  But even if the Wild are at their best, I don’t think it’ll be enough for tonight to beat what’ll be a very locked in Lightning team.

Vancouver at Edmonton

Canucks +160

I’m guaranteeing a Vancouver win tonight.  GUARANTEED.  And this isn’t trying to “reverse jinx” the Oilers.  It is however a matter of knowing this years squad all too well.  They play up and down to their competition.  It doesn’t mean they’ll beat the good teams, but it does mean that they’ll no show the weak teams.  They completely lack any focus.  Also, both teams coming off bye’s also makes this a lot more of a pick’em game then the odds makers have made this.  And finally, the matchup where the Oilers would have really owned the Canucks is now very gone.  Nugent-Hopkins is out, Brandon Sutter is back, so two weeks ago the Oilers would have been able to completely dominate the Canucks down the middle.  Now, it’s not even, the Oil still have the advantage, but it’s not near what it was.  I see a 4-1 Canucks win tonight with an Oilers performance much like we saw at home to the Red Wings, Coyotes (even though they won that one), Flyers and the NYE game vs the Jets.

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