NHL Picks – Mar. 3rd, 2018

Why do I do these for Saturday’s?  Don’t answer that, because I know why, but I like to go out and have a few on Friday nights.  Sometimes a few turn into a lot, like last night did, and you wake up asking yourself “why were we drinking with Big Pred in Brewhouse at 3 AM?  Oh well, I have to get my ass up to go lose people money”.  So looking at the schedule, this is going to be a shitty group of picks.  But it’s what I got to work with, so here we go.  2-3 last week, after back to back winning weeks.  So I’m due for another long losing streak I’m sure…

Montreal at Boston

Bruins -1.5 (-120)

There just isn’t anywhere else to go with this one.  It’s one of the best teams in the league against one of the worst, it’s Niemi vs Rask, it’s in Boston, it’s the Habs on the second half of a back to back.  So despite poor odds, you still want to win money so the smart money is on the Bruins giving a goal here.

NY Islanders at Pittsburgh

Over 6.5 (-115)

There is just no way this doesn’t go over.  I fully expect the Pens to button things up tonight after their showing in Boston on Thursday night, but the Islanders just can’t.  This season has just completely blown up in Garth Snow’s face.  He basically made it public that he was going to put this top contender around John Tavares and that would convince him to stay, and instead he’s put a very flawed team around Tavares and given him a ton of reasons to leave.

Ottawa at Arizona

Coyotes -1.5 (+220)

The Sens are on the second half of a back to back, and the Coyotes are actually playing decent the last month or so.  But I’m not going to lie to anyone here, this is much more about the odds of the Coyotes winning by two or more than anything.  +220, and hey, it’s not easy to find five games on a light night.  So I’ll take a shot here and say the Coyotes lead 3-2 late and Max Domi nets an empty netter with under a minute to play to get the win here.

NY Rangers at Edmonton

Over 6.5 (-110)

This will be Pavelec vs Talbot tonight, not Lundqvist after he stole the game in Calgary last night.  The Rangers have been hot offensively since the trade deadline moves (Ryan Spooner in particular seems to be loving life in New York thus far), and the Oilers are so loose defensively.  Then the Rangers with Pavelec in goal, you’d expect the Oilers to pop three or four in.

NY Rangers at Edmonton

Rangers +175

Simply put, the Rangers are a team playing with house money right now and just seem to be loving coming to the rink.  They’re playing a lot like Vegas right now.  Zero pressure, nobody is gripping their sticks, and because of that they’re hot.  The Oilers, they’re a mess.  Even their two previous wins in Los Angeles and Anaheim they nearly pissed both games away, both with two goal leads and under 30 seconds to play.  Think about that.  That’s extremely rare to have happen once, they nearly did it and then actually did it on back to back nights.  It’s just a total mess right now.  Rangers will win a high scoring game.

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