The first Monday of the NHL season is here. There are 10 games and 20 teams playing today. With a relatively big slate, there isn’t a doubt that value is to be found when deciding which games to bet on. The NHL is definitely a sport that you need to tread lightly at the start when betting until you can get a feel for how teams are. That especially goes for this season because it is a weird 56 game schedule with new divisions as well as a lot of back to back games and doubleheaders because of COVID-19. So, it is even more apparent to pay attention to how teams are handling the new divisions and how teams are handling the back to backs. This is my betting picks debut on GoingFor2 and I anticipate a profitable season for my readers/followers and hope you guys learn more about the NHL as well. Here are my NHL betting picks for today…
New York Islander Money Line (+110)
Tonight the New York Islanders host the Boston Bruins at the Nassau Coliseum.
The Bruins are coming into this game with a 1-0-1 start to their season. The story so far for this Bruins team is what their identity would be with losing long time Captain and D-man Zdeno Chara. The Bruins are also without their star-studded goal scorer in David Patrnak who is out for the first bit of the season. So far the Bruins beat the New Jersey Devils 3-2 in a shootout win and lost 2-1 the next game against them in a shootout. Last season the Bruins were not statistically known to be a great offensive team and even though it’s too early to tell what their mantra is going to be it appears that trend will continue due to them averaging 2 goals a game so far. Along with that, this Bruins team does not lack defensively. So far they are averaging 2 goals against and haven’t allowed a power-play goal yet going 8/8 on kills.
The New York Islanders are 1-1-0 so far on the season. Their start has been anything but consistent. In their first game they shut out the Rangers 4-0 but then the next game the Rangers shut them out 5-0. Even though the Islanders lost the second game 5-0 a positive going forward is that they killed off 7 of 8 Ranger’s power plays. Taking 8 penalties is very rare but if there was a positive it is that they didn’t completely fold when down a man. A bright spot for the Islanders so far is Anders Lee who has 2 goals and 2 assists so far this season. In the Islanders 5-0 loss Ilya Sorokin made his debut making 27 saves on 32 shots. With Varlamov still hurt it is expected Sorokin will get the start again.
In the Bruins last 6 games dating back to last season they are 1-5. Boston is 9-1 SU in their last 10 against the Islanders. The Bruins are also 1-4 in their last 5 road games played on a Monday. I know the narrative is that Boston has owned the Islanders the past few seasons but this isn’t the same old Islanders team. This Islanders team has almost an identical roster to last years where they made a deep playoff run and the way the Islanders play such a great zone defense it is expected that this struggling Bruins offense without their top weapon will also struggle in this game. With Islanders at home and being plus money to me it is a no brainer, my pick is Islanders money line (+110).
Montreal Canadian Money Line (-110)
Tonight the Edmonton Oilers host the Montreal Canadians at the Rogers place for the second game of a back to back.
The Canadians so far this season are 1-0-1 on the season. They dropped their season opener to Toronto in a wild back and forth matchup that was settled in overtime. In that loss, Montreal looked very solid with one of their new additions in Josh Anderson scoring 2 goals in his debut. After that wild loss, they bounced back in very sharp form defeating the Oilers in a convincing 5-1 victory. Montreal was a team on the outside looking in last year but in the playoffs, they put up a very solid performance that exceeded expectations. The Canadians made some very subtle but great moves in the offseason that addressed their needs. They added Tyler Toffoli who scored 24 goals last year and Josh Anderson who adds grit and physicality who also scored 27 goals in his last full healthy NHL season in 2018-2019. Cary Price also showed brilliance in the playoffs as expected and if he continues to keep great play then that is a game-changer weapon that only a select few teams have in the league. The question marks for this team was if they could consistently score and so far they have put up 9 goals in 2 games.
Coming into this game the Oilers are 1-2 on the season. Both of their losses have been bad. They lost to the Canucks opening night 5-2 and in their most recent a loss of 5-1 to the Canadians. A player the Oilers were hoping to solve their much-needed depth is Kyle Turris but he has yet to record a point this season. The two-headed monster of McDavid and Draisaitl so far have each recorded 5 points apiece. Depth and goaltending were last year were Edmonton’s faults and so far it is the same story. So far they have not gotten solid point production from the supporting cast and goaltending has been an issue. Mikko Koskinen is their go-to guy and so far he is allowing 4.04 goals against per game. Right now it is hard to tell what sort of game you are going to get from this Oilers team.
The Habs did win very convincingly in their first meeting and although Edmonton is clearly better than what they showed it wasn’t a fluke by any stretch for this Canadians team. Offensively the Oilers do not have any consistency and it appears if McDavid doesn’t have 2-to-3 points in a game they just simply aren’t going to win. McDavid is a generational talent but when a team relies that much on one player it is not a recipe for success. The stats that jump out is that Edmonton is 5-1 in their last 6 coming off a loss of 3 or more and Montreal is 1-5 in their last 6 games when coming off a win. So it appears Edmonton bounces back very nicely after getting embarrassed and Montreal can’t string wins together. It is too exhausting for Edmonton to sustain where if they get blown out that they will immediately bounce back. Eventually, it is going to catch up to them that they can’t just turn it on and off when they want to. My pick is Canadians money line (-110). The Canadians are much more upgraded than they get credit for and they play a determined and physical 60 minutes of hockey. The Canadians are deeper than this Edmonton team with better goaltending and as a bettor, you can’t just rely on Edmonton bouncing back every time they get blown out especially against a tough Canadians squad. Montreal will get back to back wins at The Rogers Place.
Arizona Coyotes VS Vegas Golden Knights under 5.5 (-115)
Tonight the Coyotes travel to the T-Mobile arena for a dessert matchup against the Golden Knights.
The Coyotes are coming into this game at 1-0-1 on the season. They lost their opener 4-3 in a shootout thriller against the Sharks but bounced back nicely in the next game against them winning 5-3. So far Arizona has had an efficient offense averaging 4 goals a game. A player to credit for that is Phil Kessel. Kessel scored 1 goal in their loss and 2 in their winner. With Kessel on the ice, Arizona is averaging 4 goals a game so it is clear he has been huge for their success. They are also allowing 3 goals a game which is far from where they would like to be. Kemper looks to get the start tonight trying to shake off the season opener loss where he saved 32 of 35 shots.
After 2 games this season Vegas is a perfect 2-0 with wins of 5-2 and 2-1 over the Ducks. The big story for this Vegas team is how good their defense is and having a 1-2 punch in net. After two games this season they are just averaging 1.50 goals against. When they added Mark Stone halfway through the 2018-2019 season it was obvious the team really valued players who could play a 200-foot game. Stone is a right-winger who is as good defensively as he is offensively and playing that hard 200-foot game is what this Knights team is about. A big addition that helped them defensively was adding free agent and Stanley cup champion, Alex Pietrangelo. So far the defense has only allowed 22 shots against in each game which has made it easy on their two-star goalies. In Game 1, Lehner saved 20 of his 22 shots and in game 2, Fleury saved 21 of his 22 shots. Vegas has also killed every single one of their opponent’s power plays so far this season.
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Despite Arizona showing a much more promising offensive attack so far this season they also haven’t played a defense even close to as sound as this Vegas one. In Vegas’s last 10 games the under has happened in 8 of those games. The total has also gone under in 5 of Arizona’s last 6 games when playing on the road against Vegas. In Arizona’s last 10 games on a Monday the under hit for 7 of those games. With Vegas being so strong defensively and playing a game where they value possession time I don’t see how Arizona has offensive success to make this total go over. Kemper will also bounce back tonight and will return to his strong form of last season. My pick is under 5.5. (-115).
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