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NHL Betting News and Notes Wednesday, October 18th, 2017

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(@blade)
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NHL betting trends, odds and predictions for Wednesday, October 18th, 2017 from various handicappers and websites

 
Posted : October 18, 2017 10:28 am
(@blade)
Posts: 318493
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NHL Knowledge

Toronto won its last four games with Detroit; under is 8-2 in last ten series games. Red Wings are 2-3 in last five games in this building. Detroit won four of its first six games; they’re 3-1 on road- three of their last four games went over. Maple Leafs won five of their first six games (over 5-1); they’re 2-1 at home (over 3-0).

Road team is 6-4 in last ten Chicago-St Louis games; Blackhawks won 3 of last 4 games- they are 3-2 in last five visits to St Louis. Chicago won four of its first six games (over 4-2); they split their two road games. St Louis lost 2-1/5-2 in its last two games after winning their first four; they beat Dallas Stars 4-2 in their only home game. Under is 3-1 in their last four games.

Kings are 5-3 in last 8 games with Montreal; home team won five of last seven series games. Over is 3-1-2 in last six series games. Canadiens lost 3 of last 4 games in Staples Center; they lost their last five games overall, outscored 20-7. Over is 3-2 in their last five games. Kings won 4 of their first 5 games (over 2-2-1), winning three of four home games.

Armadillosports.com

 
Posted : October 18, 2017 10:29 am
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NHL Picks and Betting Tips
By Parker Michaels
Bangthebook.com

MORNING LINE REPORT

If you managed to only read yesterday’s article then congratulations, you had a nice 2-1 night as Carolina and Vegas came through with the win. Hopefully you didn’t watch those games as the third period in each would have taken years off your life, particularly Vegas who had a 4-1 lead with just ten minutes to play before needing a David Perron snipe in overtime to pull out a 5-4 victory.

Unfortunately, the Twitter additions yesterday bit the bullet as Florida and Winnipeg were trucked and Tampa Bay broke our heart by blowing a third period lead, then failing to score on a powerplay the final two minutes of regulation, then failing to score on a powerplay the final 40 seconds of overtime, then failing to solve Cory Schneider in the shootout (in what world does Ryan Callahan take your third shot with Stamkos, Johnson, Palat and Hedman on the bench?!). Heartbreaking. At least Vancouver came through for a nice +175 win behind an Anders Nilsson shutout. Overall it was a 3-4 night for a tiny net loss which is pretty disappointing considering we hit a couple of nice underdogs.

It’s a small card again tonight with just one line open at this time and it doesn’t look like we’ll have a play there. We’ll wait for the other two and see how they match up to my number.

DETROIT RED WINGS @ TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

Projected Goaltenders
Detroit – Jimmy Howard/Petr Mrazek (unknown)
Toronto – Curtis McElhinney (probable)

Injury Report
Detroit – DeKeyser (out)
Toronto – no significant injuries

The Detroit Red Wings are coming off Monday night’s 3-2 loss to Tampa Bay. They got off to a slow start but battled back to erase a two goal deficit before giving up the winner to Kucherov early in the third. The Wings are now 4-2-0 as their difficult week continues with a trip to Toronto before hosting the Capitals on Friday.

Dylan Larkin is enjoying a solid bounce back season after slumping in his sophomore year. He looks much more comfortable at the center position on the second line, rather than on Henrik Zetterberg’s wing where he spent most of last season. Anthony Mantha is now the beneficiary of playing alongside Zetterberg and he’s looked every bit like a first-liner with three goals and four assists in Detroit’s first six games. His speed and ability to create space has paired well with Zetterberg who also has three goals and four assists while looking like his younger self so far. Rookie Martin Frk is making the most of his 12 minutes of average ice-time per game and providing Detroit with much needed scoring depth on the third line. Frk is tied for the team lead with three goals.

Defenseman Danny DeKeyser will miss another one to two weeks with a slightly sprained ankle.

The Toronto Maple Leafs had averaged a total of nine goals over their first five games so leave it up to the one time I jump in with an Over play when they decide to play lockdown defense and shut out the Capitals last night, 2-0. Regression finally hit the Leafs a bit as they failed to score at least three goals for the first time this season and Auston Matthews was held pointless also for the first time. Babcock leaned on his top four defensemen last night as the third pair of Connor Carrick and Calle Rosen received over two minutes each less ice time than what they’ve been averaging. With the Leafs on a back-to-back here we’ll see if their top defenders have the legs late in this one.

Curtis McElhinney is expected to get his first start of the season and it will be a particularly important start for him with recently acquired Calvin Pickard lurking in the shadows hoping for his chance.

We’ll see where this line opens but I would expect this to be Detroit or nothing tonight.

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS @ ST. LOUIS BLUES

Projected Goaltenders
Chicago – Corey Crawford (confirmed)
St. Louis – Jake Allen (likely)

Injury Report
Chicago – Hossa (out), Schmaltz (probable)
St. Louis – Fabbri (out), Berglund (out), Bouwmeester (out), Steen (questionable), Schwartz (probable)

The Chicago Blackhawks are off to a 4-1-1 start to sit atop the early Central division standings while leading the NHL with a +12 goal differential. After opening the season with six games over the first ten days, Chicago has been off since Saturday which has allowed them to work on the one area that hasn’t gone right so far – the powerplay. The Hawks are just 4-for-27 with the man advantage so Quenneville mixed up his units at Tuesday’s practice, separating Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane who were paired together on the top unit. Quenneville will now employ the team’s regular top two scoring lines as his powerplay units with Alex DeBrincat and Duncan Keith on the points joining Toews, Richard Panik and Brandon Saad on the top group while Patrick Sharp and Brent Seabrook will man the points on the second unit with Kane, Ryan Hartman and Nick Schmaltz.

Speaking of Schmaltz, he’s finally going to be back in the lineup tonight back in his usual second line center spot. The Hawks scored 15 goals in their first two games with him in the lineup but have managed just ten goals over the last four games without him. Kane has been held to just two assists over those four games after recording six in the first two and showed great chemistry with Schmaltz. Tanner Kero is expected to be the odd man out with Schmaltz’s return. The new fourth line looks like Tommy Wingels, Lance Bouma and John Hayden. That’s a pretty physical line and I’m not sure the Blues are going to be able to match up well with it.

Corey Crawford will start tonight on the front end of a back-to-back with Anton Forsberg scheduled to start Thursday’s game at home versus Edmonton.

The St. Louis Blues wrapped up a four game road trip with a pair of losses at Florida and Tampa Bay and now return for their lone home game this week before heading out West for a pair. Help may soon be on the way as Alex Steen has practiced with the team the last two days. His broken hand is fully healed and now he just needs to get his conditioning and timing right. Yeo said he may or may not be ready to play tonight so we’ll have to wait and see how he looks in the morning skate.

His return would be a big boost for the lineup as he would return to the top line alongside Paul Stastny and Vladimir Tarasenko which would allow Vladimir Sobotka to return to his better suited third line role. The third and fourth lines have yet to score a goal for the Blues this season as their depth has been hit hard with injuries. Rookie Sammy Blais has been impressive thus far and will play on the second line with Jaden Schwartz and Brayden Schenn, unless Steen can’t go tonight in which case he will get a shot on the top line.

Schwartz missed Monday’s practice with reportedly a case of food poisoning but returned to practice on Tuesday and is expected to return tonight.

The Blues play a back-to-back in Colorado tomorrow so we don’t officially know who will start in net tonight although I would be very surprised if it’s not Jake Allen. This is a huge rivalry and these teams don’t meet again until March so both sides will be looking for early bragging rights.

I don’t see enough value in this line currently so we’ll wait to see if anything changes after the morning skate.

MONTREAL CANADIENS @ LOS ANGELES KINGS

Projected Goaltenders
Montreal – Al Montoya (probable)
Los Angeles – Jonathan Quick (probable)

Injury Report
Montreal – Schlemko (out)
Los Angeles – Gaborik (out), Clifford (out)

Montreal dropped their fifth straight contest after getting rolled 5-2 in San Jose last night. Carey Price has given up at least two goals in all five of his starts and sports an ugly 3.56 goals-against-average and .885 save percentage and at this point you have to feel for the guy (okay I guess we don’t have to feel too bad for Mr. ten-million dollars a year man, but you know). The Canadiens defense continues to be non-existent and hang their goaltender out to dry. One of the breakdowns last night which allowed Logan Couture all alone in front of the net was just brutal. Price is expected to finally get a break tonight on the back-to-back as Al Montoya is expected to get the start.

Keeping the puck out of the net isn’t their only issue though as most of the forwards group continues to have trouble scoring. Montreal has scored just nine goals over the first six games (plus a shootout winner) and Jonathan Drouin is the only player with more than one goal as he scored his second of the year last night. Secondary scoring was supposed to be better this year with the addition of Ales Hemsky and youngsters Charles Hudon, Phillip Danault and Artturi Lehkonen taking steps forward in their development. Danault is the only one in that group to score (once) while the Hemsky experiment has been a bust so far. He has five minor penalties and zero points.

The Los Angeles Kings are off to their best start in team history and are the lone remaining team to be undefeated in regulation as they’ve taken advantage of an early California schedule with a 4-0-1 record. This is the final game of the homestand before they embark on a six game road trip.

Who would have thought the Kings could be off to such a hot start with Jeff Carter yet to score a goal? Los Angeles has averaged over three goals a game thus far with a resurgent Dustin Brown (four goals, three assists) and Anze Kopitar (four goals, four assists) leading the way.

The biggest reason is new head coach John Stevens allowing the players to play in a more dynamic, fast-paced offensive system but the Kings haven’t had to sacrifice anything defensively to accomplish this. A healthy Jonathan Quick has helped a lot in that area as he has looked incredibly sharp stopping 115 of 122 shots for a stingy 1.74 goals-against-average and .943 save percentage.

The Kings penalty killing is tops in the league allowing just one goal on twenty attempts for a 95% success rate. One thing I noticed as I watched them the other night is how smart-aggressive they were on the kill. It’s a big change from last year and another credit to Stevens’ new implementations.

No line available here yet but I think we might get a bit of value on the Kings and that would be the side I’d look at tonight.

 
Posted : October 18, 2017 10:50 am
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