NHL Best Bets

NHL Best Bets

Well, I got ahead of myself last night, and it might be fair to say that the Winnipeg Jets are in trouble. It’s going to be a bit of a quieter Friday night around the NHL, as it typically is, but there are three games on tonight around the league. Only one of these games should be a good matchup for an NHL best bet: the Pittsburgh Penguins and Minnesota Wild. 

 

Pittsburgh at Minnesota (+105, 6)

Marc-Andre Fleury is officially getting the start tonight against one of his former teams, the Pittsburgh Penguins. This will be Pittsburgh’s first game of a back-to-back, so it is unclear which goalie they will go with. 

Fleury’s numbers haven’t been incredibly strong this season, but he is always fired up to play against Pittsburgh. 

Minnesota didn’t look all that good offensively in their last game against the Chicago Blackhawks, and they have only scored two goals in each of their last three games. Since the new year, the Wild are only averaging 2.73 goals per game. The Wild rely heavily on Kirill Kaprizov to provide offense, and he’s been on fire with six goals in his last five games. The Penguins must focus on slowing Kaprizov down while taking away his time and space. 

The Penguins offense isn’t much better than Minnesota’s. Pittsburgh averages 2.83 goals per game, while their power play has struggled all season, converting at just 15.9% since the new year. 

Pittsburgh has a solid choice in goal, no matter if they go with Tristan Jarry or Alex Nedeljkovic. In Jarry’s last eight games, he is skating to a 2.08 goals against average and a .925 save percentage, while Nedeljkovic is at a 2.48 goals against average and a .922 save percentage. 

Both teams haven’t been scoring consistently as of late, which leads me to believe this will be a low-scoring game. 

NHL Best Bet: Under 6 -112 (play to -125)

February Record: 3-3 (-0.38 units)

2023-24 record: 83–96 (-35.16 units)

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