Expert NHL Best Bets and Predictions for Thursday, March 28

NHL Best Bets

Tampa didn’t make us sweat at all last night. What a game that was between the Lightning and Bruins. We’re back at it tonight with 14 different games across the board. I also want to shout out that today is the start of the Division I college hockey NCAA tournament as well, so there is a ton of great hockey to watch all day today. Let’s get into my NHL best bets.

Nashville at Arizona (+142, 6)

The Nashville Predators have been the hottest team in the entire NHL over the past six weeks. They’re 16-0-2 in their last 18 games, and it seems like nobody can take them down. The Arizona Coyotes are coming off a solid 6-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, but let’s face facts. This is not a good hockey team. 

The Predators have been defending incredibly well, and that is also largely due to the play of Juuse Saros, who has looked unbeatable at times in net. Saros is skating to a 12-0-2 record with a .932 save percentage and a 1.92 goals against average. As a team, the Preds have only been allowing 1.83 goals against per game, which is the best in the NHL in that span. They’ve only allowed seven goals against in their last five games combined. 

To put that in perspective just a little more, the Coyotes have been giving up 3.58 goals per game in that span, so players like Filip Forsberg on Nashville, who has been on an absolute tear, should be able to continue putting up points. Forsberg has 15 goals and 13 assists for 31 points in his last 18 games. 

One area where the Predators can exploit the Coyotes is on the power play. Arizona’s penalty kill has been struggling, as it’s only at a 68.9% conversion rate. If they aren’t able to stay disciplined, this game could get ugly. 

This one should be all Nashville. 

NHL Best Bet: Nashville Predators to win in regulation -105 (play to -115)

NY Rangers at Colorado (-162, 6.5)

To me, this is the game of the night. The New York Rangers and Colorado Avalanche could be a potential Stanley Cup Final preview as both teams are right at the top of the league and are only separated by three points. 

The Avalanche just had their winning streak end to a surprising loss on home ice against the Montreal Canadiens, so they’ll be hungry to get back in the win column. Nathan MacKinnon has been the story for this Avalanche team this season, especially when they play at home, considering that he has recorded a point in all 35 of their games at Ball Arena this season. MacKinnon, Jonathan Drouin and Mikko Rantanen have been on fire in their last 10 games. These three have combined for 53 points in their last 10 games. 

The Rangers have been playing some very strong hockey as of late as well and are coming off of an emotion overtime win against the Philadelphia Flyers in their last game. The Rangers have scored 15 goals in their last three games, and the big guys like Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, and Adam Fox have been buzzing. Panarin has eight goals and nine assists in his last 10 games, while Zibanejad has five goals with four assists. Fox has added five goals of his own with nine assists. 

Both teams have been averaging north of three goals per game since mid-February. Colorado scored 3.82 goals per game, and the Rangers scored 3.67 per contest. Both teams’ power plays have been buzzing as well as they’re each converting at a higher than 25% rate. 

I think we will see a fun, high-scoring affair between these two teams. 

NHL Best Bet: Over 6.5 -102 (play to -115)

March Record: 27-17 (+6.99 units)

2023-24 record: 127–128 (-25.97 units)