Expert NHL Best Bets and Predictions for Wednesday, January 17

NHL Best Bets And Expert Picks

It’s a pretty light Wednesday in the NHL, with only three games, so tonight feels like a fun night to play some props. 

The matchups aren’t very strong, but the TNT game will be the one that I will have my attention on this evening. That matchup features the Buffalo Sabres and the Chicago Blackhawks.

Chicago at Buffalo (-298, 6)

The Buffalo Sabres have had an interesting start to the season. They’ve faced some injury adversity and haven’t been able to find much consistency. Tonight is an opportunity for them to continue pushing in the right direction, as they have won four out of their last six games. 

Since Christmas, one thing the Sabres have been doing well is firing pucks on net. They have the third-most shots on goal per game in that time window, generating 35.0 shots per 60 minutes, and a big reason for that number is Tage Thompson. Thompson has been a bit snake-bitten in his last five games, considering he’s only scored two goals on 17 shots. Since pucks haven’t been going in as much as he’d like them to, I imagine he’d try to take advantage in a game like tonight against a weaker defensive opponent in the Chicago Blackhawks. 

The Blackhawks allow the sixth-most shots on goal against per game, giving up 32.6 a night, which gives their goaltenders extra work on a nightly basis. To make matters worse, the Blackhawks haven’t been finding the back of the net lately to bail their goalies out, which is why they haven’t been winning hockey games. Of course, it doesn’t help when they’re missing their star player, Connor Bedard. 

Chicago has only scored four goals in their last four games combined but have only been able to score one goal in each of those four contests. The Sabres haven’t announced their starter yet, but this team has been defending much better over the course of their last six games. 

Since the new year, the Sabres have the third-best goals against per game, only allowing 1.83 goals against each contest, and the Blackhawks are in dead last in scoring, only being able to put up 1.38 goals per game. 

The Sabres desperately need all the points they can get, so we should see a ton of urgency from this group tonight. I think they’ll defend well, and I feel that Thompson will carry the offense. 

Best Bets: Tage Thompson over 3.5 shots on goal -110 (play to -125) | Chicago Blackhawks Team Total Under 1.5 +175 (play to +155)