NHL Predictions – Expert Picks on Sunday, December 8:
It’s a busy Sunday on the ice with seven games on the schedule, highlighted by the return of Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko as Vancouver hosts Tampa. It will be Demko’s first start since the opening round of last year’s playoff. The night on ice ends in Dallas with the Calgary Flames visiting American Airlines Arena. Goals, goals, and more goals are the theme when these two get together. The last six meetings have seen the teams combine for seven goals or more. Enjoy the day on ice.
Tampa Bay Lightning at Vancouver Canucks (-110, 6)
4 p.m. ET
It will be a welcome site for the Canucks and their fans as goalie Thatcher Demko will make his first start since Game 1 of round one of last season’s Stanley Cup Playoffs. I do wonder why Demko, who served as the backup on Friday night against the Blue Jackets, didn’t start that game as opposed to this afternoon against a tougher Lightning team that he has struggled against in his career. Demko is 1-3 lifetime with a 3.04 GAA and a .902 save percentage. At the other end of the ice, Andrei Vasilevskiy will get the start for Tampa. Vasilevskiy is 9-3 lifetime with a 2.19 GAA and .924 save percentage against the Canucks.
The Canucks opened as a (-130) home favorite and money has been pouring in on Tampa moving this game to (-110) on both sides. The Lightning are taking 61% of the bets and 74% of the money, according to our VSIN Betting Splits page. Tampa has won eight of the last 10 meetings versus Vancouver, including a 4-1 victory earlier in the season. The Lightning own the league’s second-best offense this season (3.92 goals/game), have scored four or more goals in 10 of their 14 wins this season and are expected to have leading scorer Nikita Kucherov back in the lineup. Kucherov has missed the last two games with an undisclosed injury. The Canucks have given up 4+ goals in nine of their 11 losses.
Jake Guentzel has goals in back-to-back games, four goals in his last five games, and has found the back of the net five times in four games against Demko. The Canucks’ Brock Boesser has five goals in 10 games against Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Defending home ice has been a struggle for the Canucks this season. Their win Friday over Columbus was just their fourth in 12 games. Vancouver is (4-4) as the home favorite but (0-4) as the home underdog.
NHL Predictions: Tampa Bay Lightning ML (-110) – 2 units
Tampa Bay Lightning TT Over 3.5 (+145) – 1 unit
Jake Guentzel anytime goal (+165) – ¼ unit
Brock Boesser anytime goal (+225) – ¼ unit
Elias Pettersson over ½ assist (+120) – ¼ unit
Connor Garland anytime goal (+210) – ¼ unit
NY Islanders at Ottawa Senators (-140, 6)
5 p.m. ET
The Islanders are coming off a 4-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday and visit Canada’s nation’s capital today in search of back-to-back wins for only the second time this season. The Islanders are also playing games on consecutive days for the fourth time this season. New York is 1-2 in the second half of back-to-backs.
These two teams met in November, with New York defeating Ottawa 4-2. The Islanders have won seven of the last 10 overall between the two teams and four of the last five at Ottawa. The win for the Islanders on Saturday was just their third in the past 11 games. Keep an eye on the Isles, Oliver Wahlstrom, who has three goals in four games against today’s Sens starting goalie Anton Forsberg.
The Senators are coming off a 3-1 win over the hapless Nashville Predators on Saturday. Ottawa has won four of their past six games and three straight on home ice. Tim Stutzle leads the Senators in both assists (22) and points (32) and has seven “apples” in his last five games and 11 assists in 10 career games vs the Islanders. Claude Giroux has also enjoyed success against the Islanders with 73 points in 71 career games.
NHL Predictions: Tim Stutzle Over ½ assist (-130) – 1 unit
Claude Giroux Over ½ point (+110) – 1 unit
Oliver Wahlstrom anytime goal (+550) – ¼ unit
Regulation Draw (+350) – ¼ unit
Columbus Blue Jackets at Winnipeg Jets (-165, 6)
The road has not been kind to the Blue Jackets, with just three wins in 14 games away from home. Columbus has taken advantage of getting teams on back-to-backs (although those were at home), winning four times in this spot. The Jets are not only in a back-to-back, it’s also three games in four nights, four in six, and five in eight days. Winnipeg is on a mini two-game winning streak after defeating the Blackhawks, 4-2 in Chicago yesterday. They have won three straight over the Blue Jackets, including a 6-2 win back in November with today’s starting goalie, Eric Comrie, between the pipes. Comrie has lost his last three starts, and he has given up three or more goals in each of his five other starts this season.
Columbus has scored at least three goals in three of their last four games at Winnipeg and seven of their last nine games overall. The first period of games of late have been high events for the Jackets. Eleven of the last 13 games have had at least two goals scored in the opening 20 minutes.
NHL Predictions: Jackets TT over 2.5 (-130) – 1 unit
Jackets ML (+140) – ¼ unit
Jackets/Jets 1st period Over 1.5 (-140)
Jackets/Jets Over 6 (-120)Best of the Rest:
Colorado/New Jersey 1st period Over 1.5 (-145) – 1 unit
Calgary/Dallas Over 6 (-110) – 1 unit
