NHL Predictions – Thursday, October 24:
After one game on the NHL schedule Wednesday, we are treated to nine games tonight, and we have plays in five matchups. I have a little bit of everything tonight with my predictions. I have a couple of sides, including a play on a big underdog, a total and a player prop that pays more than 2/1. Let’s make some money tonight.
Florida Panthers at NY Rangers (-145; 5.5)
7:00 p.m. ET
This is the game of the night as the NY Rangers (5-0-1) host the Florida Panthers (4-3-1) in their first meeting since the Panthers eliminated the Rangers in six games in last season’s Eastern Conference Final.
The Rangers are one of four teams without a regulation loss, and their (+19) goal differential is tops in the NHL. The Blueshirts have scored four or more in all six games and given up two goals or less in all but one (6-5 OT loss to Utah HC). Artemi Panarin leads the Rangers in scoring with a point in every game (six goals, seven assists) and trails only the Avs Cale Makar (14 points) in the scoring race.
Florida enters tonight’s game coming off a 5-1 setback to the Minnesota Wild as Sergei Bobrovsky was denied his 400th career win. It was a rough night for Bob who gave up five goals on 16 shots and was given the third period off and replaced by Spencer Martin.
Tonight is the first of five games on the road for Florida, including games against the Islanders and Sabres, before heading to Finland for a pair of games against the Dallas Stars.
The Panthers are 6-2 to the Over this season, while five of the six Rangers games have had a combined six goals or more. Stat of the day. The Rangers and Panthers’ last 19 regular season meetings have had a combined six goals or more. According to the VSIN Betting Splits page, the Over is getting 86% of the bets and 89% of the handle.
NHL Prediction: Florida Panthers/New York Rangers Over 5.5 – 2 units
St. Louis Blues at Toronto Maple Leafs (-238; 6)
7:00 p.m. ET
The Maple Leafs are coming off a 6-2 loss in Columbus on Tuesday, and if you saw my appearances on Money Moves and Follow the Money before the game, I discussed that the Columbus game was a potential letdown spot for Toronto. The Leafs had just come off games against the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning and were on the back end of a back-to-back and three games in four nights. If that wasn’t enough, tonight’s opponent, the St. Louis Blues, is on the other side of the Jackets’ game. Why is that a big deal? The Leafs’ new bench boss, Craig Berube, was fired by St. Louis 28 games into last season. I expect an inspired effort from the Leafs to get their head coach a victory tonight. St. Louis native Joseph Woll will make his first start of the season after being activated from injured reserve.
Even with the Leafs and Blues sporting identical 4-3 records, Toronto opened as a prohibitive (-225) home favorite and has been getting hit hard. As of 12:23 p.m. ET, it’s been bet up to (-238). The Leafs have scored four goals or more in all four of their wins as well as covering the puck line (-1.5 goals) in all four victories. When you go inside the numbers and take a closer look at the Blues’ four wins, they have all been one-goal games, with two of them going to overtime.
St. Louis is not only coming off a 3-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday. They also lost number center Robert Thomas to a fractured ankle. The Blues announced Thomas will be re-evaluated in six weeks. The Thomas injury means captain Brayden Schenn gets bumped to the top line and plays on the number one power-play unit.
NHL Predictions: Toronto Maple Leafs in regulation (-145) – 2 units
Brayden Schenn over ½ assist +230 – ½ unit
Dallas Stars (-112; 5.5) at Boston Bruins
7:00 p.m. ET
The Bruins opened on Wednesday morning as a (-115) hone favorite, but as I expected, the line has since flipped, and the Stars have gone from dog to favorite (-112). Interesting to note that per the VSIN Bet Splits page, Dallas is getting 51% of the bets and only 41% of the money, yet the line is moving to Dallas.
The visiting Stars have dropped two of their last three games after winning four straight to start the season. Boston is coming off back-to-back losses and has seen their scoring dry up. Tuesday, the Bruins were blanked by the previously winless Nashville Predators, 4-0, and Saturday, they lost 2-1 in overtime to the Utah HC.
History between the two teams favors Boston. Dallas has lost five straight at Boston and eight of the last 10 meetings. The Stars’ last victory against the Bruins came in January 2022, and their last win in Boston was in January 2018.
NHL Prediction: Dallas Stars ML (-112) – 1 unit
Carolina Hurricanes (-198; 6) at Calgary Flames
9:00 p.m. ET
The Flames remain as one of four teams without a regulation loss. Nazem Kadri’s goal with 43 seconds remaining in regulation forced overtime and then it was Justin “Costco” Kirkland with the shootout winner as Calgary improved to 5-0-1. The 28-year-old Kirkland has been one of the many good stories in the Flames’ early season success, scoring his first career NHL goal versus Edmonton back on October 13.
I wonder if we are starting to see some regression in Calgary’s play. After putting up five points in his first two games, Jonathan Huberdeau has one point in his last four games. Free agent Anthony Mantha, who had points in his first three games that included a “Gordie Howe Hat Trick” (goal, assist and a fight) in the Flames opening night win over Vancouver, is pointless in his last three.
The Carolina Hurricanes will look for an Alberta sweep when they visit the Calgary Flames tonight. The Canes rallied from 2-0 down in the third and forced the extra session before Sebastian Aho’s blast beat Stuart Skinner to complete the comeback and knock off the Oilers 3-2 in overtime. The Hurricanes have won three of their last four after dropping their opening game to Tampa.
This game opened with Carolina as a (-150) favorite, and the money has been pouring in on the road favorite Hurricanes driving up the line to (-198). The betting community is riding the (3-2) Canes and fading the (5-0-1) Flames. Carolina is taking in 67% bets and 79 % of the money.
NHL Prediction: Carolina Hurricanes in regulation (-120) – 1 unit
San Jose Sharks at Los Angeles Kings (-325; 6)
10:00 p.m. ET
After opening the season with seven games on the road, the Los Angeles Kings (3-3-2) will play their home opener tonight against the winless San Jose Sharks (0-5-2). The Kings are coming off a 6-1 drubbing in Vegas on Tuesday night and have given up a combined 20 goals in their last three losses.
I am not going to give a deep dive analysis when breaking down this game other than to say the Kings have no business being a (-325) favorite over anyone, even a Sharks team in search of their first win.
Last season, San Jose came to Crypto.com arena as a (+300) road underdog and came away with a 4-3 shootout win over the Kings.
NHL Prediction: San Jose Sharks ML +260 – ¼ unit
