NHL Predictions and Best Bets:
Here are tonight’s NHL predictions and best bets.
Florida Panthers at Ottawa Senators
Florida (-110) at Ottawa (-110) – Total 5.5 (Over, -120)
7:30 p.m. ET
It’s the much-anticipated return of Brady Tkachuk to Ottawa tonight as the Florida Panthers make a visit to Canada’s nation’s capital. After going through the first six games without a goal, Brady ended his goal drought with back-to-back natural hat tricks and then a two-assist game in Saturday’s 8-3 win over Seattle. The win over Seattle was highlighted by a pair of Florida hat tricks, one by Carter Verhaeghe and another by Sam Bennett. The Verhaeghe hat trick marked the third consecutive game a Panthers player had a natural hat trick. The Panthers have scored 18 goals over their past three games.
Ottawa has been off since Saturday, losing 3-1 to the Philadelphia Flyers, handing the Flyers their first win of the season. The goaltending matchup for tonight will be Akira Schmid for the Panthers and Linus Ullmark for the Senators. Schmid takes over as the number one goalie as Jacob Markstrom was placed on injured reserve with an upper body injury. Schmid has faced the Senators twice in his career and is 2-0-0 with 1.73 goals against average and a .927 save percentage. Ullmark is 14-6-1 with 2.79 goals against average and a .920 save percentage in his career versus the Panthers.
I am going to stay off the side and total and will stick to player props with a big focus on the Tkachuk brothers. Brady has had 3+ shots on goal in four straight games and six of his last eight games and points in four straight games. Matthew has points in eight straight and 10 assists on his current four-game assist streak. Seth Jones has had 2+ shots on goal in six of his last seven games and 3+ shots on goal in five of his last seven games overall. When it comes to head-to-head versus the Sens, Jones has had 2+ shots on goal in six of his last seven meetings against Ottawa. Ottawa’s Drake Batherson has goals in each of the last four meetings with Florida.
NHL Predictions and Best Bets:
Matthew Tkachuk 1+ assist (+105) – 1 unit
Matthew Tkachuk brothers point parlay (-107) – 2 units
Seth Jones 2+ shots on goal (-125) – 2 units
Seth Jones 3+ shots on goal (+245) – ½ unit
Brady Tkachuk 3+ SOG/Jones 2+ SOG (+148) – 1 unit
Drake Batherson anytime goal (+230) – ¼ unit
Lars Eller anytime goal (+750) – .10 units
Philadelphia Flyers at Buffalo Sabres
Philadelphia (+155) at Buffalo (-190) – Total 5.5 (Over, -135)
7:30 p.m. ET
Break up the Flyers. After losing their first nine games to start the season, the Flyers have won back-to-back games with victories at home over the Senators and Avalanche and gave up just three goals in the two wins. The Sabres have dropped four of their last six games, giving up four goals in each of the losses (also gave up four goals in a 5-4 win).
The first play that stands out for me in this one is the Over 5.5 goals. The two teams have combined for 6+ goals in each of their last 11 meetings. After being held to two goals or less in their first nine games, Philly has scored three goals in each of their last two games and Buffalo has yielded 3+ goals in each of their last six games. Add to that, the winning team in each of the last 11 meetings has scored at least four goals and in 10 of the 11 games, the winning team scored five or more goals while the losing team has scored fewer than two goals just once (5-1 Flyers win).
On to the player props. The Flyers’ Matvei Michkov has goals (four) in each of the last three games and has points in four of his six games versus Buffalo (all multi-point games). Trevor Zegras has points in six straight versus Buffalo and three goals in four games against Sabres netminder, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. On the Buffalo side, Jack Quinn has goals (three) in each of the last two games and goals in five of seven against the Flyers. Quinn’s linemate Zach Benson is riding a four-game assist streak (5).
NHL Predictions and Best Bets:
Over 5.5 (-135) – 2 units
Matvei Michkov 2+ points (+370) – ¼ unit
Trevor Zegras anytime goal (+275) – ¼ unit
Trevor Zegras 1+ assist (+170) – ¼ unit
Jack Quinn anytime goal (+230) – ¼ unit
Quinn/Benson point parlay (+120) – ½ unit
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