Written by Scott on Wednesday, December 20th, 2023
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It was a busy night of hockey yesterday with 11 games. Went 1-1 with the tips.
The Kings beat the Sharks 4-1 and I had them to win in regulation. They are 13-1-1 on the road this season which is best in the league.
I had the Knights to beat the Hurricanes and I couldn’t have been more wrong. The Canes were up 6-1 and eventually won 6-3.
Matthews scored twice but the Leafs never led and lost to the Rangers 5-2. The Blue Jackets went nuts and beat the Sabres 9-4, Marchenko scored a natural hat trick. The Wild beat the Bruins 4-3 in overtime with Pasta scoring twice in the loss and Kaprizov twice in the win.
The Flyers beat the Devils 3-2 in overtime, the Canucks beat the Preds 5-2. The Sens were up 3-0 but ended up losing 4-3 to the Coyotes and the Hawks beat the Avalanche 3-2.
Only 3 games tonight.
Islanders vs Capitals Betting Tips:
These teams have played each other twice this season with each road team winning once.
The Islanders played last night and beat the Oilers 3-1. The win snapped their 2 game losing skid and have gone 7-1-2 over last 10. They are 18th in GPG, 15th in GAPG and on the road they have gone 6-5-2.
The Caps are 5-3-2 over last 10. They’re ranked 30th in GPG, 29th in SOG and 10th in GAPG. At home they have gone 8-4-2.
Against Metropolitan divison teams the Isles are 5-2-3 and the Caps 7-2-1.
The Caps have been one of the higher scoring teams for years but to see them ranking 30th in goals tells you that Ovechkin and the other guys are having an off season.
The Caps are the slight favorites for this game but I personally can’t take them here. And the Isles are another team that I can’t back due to their road play and on a back to back.
Red Wings vs Jets Betting Tips:
The Wings have lost their last 3 games. Larkin is back so once he gets back up to speed they should turn things around.
The Jets lost their last game but are 6-3-1 over last 10. They still don’t have Connor who’s on the IR and Morrissey missed practice yesterday after taking a puck to the face vs the Canadiens on Monday.
On the road the Wings are 7-6-1 and at home the Jets are 9-5-2. These teams played in October and the Jets won that 4-1.
The Wings are 5th in GPG, the Jets 11th. The Wings are 17th in GAPG, the Jets 6th.
With the Jets missing two key players I would say it should be a win for the Red Wings. But they are on the road and on a 3 game skid so it’s tough to call a winner here.
Kraken vs Kings Betting Tips:
The Kraken have lost their last 2 games and are 2-4-4 over last 10. They have had a rough season so far going 10-14-9. They are having troubles scoring ranking 28th with 2.70 GPG and allowing 3.18 which has them ranked 15th.
The Kings played last night and won 4-1 against the Sharks.
The Kings have a much better road record than they do at home so I’m not backing them here especially after playing last night and I’m certainly not touching the Kraken either so it’s a pass for me.
I’m only making entertaining bets today and my expectations are super low. I’m expecting to lose these. I’m taking two shots on goal scorers on Winnipeg.
Pionk to score +750.
Scheifele to score +155.
You could swap Scheifele with Perfetti who’s going at a +250 price. But I didn’t want to take all three as I would still need two to come thru for a profit unless it’s Pionk.
Detroit has a goaltending issue with injuries to Lyon and Husso, and allowed goals to both Gudas and Mintykov from a Long Range Low Danger area. It also allowed a rebound goal from Henrique, off a shot from Fowler. While Gudas has 5 goals I wouldn’t call him a goal scorer as I believe the most he’s ever scored in a season is 6 back with Philly.
Morrissey could be a safer option than Pionk and is going at about +450. I will be looking for a game to take him soon but he didn’t fit the profile of the type of shot taker I was looking for vs the Redwings and Reimer who looked rusty in the Ducks game and may still be tonight. I didn’t see that Morrissey was definitely out for this game, and they still were taking odds on him, so you may wanna check if considering him. Sometimes the sites I use are slow to update.
Scheifele could get something on the Power Play as the Red Wings take a lot of penalties. But the Jets haven’t exactly been great there. They have at least been taking more shots on the Power Play over the last 4 games. But may still have chemistry issues on who plays what role without Connor.
I thought he had better chance on a rebound or garbage goal from in front which Reimer seemed to struggle with. It was between him and Perfetti for me and I simply picked one of the two.
Once again the confidence level on these two Pionk and Scheifele are super low, and I’m expecting to lose. However it gives me something to bet on and adds to the sample size of players I’m trying to identify as I hope to get more consistency with my goal scorer props. They may also be too ambitious of a play and not come thru.