Thursday’s slate has eight games with lots of close matchups on tap. The biggest favorite are the Toronto Maple Leafs who are -320 home favorites on the DraftKings Sportsbook, and will be hosting the Philadelphia Flyers whom they beat 5-2 back in November. From a scheduling perspective, the Minnesota Wild are the only team who were in action yesterday and will be on the tail end of a back-to-back tonight against the Sharks on the road.
Seattle Kraken at Vancouver Canucks
Kraken Money Line -120
The Kraken are coming off a couple of solid wins against the Blues (who had won four games in a row) and the Jets, one of the top teams in the Western Conference. This team still ranks as one of the better offensive units in the league, ranking sixth in goals scored per game and 13th in xGF%. Tonight they’ll take on a Canucks team who has been bleeding goals against of late and sports just a 5-9-1 home record on the season.
Vancouver has allowed 4.5 goals against over their last six games and have seen their goaltending crater under a defense that’s allowed the ninth-most high-danger scoring chances on the season. The Kraken are the superior team in pretty much every way right now, even in net where Martin Jones and Philipp Grubauer have been solid of late. This line has already moved from -120 to -130 but Seattle still looks like solid value and make for a great money line target for today.
Los Angeles Kings vs Calgary Flames
Kings Money Line +100
The last four games between these two teams have been decided by a single goal so we should expect another close battle today. With that in mind, I'm perfectly happy to take the plus money on the Kings in this spot who sport a 9-5-1 home record this year and have won three games in a row now, including a 3-2 road win over the league-leading Boston Bruins a week ago.
The Kings will also be taking on a Flames team who simply hasn’t been as good when outside of Calgary as they’ve managed just a 5-6-4 road record and also have just a -3.0 goal differential when on the road. Take the home underdogs in this spot who look undervalued given how close these teams rate out on paper.
Andrei Svechnikov over 2.5 SOG -140
Svechnikov comes into tonight’s slate averaging exactly 3.0 shots on goal per game to this point in the season. He’s been remarkably consistent in this category of late as well, going for between 3-4.0 SOG in five of his last six games. The Penguins are a sneaky good matchup in a lot of ways as they’ve allowed the fifth-most shots on net to this point in the season. The juice on this prop is a little higher than we’d like to pay obviously but we can expect Svechnikov to be out on the ice for 22 or more shifts today against a tough division opponent. He’s gone over this prop in four of his last five meetings against Pittsburgh as well and makes for a good over target again today.
Jordan Eberle over 2.5 SOG +125
Eberle is in the midst of renaissance season of sorts as the former Oiler has now amassed 25 points in 31 games this year. The winger comes into this game playing solid minutes as a part of the Kraken’s top six and also sees top-unit power-play minutes. With all that in mind, it’s surprising that we are getting such a good price to go over on a 2.5 SOG prop with him tonight. He’s averaged 3.6 SOG over his last five games and is taking on a Canucks defense that has allowed 33.0 or more shots against in three of their last five games.
Eberle’s also taking on the worst penalty-kill unit in the league today so the +260 price on him to score a goal looks very inviting as well. He’s tallied two goals now in his last five games and is still at just an 11.3% shooting percentage for the season, which is under his career average.
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