Thursday has a ton of teams getting back in action with 11 games on the slate. The biggest favorites are the Florida Panthers who sit at -315 on the money line and take on the Montreal Canadiens at home. The Toronto Maple Leafs are the biggest road favorites at -295 and take on the Coyotes in Arizona. The closest spread of the day is out in Minnesota where the Wild are just -120 favorites at home over the Dallas Stars. All games have totals of 6.0 or more with five games having totals of 6.5 on the DraftKings Sportsbook, as of writing.
Vancouver Canucks at Winnipeg Jets
Canucks Money Line +125
The Canucks are getting the Jets at the right time. Winnipeg has lost three games in a row and is still without several key players in its lineup due to injury. Nikolaj Ehlers, Cole Perfetti and Blake Wheeler are just a few players that are unable to suit up. The Jets have seen some of their hot goaltending from the start of the season dry up as their last two games have resulted in a below .900 save percentage from their starting netminder.
The Canucks still have defensive issues of their own but their offense has been hot of late scoring five or more goals in three straight. Winnipeg looks like a team heading through some serious regression right now while Vancouver’s forwards are playing up to their potential. The plus money on Vancouver is well worth taking tonight.
Florida Panthers vs Montreal Canadiens
Panthers Puck Line -1.5 (-120)
This is a very small puck line number to take a team who is coming off three straight losses, but there are a ton of factors in play today that suggest a potential Panthers blowout. They’ll be playing the Canadiens who have now lost six of their last seven games and have not scored more than two goals in three straight. Montreal ranks 27th in xGF% on the season and is going to be outmatched 5v5 against a Florida team who ranks 4th in that same category.
The Panthers will also be getting Aleksander Barkov back for this game which will be a huge boon to both their depth chart and morale. Barkov was out for all three of the Panthers’ recent losses. Florida has tended to blow teams out at home this season as each of their last five home wins has come by two or more goals (8-5-3 home record).
Finally, there’s some history involved. Montreal blew out the Panthers 10-2 in a meaningless game late last season. Those are the kinds of losses teams remember, though, and certainly, the superior Panthers would not mind a little payback in their first meeting of this new season.
Logan Couture over 2.5 SOG +110/ anytime scorer +195
Couture heads into this game having gone goalless now in seven straight games. Despite the slump, it’s been a solid season thus far for the veteran who already has 14 goals on the season and seems like a good target tonight against the lowly Flyers. Philadelphia currently allows the 13th most shots against in the league and will be starting Samuel Ersson in net, who had just a .910 save percentage in the AHL this season and got pummeled for five goals in his first NHL start against Carolina.
Couture has been shooting the puck more consistently of late and is still playing big minutes for San Jose, averaging over 25 shifts per game. It’s a good time to take the solid odds available on his SOG and goal props today.
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