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NHL Betting Games of the Week – October 3rd Edition
It’s October.#NHLFaceoff pic.twitter.com/STAvBaWWKO
— NHL (@NHL) October 1, 2017
Wednesday, October 4, 2017, 8:00pm ET (NBC Sports)
St. Louis at Pittsburgh
NFL Betting Odds: Pittsburgh -112 The Pittsburgh Penguins said goodbye to Marc-Andre Fleury, the goalie who carried them through the first three rounds of last year’s postseason, as he went to Las Vegas in the expansion draft. The Pens are putting their hopes on young Matt Murray, who did backstop them through the Stanley Cup Finals, as the inconsistent Antti Niemi, whose name is on the Stanley Cup but whose time in Dallas was marked by subpar performance, comes in as the new backup. The Penguins also lost Nick Bonino and Matt Cullen, who kept the Pittsburgh penalty kill respectable and combined to average 28 goals per season the past two years. Carter Rowney and Greg McKegg fill their place from the youth movement. Can they get that dynamic Pittsburgh offense up and running? St. Louis has qualified for the postseason six straight seasons, but that didn’t stop management from replacing head coach Ken Hitchcock (second in franchise wins in St. Louis with 248) with Mike Yeo on February 1 and sending defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk away at the trade deadline. They went 22-8-2 under Yeo and won seven of their last 10 games, lasting until the second round of the playoffs, where they fell to eight-seed Nashville. Key additions include forwards Brayden Schenn, Beau Bennett and Oskar Sundqvist. Schenn gives a high-flying offense some depth, and the blueliners in St Louis were already strong, but locking down youngster Colton Parayko in their defensive corps makes them strong down the road as well. Given that the Penguins will be hanging their championship banner in front of their home crowd, I’m picking them to get the win in their opener.Latest NFL Betting Trends for Opening Week
- St. Louis is 1-5 ATS in its last 6 games
- St. Louis is 16-8 SU in its last 24 games
- The total has gone UNDER in 4 of St. Louis’s last 5 games
- Pittsburgh is 4-2 ATS in its last 6 games
- Pittsburgh is 5-2 SU in its last 7 games
Thursday, October 5, 2017, 7:00pm ET (FSTN, NESN)
Nashville at Boston
NHL Betting Odds: TBA The Predators went from the last team into the playoffs in the Western Conference all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals, pushing the Penguins hard in their own chase for a title. Bringing in Bonino from Pittsburgh gives them a legitimate #2 center, a question that bothered them last year. No one in the NHL has a better four-man defensive corps: Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, P.K. Subban and Mattias Ekholm. Their first line — Viktor Arvidsson, Filip Forsberg and Ryan Johansen — showed terrific chemistry down the stretch last year, and none of them are older than 25, which means that this team is built not just for today but for many down the road. Goalie Pekka Rinne was the team’s rock in the first three rounds of the postseason before hitting some mental hurdles in the Cup Finals, and he returns hoping to push another deep playoff run.
Surprisingly, the Boston Bruins stood pat after failing to make the playoffs. They did resign David Pastrnak, their own free agent, and they brought in defenseman Paul Postma, but there were no major changes to a team that could score with the best but had a hard time because of the gaffes they made on defense. Also, they did win 18 of their last 27 games after firing head coach Claude Julien and replacing him with Bruce Cassidy. They do have two solid scoring lines.
However, they don’t have much depth on the scoring lines, and Tuukka Rask does not have a decent backup behind him in net, which is why he simply wore down over the course of the long season. Given all of the questions that the Bruins face, I see the Predators coming in focused on making a statement in the wake of that Stanley Cup Finals loss and picking up a road win to open their season. 