Top NHL Betting Picks of the Week – September 30th Edition

The St. Louis Blues open their Stanley Cup defense later this week as the 2019-20 National Hockey League regular season gets underway. There are many questions to answer going in — the Boston Bruins pushed St. Louis to seven games before falling in the Stanley Cup Finals and have basically brought their whole core back. However, several of their key players are well into their 30s now. That means they might have veteran leadership to avoid Cup hangover; but they also might be more fragile. Can they make it out of the Eastern Conference again? Florida has brought in Joel Quenneville (with three Stanley Cups, all in Chicago) as their head coach — can he put together a solid defense in front of Sergei Bobrovsky? These are just two questions that are in hockey fans’ minds. If you are planning on including the first week of the campaign in your NHL betting, don’t miss our primo picks.

Top NHL Betting Picks of the Week – September 30th Edition

NHL Power Rankings: Lightning, Bruins hungry for redemption https://t.co/udZN4K7xmX pic.twitter.com/QVzSuMJkSH

— theScore NHL (@theScoreNHL) September 30, 2019

Wednesday, October 2

Ottawa at Toronto (7:00pm ET)

Toronto enters what looks like a make-or-break season for coach Mike Babcock, who has energized a youthful core but has flamed out in the first round of the playoffs in each of the past two years. The team has opened up the vault for Auston Matthews, John Tavares and Mitch Marner, taking the team to the salary cap at the possible expense of team depth. The disorderly conduct charges hanging over Matthews’ head make the beginning of the season a challenge as well. Then there’s the question as to whether Frederik Andersen is a top-flight goalie. Ottawa is still in rebuilding mode; the oddsmakers have them set at 68.5 points as an over/under, after a 64-point season last year. They have some great youth in Brady Tkachuk and Thomas Chabot, and they have five picks in the first two rounds of the 2020 draft. For now, though, it is a bunch of retreads leading the way, such as Ron Hainsey, Mikkel Boedker and Artem Anisimov. A team like that will not be favored to win against a Toronto team that should have the talent and impetus to get up and running. However, that first-round hangover, along with the  Matthews drama, makes me lean toward an early upset for the Senators. MLB Betting Prediction: Ottawa 3, Toronto 2

Washington at St. Louis (8:00pm ET, NBC Sports)

This could be the last season in the Capitals’ Stanley Cup window, particularly if they cannot find ways to ink Braden Holtby and Nicklas Backstrom to extensions. Sending Matt Niskanen out and bringing in Radko Gudas on the blueline opens up the possibility of some bad mistakes. Jonas Siegenthaler has big shoes to fill now that Brooks Orpik has retired. Brendan Leipsic, Garnet Hathaway and Richard Panik have come on board as forwards who will provide some depth, and Washington is still over the salary cap pending the end of Evgeny Kuznetsov’s suspension. The St. Louis Blues were swirling around the Western Conference drain when the calendar turned from 2018 to 2019, but then they went on an historic run that pushed them all the way to a title. They needed 26 games to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup, leading to a summer when many of the team’s players were recovering from injuries. Craig Berube, who coached the team into shape after coming on midyear, is the right type of coach to get the Blues back in shape, but will they be hungry and healthy enough against a Washington team that is ready to get back to the Finals themselves. MLB Betting Prediction: St. Louis 3, Washington 1