Vancouver vs Philadelphia
Vancouver will be this year’s Seattle Kraken for us, and Seattle will be last year’s Minnesota Wild. Vancouver comes in tonight 2-0 after a home-and-home surprising sweep of the Edmonton Oilers. Let’s first look into why the line opens up at only -130 tonight. This will be Vacouver’s second game on the road, but they have had time off to travel to Philly. Heading cross country on the road in an out-of-conference meeting is the biggest factor here in this line looking like it’s a trap. With the fears of the trap aside, Vancouver is an underrated and far better team going against the Flyers. The Flyers are in a rebuild and should finish as one of the worst teams in the league this year. The Flyers opened the season against Tortorella’s former team the Columbus Blue Jackets with a win, but were put down pretty easily by the Ottawa Senators in game two. The Flyers season should go more like their game against Ottawa than it did against Columbus, as well as tonight. Vancouver has twelve goals in their first two games against Edmonton with the Flyers giving up seven.
Minnesota vs Montreal
This is another betting line mismatch. I am more confident in Minnesota as the road team here than I am in Vancouver to win the game, but more confident in Vancouver’s ability to score. Minnesota has won 9 of the last 10 against Montreal, and as I stated in my last Montreal write up, this is a very bad team. Tonight’s line should be -200 in Minnesota’s favor, and if they were home, it should be close to -250. Spurgeon and Boldy are out for Minnesota, but I do believe the rest of the Wild’s lineup should be enough for them to win easily. Marc-Andre Fleury gets the start tonight against a Montreal franchise he’s had success against in the past. In terms of betting, the Wild are a team you can use in parlays, alt-line parlays, and straight plays tonight. Minnesota was a top-10 defensive team last year and their defensive strength against the Canadiens should continue tonight. Montreal has scored a total of four goals int heir last four games.
Tampa Bay vs Buffalo
Steven Stamkos is out again tonight but that just makes me stay off the Lightning side. Even with Stamkos out, I expect a lot of scoring in tonight’s game with Jonas Johansson expected to start and Devon Levi confirmed in net for Buffalo. Buffalo is 0-2 on the year after dropping their first two games to both New York teams (Rangers and Islanders), and Tampa Bay has dropped their last two after an opening night win. Neither team wants to lose a third in a row so I expect a wide-open, fast-paced game with two teams who have elite scoring superstars. This is a game that could have 8-9 goals in it, but the line opening it at 7 will limit how high I play it. I don’t see much value in a ladder game when you need 9 goals to cash an 8.5 +210 line. I would prefer to skip the ladder, play the 6.5 line, and play 9 +360 if anything.
Arizona vs Islanders
I am not laying -200 on the Islanders.
Edmonton vs Nashville
Edmonton should rebound tonight against a 1-2 Nashville team that I broke down in the opening article about how they’re rebuilding. Edmonton was flat out embarrassed against a Vancouver team they are far superior on paper, so expect Nashville to receive the punishment for that. The Oilers team total is a line you can look to ladder and I will be as well.
