Anaheim vs Philly:

• There’s no data here that’s going to tell me who’s going to win this game. 
• This game comes down to these points and it’s up to whether you believe it’s worth investing money into:
  • Both teams are playing on b2b nights.
  • Both teams will be starting their back up goaltenders (Anthony Stolarz / Samuel Errson)
    • Errson played half the game against Boston after Carter Hart was pulled and is coming off a shutout win over Buffalo 8 days ago.
  • Both teams have star players offensively and defensively like San Jose, meaning, while they may not win many games as a team, both offenses have the skilled players to put up multiple goals each night.
  • Anaheim is giving up the most goals per game in the league with over 4, while Philly gives up 3.22 on average per game.
  • THe numbers should tell you both teams should have a low number of shot attempts in the game so efficiency on converting on those shots needs to be high tonight. 
  • I expect this to be a game where Terry and Zegras take over for Anaheim and Hayes and Konecny take over for Philly. Both teams should see their top D players get involved with Klingberg for Anaheim and DeAngelo for Philly. 
  • I will be playing the over expecting bad bad defensive hockey where both sides star players put on a clinic. 

FLorida vs Toronto:

• Florida will be playing back to back tonight against a Toronto team coming off back to back losses to Detroit and Boston. 
• Spencer Knight is on IR so unless Bob is playing b2b, which I don’t think helps the argument, Toronto should see Alex Lyon in net. 
• Auston Matthews should be full speed ahead and this should be a game Toronto takes control of. 
• Toronto is 15-3-4 at home against a sub .500 Florida team who will be traveling from Buffalo tonight. 
• With Lyon in net, Toronto should put up a minimum of 4 tonight. WHo is in net for Toronto will determine how I play this game. If we see Matt Murray starting for Toronto I will lean towards playing the over at 6. If Ilya Samsonov is in net for Toronto I will lean towards Toronto’s ML. 
• Surprisingly, Toronto is a top 5 team defensively in terms of goals against per game and shots against per game. 
• This will be the first meeting between the two teams this season since the Tkachuk trade and Florida has won the last two meetings. Toronto needs to win tonight. THere should be more urgency and fresher legs from Toronto. 

Minnesota vs Washington:

• Personally do not have a read on this game.
• Washington is coming off a 3-0 come from behind OT win against the Isles tonight and while they should be motivated by that, they lost their last two to Philly and are playing an out of conference team they don’t see very often. 
• Neither Minnesota nor Washington have shown consistency against inter conference teams. This game could end 2-1, 3-2, or 4-3. I do not know what to expect tonight.

Winnipeg vs Montreal:

• I love Winnipeg this year and this should be an easy win for them, but it’s a Canada Canada matchup. These games provide a little more intensity to them and a team like Montreal is going to try and grind them out.
  • Whether or not they will be able to will be up to Winnipeg more than it will be up to Montreal.
• WInnipeg is the far superior team but what Winnipeg has been lacking over the years isn’t skill, it’s leadership. This locker room doesn’t know just how good they are and how legitimate of a contender they could be. If Winnipeg allows themselves to play down to Montreal, it will be a slow paced low scoring game. If Winnipeg goes out and takes control then this could be a rout. 
• If Connor Hellebuyck starts for Winnipeg I will be deciding last minute which way I am going to play this game. If David Rittich starts I will be laddering the Jets team total. If Rittich starts and Montreal gets to him early, it should open Winnipeg up and allow Montreal to push the total. If Hellebuyck starts, Montreal could find themselves shut down offensively, slowing the game down for WInnipeg to just coast to a 3-0 / 4-1 type win. Keep an eye on this game for Winnipeg to see if they can stay out of their own way. 

Sabres vs Chicago:

• Any other day I would be betting the over. THe NHL’s top offense for the majority of the season going against a team giving up nearly 4 goals per game. BUffalo has not looked good recently and this is the phase of Buffalo where we need to sell on them. 
• Since Buffalo had two games postponed due to the weather, their offensive has been wildly inconsistent. In their past five games they’ve been shutout by Philly, they looked slow against Seattle. Even though they put up three goals that game, they were slow in the first two periods and didn’t get the third goal until a meaningless last minute goal with the extra attacker in a 4-2 game. They put up a dud in the third period. They did not play well in Winnipeg on the road, but put up 4 against Nashville in a game that the numbers said they should do well in. Tonight, they put up 1 goal at home against a Florida team they should have kept pace with. I do not trust them to play well against Chicago and I would rather jump on the game live if it starts out well than play them here. If you think I’m wrong, it is a good spot to play them.
  
  

COlumbus vs Nashville:

• Columbus is going to do against Nashville, what we expected them to do against the Rangers. 
• Nashville will be another team on a back to back tonight but this is not a matchup I see it being a factor in terms of scoring. I do believe it will be a factor defensively. 
• Juuse Saros started tonight for Nashville so Kevin Lankinen should be in net and Daniil Tarasov should be in net for Columbus with Merzlikins starting tonight. 
• I expect a high scoring game that could see an edge in goaltending Columbus’ way.
  
  

Seattle vs Edmonton:

• We have made very good money on this matchup and we will press it again tomorrow. THis is a simple continue the trend bet, but one I very much like. Seattle is coming off their record setting 7 game road win streak, which I explained in chat last night was why I did not like them tonight against Tampa. It’s just fate. There is nothing wrong with this team, they most likely lose again tonight, all based on the fact they just won 7 road games in a row and are due to come back down to earth. Let it happen without panic and play this game tonight expecting Edmonton to take advantage of it. Seattle will be on a back to back and it could get ugly. I see this as a 5-2 minimum game for Edmonton tonight.