Welcome back, everyone! The ‘23-’24 season starts tonight at 5:30 pm EST with the Predators and the Lightning. Gameflows.com will be a much different experience than you may have been used to in the past. This site and community will be about three things: comradery, support, and success. I do not tolerate arguing in the chat with each other or unproductive criticism. When you lose, I lose, and when I lose, I know what you all experience. Everyone will have the opportunity to vent and stress when needed, but we will do it productively for us to grow as a community while also enjoying all the success we have here. I am not, and will not be someone who wants betting/gambling to consume your lives. I am not someone who will encourage you to bet money you don’t have. Family will always come first here, and this community has built an amazing expectation of how and when to sweat and spend time together during the games, and when to be out with your family and loved ones. I also do not play volume or make plays just to play. You will see me post 2-3 plays daily, take a day or two off, and have a heavy volume day maybe once a week. Consistency is what we strive for here. I would rather hit 2-3 2U plays multiple days in a row, make our money, enjoy the rest of the day, and consistently cash out than worry about betting all day and night. When I win an early game, I am someone who truly enjoys taking that money and spending the rest of the day with my significant other and kid. Do not be afraid to have that mentality and make that your expectation. Being successful is knowing when to accept a day as a losing day and moving on to tomorrow as well. We won’t chase and we will understand that losing days happen. We need to make sure we have the mindset to know that losing days will happen and be okay. Please make sure you get signed up for your package ASAP. The discord and website will be going behind the paywall at 8 p.m. tonight. With all that said, let’s get into tonight’s matchups!
Nashville vs Tampa Bay:
Nashville went into a complete firesale last season and this team is drastically different than a year ago. Ryan O’Reilly signing here is a bit perplexing knowing how weak Nashville will be up front. Barry Trotz came in as the new GM and the Preds have a stockpile of picks for the 2024 draft. With a first, three seconds, and two third-rounders in this year’s draft, and two firsts in next year’s draft, the Preds may not be down and out for long. I do not expect much from them this season and will most likely be a team we stay away from. Defensively they have arguably the best defenseman in the league with Roman Josi and have added some veteran depth on the blueline having Tyson Barrie, Ryan McDonough, and Luke Schenn. Juuse Saros in net will help keep a lot of Nashville’s games close. I don’t see much about Nashville worth liking with them going on the road to a Tampa Bay team that has been superior to them in the past few years. Tampa Bay is a much different team this year and a team I believe has a very high chance to miss the playoffs. Andrei Vasilevskiy is going to be out for close to two months leaving Tampa Bay with Joonas Johansson as their number 1. Johansson is not a number one goalie to lead a team to a deep playoff run, if the playoffs at all, and will be my fear for the Lightning this year. Johannson being in net will give the Preds a little boost offensively. The Lightning’s top line is still intact with Stamkos, Kucherov, and Brayden Point. Last season, the Lightning gave up a king’s ransom to get Tanner Jeannot from the Preds and tonight will be his first game facing his former team. The Lightning still have depth with Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli, but the losses of Alex Killorn, Ondrej Palat, Pat Maroon, Ross Colton, Luke Schenn, and others over the years make Tampa Bay far less of a threat than they’ve been. I expect tonight to be a low-scoring, tightly played game, and the appetizer to the 8 pm game.
Chicago vs Pittsburgh
BUCKLE UP, WE ARE GETTING CONNOR BEDARD vs SIDNEY CROSBY ON OPENING NIGHT!!! Connor Bedard is going to learn a hard lesson tonight and the Pens should start the season with an emphatic win tonight. Expect lots of fireworks and excitement as the best player over the past decade squares off against the next version of him. Those who were with me last season cashed out +700 Blackhawks to win the draft lottery pick as the league fucked Anaheim out of that spot. What I love about this Blackhawks team is putting Taylor Hall on a top line with Bedard tonight. The Blackhawks will not be a good team this year and are very weak defensively on the blueline and in net. Pittsburgh is in the same position defensively and in net. The difference between these two teams will be the offensive prowess the Penguins can put out. Sidney Crosby is reaching the end of his career and the past few years have not been kind to him as the Penguins captain. Coaching and management have been a major issue for this team as they are no longer built to compete on all three levels of the game. Offensively speaking, the Penguins can put up 3-4+ goals every night, but their forwards don’t support themselves defensively. They are weak, sloppy, and make a lot of mistakes. On D, even with Kris Letang and their star acquisition Erik Karlsson, there is still a big difference in their offensive output compared to their defensive play. Tristan Jarry will continue to be a mediocre goaltender in this league and stop the Penguins from making it deep in any playoffs. We should see a lot of goals tonight led by the Penguins, and I will be playing this game the heaviest.
Seattle vs Vegas
This is a game that I prefer to screen more than go heavily on. There is no one out there who was more supportive of the Kraken from the start of the season than I was and this chat now loves this team because of it. We will be on them a lot this year as well, but I am not as confident in this team this year. The Kraken lost a few minor pieces that I felt made them as good as they were last year. Joonas Donskoi, Daniel Sprong, Martin Jones, Morgan Geekie, and Ryan Donato are all gone. Kailer Yamamoto is the only notable addition to the Kraken roster this year. The Kraken will be good and should compete for a playoff berth, but teams won’t be surprised anymore. The Kraken established themselves as a team to be taken seriously and there will be a lot more focus and coverage on them this year. We beat the market last year and cashed in. This year we will play it more cautiously. We will look for instances where we can get their team totals at 2.5 when they’re on the road and 3 at home. With Vegas coming off a long Cup win and summer, I don’t want to jump the gun playing them or playing against them too heavily. As much as I’ve hated this franchise since they stabbed Marc-Andre Fleury in the back, this team is built to win and has a roster of stars who feel they were fucked over by the teams they came from. There will be a chance to make some money on this game but it needs to be played safely. We will leverage this game after we put a few units in the bank from the first two games.
