Today’s one of the best days of the year, the opening night puck drop of the NHL season. We have three games on the slate to start off the season tonight. Let’s start off hot!
Last year was my first losing season in hockey in the last four or five years, and my first since starting this blog. I won back a good amount in the playoffs, cashing in on my second favorite team, the Golden Knights winning the Cup with a future that I placed on them in November. Although I feature plenty of Brew Reviews and recaps of The Bachelor on this site, these blogs are my bread and butter. This is a gambling site, mainly focused on the NHL every day and PGA every week. So we’re gonna have the best year ever and bounce back huge, crushing every night’s slates.
I’m changing up the way I write these this season, mainly because I just don’t have the time to write long ass paragraph+ breakdowns of every game. I tested this a bit late last season on the huge slates and it seemed to work well, so I’m doing it all year, which should save me a ton of time. Rather than listing off all the stats, all the previous matchups in the season and then giving my opinions on what happened and my picks are, I’m cutting that down to just my opinion and picks. That turns a few paragraphs into a few sentence while still having all the info you need. If you want the stats and the history, look it up on ESPN.
As usual, I’ll be starting off the season a bit lighter, since it usually takes a month or two for teams to really get in their groove, and sometimes until around the All-Star Break for teams to really have their full identities. At that point I’ll ramp it up.
Lightning vs. Predators (5:30)
This is an interesting matchup to drop the puck on the season. Both of these teams made a handful of changes in the offseason, but I don’t really see either team competing for the Cup. I think the Bolts likely make an early exit in the playoffs and the Preds fight for a playoff spot and fall short. The big factor for Tampa to start the season is that their start goaltender, Andrei Vasilevskiy will be out for the first several weeks after having back surgery. With him out, I’d slightly lean the Preds win this game on the road with a phenomenal goalie in Juuse Saros, but I’ll stay off this game entirely.
Penguins vs. Blackhawks (8:00)
I broke this game down in depth in my article on StatSalt. As I said in that article, I expect the Penguins to win this game pretty easily. Despite the Blackhawks improving in the offseason, I still expect them to struggle this year. One player in the addition of Bedard, no matter how talented the young kid is, will not make enough of a difference in his first year with the team to make Chicago have that much of an improvement. He’s the huge piece for them to build their team around in the future. The Penguins, especially offensively are the much better team here. They generated the fourth-most expected goals and the second-most high-danger shots in the NHL last year and I expect them to score easily on Mrazek and the Blackhawks defense that allowed the fifth-most goals in the NHL a season ago, giving up the seventh-most expected goals and the fourth-most high-danger shots in the league. The moneyline on the Pens is too expensive at -245, but I’ll take them in regulation for half a unit. I’d lean the over, but not enough to bet on it in the opening game of the season. I also like the Penguins team total over 3.5, which I’ll take for half a unit as well.
Golden Knights vs. Kraken (10:30)
The banner goes up to the rafters tonight at T-Mobile Arena for the Stanley Cup Champions. I expect the Knights to still be good and compete to lift Lord Stanley once again this year. The Kraken really surprised me with their season last year and the success they had. I think they only get better this year, but don’t quite compete for the Cup. I like the Golden Knights to win here on their banner raising night in one of the loudest buildings in hockey and will take them for half a unit (I boosted this on Fanduel Sportsbook). I also like the over here and will take the alternate over 6 for half a unit as well.
Game Bets
.5u Penguins in regulation (-145)
.5u Penguins TT over 3.5 (-155)
.5u Golden Knights ML (-105)
.5u Golden Knights/Kraken over 6 (-115)
Record: 0-0 (0 units)
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