Top 2 NHL Bets Odds, Picks & Predictions: Tuesday (10/11)
The National Hockey League returns tonight as we gear up for a couple of exciting matchups. Action gets underway in the Big Apple with a repeat of last year’s Eastern Conference Final as the Tampa Bay Lightning take on the New York Rangers. Then we head out west to wrap up the opening day slate with a Pacific Division clash between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Los Angeles Kings.
Good luck to everyone, and let’s have a profitable NHL season. Here are my top two picks on the ice tonight.
Odds courtesy of Caesars Sportsbook
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Tampa Bay Lightning vs. New York Rangers
The Rangers jumped out to a 2-0 series lead against the Lightning in last year’s ECF, but the Bolts bounced back and rattled off four straight wins to advance to the Stanley Cup Final, where they eventually lost to the Avalanche in six games. The ECF was a thrilling series, and we should expect the energy to carry over as the Blue Shirts try to get revenge on opening night. The puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. ET from Madison Square Garden.
Each of these teams was able to keep a vast majority of their key players over the offseason. Aside from the Lightning losing Ondrej Palat and Ryan McDonagh, the roster construction looks pretty similar. The Rangers parted ways with Ryan Strome and Frank Vatrano while adding Vincent Trocheck in Strome’s place. However, as we saw in last year’s postseason series between Tampa Bay and New York, these teams are built from the backend forward. The Bolts return Andrei Vasilevskiy to the net, while the Rangers come back with Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin. Each of these men dominated throughout the playoffs and played a massive part in their respective teams making deep runs.
As for this individual game, I’m going to roll with the Rangers as a slight favorite at home. In 29 home starts last season, Shesterkin posted a 1.85 GAA and .940 SV% while going 21-6-3 over 30 total games played. I don’t know if he’ll have as insane of a year as the ‘21-’22 campaign, but look for him to be another key contributor to New York’s point total this season. Up front, I expect this young core of Artemi Panarin, Kaapo Kakko, Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck to be a force in the East this season. Another year of experience makes this team a real threat, and I see them running the Metropolitan Division. I think they will get it done tonight in front of a home crowd that’s going to be roaring.
Bet: New York Rangers Moneyline (-115 via Caesars)
Vegas Golden Knights vs. Los Angeles Kings
Out west, the Vegas Golden Knights will attempt to rebound after a season filled with injuries and underwhelming play. The Kings surprised some people last year and ended up punching their ticket to the playoffs. They fought in the first round against Edmonton, taking them to seven games before losing 2-0 in the series finale in Alberta. Tonight’s opener gets underway at 10:00 p.m. ET from Crypto.com Arena.
Contrary to the Rangers above, these are two of the more experienced teams in the league. It seems like the Kings have tweaked their roster around the same core of players they had when they won two Stanley Cups back in 2012 and 2014. Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe look to provide the firepower up front while Drew Doughty anchors the defense and Jonathan Quick takes care of the netminding. Vegas lost Max Pacioretty, Evgeni Dadonov, and Matthias Janmark over the offseason while bringing in veteran Phil Kessel to fortify the offense. The Golden Knights also acquired former Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy to take the reins and try to return the franchise to the postseason.
As we’ve seen in Vegas’ young franchise history, they enjoy keeping a physical, veteran roster, which appears to be the case again this season. The Golden Knights look to get full seasons from Jack Eichel (34 games last year) and Mark Stone (37 games), and if those two can stay healthy, this offense should have plenty of success up front. Despite minimal time from those two in 2021-2022, Vegas’ offense still averaged 3.20 goals per game (13th).
As for the Kings, they were 20th in the league at just 2.87 gpg. I think scoring will be another weak spot for Los Angeles this year, considering they lost Dustin Brown and Andreas Athanasiou up front while adding Kevin Fiala. Fiala should be able to supplement some of the offense production after amassing 85 points last season (33G, 52A) over 82 games with Minnesota. However, I don’t think Fiala is enough to make opposing teams too fearful on the defensive end. I’m taking the Golden Knights as slight underdogs tonight simply because of their more threatening offensive core.
Bet: Golden Knights Moneyline (+100 via Caesars)
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