NHL Hockey Best Bets for March 29, 2016
Three ‘best bets’ on the Tuesday night NHL hockey card:
COLORADO AVALANCHE AT ST. LOUIS BLUES:
Colorado won a wild game in Nashville last night and have done well in the second of back to back games (6-3). That being said, they’re up against a buzzsaw tonight in St. Louis. The Blues’ defense fell apart in two games in Western Canada in mid March, losing 7-4 at Calgary and 6-4 at Edmonton. They haven’t allowed a goal since winning their next four games by a combined score of 12-0. Brian Elliott has three shutouts in that stretch and will get the start tonight while Jake Allen has one–and arguably the biggest shutting down Washington 4-0 on the road.
Even if the Blues are going to be wearing ‘baby blue’ before the game to show love to the St. Louis Cardinals they’re still the same wrecking crew. Brian Elliott pretty much has to be named the starting goaltender for the playoffs even though ‘backup’ Jake Allen hasn’t done anything wrong–Elliott has just been a monster with three straight shutouts and was named as the NHL’s Second Star of the Week for this week.
The Blues have something of a ‘monkey on their back’ due to some recent early playoff exits. They’re not looking like they’ll be playing that this year. Colorado isn’t a bad team and when he’s focused Semyon Varlamov can be as good as anyone. Just don’t want to jump in front of this St. Louis freight train right now (8-2 L10).
BET ST. LOUIS BLUES -240 OVER COLORADO AVALANCHE
NASHVILLE PREDATORS AT DALLAS STARS:
It’s scary to bet on the Nashville Predators. When the ‘good Preds’ show up they look like they’re capable of a deep Stanley Cup run. And to their credit, they’ve been the ‘good Preds’ for most of this year. Heading into last night’s game against Colorado they had the best record in the NHL since February 1. Unfortunately, the ‘bad Predators’ came back with a vengeance last night. To be fair, it was more a bad first period but it dug a deep hole for the rest of the game. Pekka Rinne looked as bad as he’s looked all season giving up three quick goals and getting the hook in favor of backup Carter Hutton. Hutton allowed only one goal the rest of the way which gave the Predators the opportunity to get back into the game but ultimately lost 4-3. Same situation tonight–a win by Nashville can clinch a playoff berth.
Dallas is such a tough team to figure and personally I’m not optimistic that they’re capable of a deep playoff run. They score more goals than any team in the league and are number two in shots per game but their defense and goaltending just doesn’t seem up to par. They’re a bottom 10 team defensively–#22 to be exact right between Toronto and Vancouver. They have a formidable power play (#4 in the NHL) with a mediocre penalty kill (#14 81.8%). This is a contrast in styles as Nashville allows fewer shots against than any team in hockey. Tyler Seguin is still out for Dallas as he recovers from a nasty cut to his Achilles Tendon which he compared to a scene in the horror movie ‘Hostel’. He says that he’ll be back for Game 1 of the playoffs but the official timeline is 3 to 4 weeks.
Nashville has typically bounced back strong after a substandard performance. We’ll take a shot on them doing that here.
BET NASHVILLE PREDATORS +125 OVER DALLAS STARS
SAN JOSE SHARKS AT VANCOUVER CANUCKS:
In theory, this should be a huge letdown spot for the Sharks after beating Los Angeles 5-2 at home last night. That broke a three game losing streak for San Jose and left them four points back of second place Anaheim and five points back of first place Los Angeles. Not sure that it’s a huge deal in any case since San Jose can do no worse than third place in the Pacific which takes a lot of the urgency off their stretch run. They’re 15 points up on fourth place Arizona meaning they’ve got a guaranteed playoff spot regardless of how they play the rest of the regular season. That being said, it might not matter in this game against the pitiful Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks might not drop down past Toronto for the worst record in the NHL but based on the ‘eye test’ they’re the worst team in the league. You get a decent effort out of Toronto on most nights while Vancouver seems to be ‘phoning it in’. Canucks have lost eight straight (though a couple have been in OT) and they’ve struggled to score goals. In the past eight games they’ve scored seven goals and have been shut out four times! Sharks have won six straight in Vancouver and they’ll make it 7 for 7 tonight.
BET SAN JOSE SHARKS -170 OVER VANCOUVER CANUCKS