Tuesday’s NHL card is once again loaded with plenty of games to choose from features several teams entering the night in either surging or slumping form. Squads taking the ice on Tuesday night like Carolina, St. Louis and Montreal (combined 16-7 record) will look to keep their strong start to the season going while other teams like Anaheim and Ottawa (combined 4-15 record) will try to stop the bleeding and get back in the win column.
Here is a look at the Tuesday NHL betting card.
Vancouver Canucks @ Montreal Canadiens
Sometimes as bettors we can become guilty of overthinking things. I am not about to do that here with this matchup between the Vancouver Canucks and Montreal Canadiens. These teams have played each other four times this season and all four games have gone over the total with 11, 10, 7 and 8 total goals scored. Montreal won 6-2 against Vancouver last night in the first of two back-to-back games between these teams. The Canucks had their same problems with the Habs as they did when these teams played three games in a row against one another in Vancouver last month.
Vancouver has shown a complete lack of ability to defend Montreal at 5-on-5 and on the penalty kill. The Canadiens have scored 23 goals in the four games against the Canucks who are conceding the most high danger scoring chances by far of any team in the NHL. Montreal is 5th in the NHL in the most high danger scoring chances generated making this a terrific matchup for the Habs offense against the Canucks defense. Montreal has 6 forwards Tyler Toffoli, Nick Suzuki, Jonathan Drouin, Brendan Gallagher, Josh Anderson, and Tomas Tatar that have accumulated at least 6 points in their first nine games putting the team’s tremendous forward depth fully on display.
Vancouver’s offense meanwhile hasn’t been the problem. The Canucks have been able to find the back of the net and score goals. They’ve held their own in that department ranking 6th in the NHL in scoring averaging 3.5 goals per game and they actually rank an impressive 2nd in the NHL in high danger scoring chances. Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat have 13 goals between them and each of them have 11 points in the first 12 games for the Canucks leading the way for them offensively and I expect the Canucks to get on the scoreboard here in this game as well likely facing Jake Allen in net for Montreal after Carey Price started last night’s game. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Bet the over once again between these two North Division foes.
Vancouver/Montreal Over 6 -120
Arizona Coyotes @ St. Louis Blues
The St. Louis Blues return home for a matchup against the Arizona Coyotes following three road wins in a row against Vegas and two against Anaheim. It could be a tricky spot for St. Louis with this being their third game in four nights after a trip back home from the west coast and Arizona should be fresh and well rested as they haven’t played a game since last Thursday when they defeated Anaheim 3-2. The Blues second line may actually be their best line at the moment with Brayden Schenn centering a line with Jordan Kyrou and Jaden Schwartz. Schenn has scored six goals and added four assists in his last seven games and Kyrou has 5 goals and 5 assists in 9 games after scoring just 9 points in 28 games as a rookie last season. St. Louis has also seen a resurgence in net from Jordan Binnington who had a rough season last year and endured a shaky start to this season. However, in his last four starts, he has allowed two goals or fewer in three of them.
Arizona is 3-5 this season and their offense was sputtering and in the midst of a streak of being shut out for over two straight games before snapping out of the offensive doldrums in their 3-2 win against Anaheim last week. The Coyotes probably deserve a better fate than their current record suggests. Arizona has had plenty of quality chances but not converted as much of them into goals as they should have. This may surprise some of you but Arizona is currently 10th in the NHL in high danger scoring chances which doesn’t really equate with their current 25th ranked offense averaging 2.5 goals per game. Arizona has a 16.13 to 13.4 xG margin entering this game on Tuesday night which is an indicator this team is playing better hockey than the base stats and current record shows. I think we have a potential live road dog here with Arizona rested and ready to start the road trip on the right track catching St. Louis coming back home off a road trip. It’s worth noting the Coyotes are 3-1 in their last four visits to St. Louis against the Blues.
Arizona +150
Calgary Flames @ Winnipeg Jets
The Calgary Flames grabbed a 4-3 shootout victory against the Winnipeg Jets last night in the first of this back-to-back set between these division rivals. Calgary has responded with two straight wins against Montreal and Winnipeg on the heels of a players only meeting that has turned around the fortunes of the Flames. Calgary has gotten significant bounce back performances early on this season from Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan in particular who simply didn’t put up the offensive numbers last season that the team expects of them. Gaudreau has 6 goals and 10 points in 8 games while Monahan has 7 points in 8 games. Calgary’s power play has been “flaming hot” converting at a 10-for-35 clip with the man advantage.
Winnipeg will be looking to bounce back from last night’s defeat and they will do so with an offense that still has plenty of firepower especially in their top six forward group even after the recent trade of Patrik Laine to Columbus. The Jets achilles heel is still their blue line which at times struggles to defend or hold a lead putting a lot of stress on the reigning Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck in net but I like Winnipeg in this spot. There is a solid chance that David Rittich may get the start in net for Calgary after Jacob Markstrom got the win for the Flames in goal last night. Rittich struggled last season and his struggles carried over to his first start of this season on Thursday against Montreal allowing 4 goals on just 21 shots. Laurent Brossoit is the projected starter in net for Winnipeg after Hellebuyck got the nod last night. Brossoit has a save percentage that is nearly ten full percentage points better than Rittich and I would have to give Winnipeg a goaltender edge in this game if that is the matchup. I also like the over once again in this game and several trends point in that direction. The over is 13-4-3 in Calgary’s last 20 road games and 7-1 in Winnipeg’s last 8 games on the second night of back-to-back games.
Winnipeg +100
Calgary/Winnipeg Over 6 -115
Ottawa Senators @ Edmonton Oilers
The Ottawa Senators look to be the worst team the NHL has to offer this season. Worse than Detroit. Worse than anyone else. Ottawa is on a horrendous skid losing eight games in a row entering this second straight contest against Edmonton. The Senators haven’t played any defense and Matt Murray has not been the answer in between the pipes. The Sens took a shot with Murray in the offseason as someone that was one of the better goalies in the NHL at one point and won a Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh with the Penguins. However, Murray’s attempt to reignite his NHL career isn’t going well so far. He has a woeful 4.82 GAA and .849 save percentage. Murray hasn’t been good but as much if not more of the blame simply has to go toward the porous Ottawa blue line playing in front of him. Ottawa is coughing up the puck up too much and their defensive zone coverage has suffered multiple breakdowns and gaffes in each game during this losing streak. That’s trouble facing the likes of Connor McDavis and Leon Draisaitl and the Sens found that out the hard way in their 8-5 loss to the Oilers on Sunday night. The dynamic duo for the Oilers combined for 11 points in the victory.
The Oilers offense has busted out in a big way recently scoring 23 goals in their last five games combined with all five of those games soaring over the total. The Senators are 23rd in high danger chances allowed and the Oilers are actually worse in that category at 28th in the NHL in that same category. The difference is Edmonton’s goaltending has been decent to good most of the time and it hasn’t been for Ottawa. Ottawa has surrendered 4+ goals to their opponent in seven straight games which to me makes the Oilers team total look like a solid bet in this game. I would expect Edmonton’s team total to be 3.5 and I will be betting it over the total. I also like the game itself to go over the total of 6.5 goals just as it did on Sunday. These are two very suspect defenses and I think it will be on display again here.
Edmonton Team Total Over 3.5
Ottawa/Edmonton Over 6.5 -130
