Ryan Hodges
Show Bio
The middle of the week has a modest 4-game NHL slate featuring some of the premier superstars in hockey. Auston Matthews and company visit Erik Karlsson, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl visit Patrick Kane, budding star Tage Thompson visits a young gun Red Wings team, and Artemi Panarin visits a young Senators group led by Brady Tkachuk. There is plenty of entertaining action across these games and there will be plenty of highlights. If you’re looking to have some action, check out our favorite NHL player props for Wednesday. Along with our player props, be sure to also check out our NHL picks for each of today’s games.
Mitch Marner over 1.5 points (+115)
Mitch Marner is riding a 17-game point streak which is 1 game short of tying the Maple Leafs’ franchise record. He gets a great opportunity to extend his point streak to 18 games against the Sharks. San Jose is near the bottom of the Western Conference with an 8-13-4 record. They rank 22nd in the NHL in goals allowed per game with 3.44, and they are tied for allowing the most 5 on 5 goals in the league. Toronto is in great form overall, having won their last 4 straight, and they have points in 14 of their last 15 games. The Leafs have the 3rd-most points at home in the league this season and have a very favorable matchup again on Wednesday night.
Marner leads the Maple Leafs in points with 28 in 24 games. He has points in all but 2 games this season. The Leafs visited the Sharks in October and go figure, Marner had a goal and an assist in 22:02 of ice time. At any time, Marner is likely on the ice with some combination of John Tavares, Auston Matthews and William Nylander among other strong players in Toronto’s lineup. Marner averages over 21 minutes of ice time per game. A couple of points to extend his streak to a record-tying mark is an incentive and is very realistic.
Be sure to check out our full San Jose Sharks vs Toronto Maple Leafs predictions
Leon Draisaitl over 1.5 points (-110)
It looks a bit goofy when a player does not have plus-money odds to collect multiple points on a night. That is how good Leon Draisaitl is. With Connor McDavid’s odds at -150 to go over 1.5 points, a -110 number for Draisaitl looks like great value. Draisaitl has 13 goals and 20 assists for 33 points in 22 games this season. He has points in all but 3 games. In the Oilers’ lone matchup against the Blackhawks this season, Draisaitl had a goal and 2 assists with 3 shots in 22:07 of ice time. He plays on a line with one of the best players in the history of the NHL in McDavid, and is on the team’s top powerplay unit, which ranks 4th in the NHL. Draisaitl is a very good player that gets very favorable situations every game.
The Blackhawks are tied for the fewest points in the NHL. They have the NHL’s 4th-worst goal prevention at 3.62 goals allowed per game, and they have the league’s 7th-worst penalty kill. They have allowed 4+ goals in 6 out of their last 10 games with 5 of those games allowing 5+ goals. Chicago presents a great opportunity for teams to run up the score. McDavid and Draisaitl have a combined 30 goals and 42 assists for 72 points in 44 games played. There is no reason these guys cannot take control of this game. Draisaitl has already dominated the Blackhawks once this season, and Wednesday’s matchup brings a great opportunity to repeat that performance.
Be sure to check out our full Edmonton Oilers vs Chicago Blackhawks predictions
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