Ryan Hodges
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The NHL brings a fantastic 10-game slate on Thursday night. The end of the week seems to arrive a little quicker with multiple double-digit game slates throughout the week, and the bridge to Friday brings great hockey all night from coast to coast. There are hot teams looking to stay hot, cold teams looking to break out, division rivalries and inter-conference matchups. Thursday is a perfect night to kick your feet up and get your NHL fix.
If you are looking to combine some picks from these games, check out these 3 parlay picks that have +1133 odds at DraftKings Sportsbook.
Philadelphia Flyers ML (+115) over Columbus Blue Jackets
St. Louis Blues -1.5 (+155) over San Jose Sharks
Colorado Avalanche -1.5 (+125) over Nashville Predators
Parlay odds: +1133
Philadelphia Flyers ML (+115) over Columbus Blue Jackets
It is not surprising that in a game between a 7-3-2 team and a 3-9-0 team that the money line favorite is -135 and the ‘dog is +115. What is surprising is the 7-3-2 team can be had at plus money. The Flyers have played great out of the gates under new head coach John Tortorella. They are playing hard and free but with structure. That is a classic Tortorella-coached team. He put the Flyers through conditioning hell in training camp to make sure they were in the best shape of any team entering the season. Flyers opponents appear to still be catching up a little bit. The value on plus money outright against this bad Blue Jackets squad is too good to pass up.
The Blue Jackets enter this game having lost 5 straight in regulation and with 6 losses in their last 7 games. They aren’t losing close games, either. In their current 5-game losing streak, Columbus has been outscored a combined 28-8 for an average loss of 5.6-1.6. Despite that, the Jackets are -135 favorites in this one over a Flyers team that has played great in this first month in the season. The Blue Jackets are second-to-last in the NHL in both goal scoring and goal prevention.
Be sure to check out all of our NHL predictions
St. Louis Blues -1.5 (+155) over San Jose Sharks
I know, I know; the Blues have been awful in the last couple weeks. This has more to do with the value of +155 against a bad Sharks team. The Blues aren’t going to go 3-79-0 — at least they hope not! They will break out of this slump at some point. Why not on home ice as a -170 ML favorite over a bad Sharks team with great value on the spread? This is largely the same team that had 9 individual 20-goal scorers last season and was 4 seconds and a shot away from taking the Avs to Game 7 in the playoffs. San Jose is a bad team that presents one of St. Louis’ best opportunities to find the win column.
Last season the Blues were 3-0-0 against the Sharks, winning by an average score of 4.00-1.67 and out-shooting San Jose an average of 34.67-24.67. On paper not much is different with this season’s version of these teams. In the NHL, no teams is ever as bad as its worst play and never as good as its best. The Blues are a good team that is playing bad, just like they did in the fall of 2018 before their historic turnaround.
Colorado Avalanche -1.5 (+125) over Nashville Predators
The Avalanche appear to be trending upward, as they are 5-3-1 in their last 8 games. They rank 9th in the NHL in both goal scoring and goal prevention and they boast the NHL’s best power play. In short, the Avalanche are still the Avalanche. They are a bad matchup for just about every team in the NHL. The Predators are no exception, as they are 5-7-1 this season and 3-6-1 in their last 10 games. The Preds have not yet been as good, or even pesky, as a lot of people anticipated entering the season. Colorado was 5-1-2 against Nashville last season and appears poised to continue having the Predators’ number.
The Preds have scored the 4th-fewest goals per game in the NHL and they rank 22nd in goals allowed per game. Among their last 3 wins — which span their last 11 games — opponents included a reeling Blues team and the struggling Canucks. Otherwise the Predators largely just aren’t getting its done against good teams. They could and will probably snap out of it soon enough, but for now they are losing and not in close fashion. Nashville has just 1 loss by 1 goal and has lost by an average of 3 goals in its regulation losses. The Avalanche have the all around edge over the Predators right now.
Be sure to check out our full Nashville Predators vs Colorado Avalanche predictions
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