Mark Lammey
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With the NHL All-Star Skills Competitions and All-Star Tournament now in the rearview mirror, the league is wasting no time in beginning the 2nd half of the season. The action on the ice gets started tonight with 2 matchups. With a small slate and you likely wanting to ease back into things, we understand if you don’t want to trust teams after the break. So, for another approach, we’ve provided our best NHL prop bet picks. Along with our best NHL player props, be sure to check out all of our NHL picks for today’s action.
Nathan MacKinnon over 0.5 goals (-110)
Over 0.5 goals (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable to -125.
Our NHL player prop bet picks for today are focused on 2 of the All-Star captains, so it’s safe to say that we’re not shying away from the superstars. First up is Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche, and it’s nice getting a bit more value with the Avs on the road. We’re not overly concerned with that, especially given the form that the New York Rangers have been in. They entered the All-Star Weekend going 4-5-1 in their last 10 games, and that’s primarily been due to goaltender Igor Shesterkin not playing at his usual level.
That’s bad timing now that he has to start fresh against the NHL’s highest-scoring team. MacKinnon’s shots on goal prop is always a consideration as well, but blocking shots is something the Rangers have still been doing well. So, we’re going to focus on one of them finding the back of the net. MacKinnon ended the 1st half of the season scoring 8 goals in the past 4 games, bringing him to 31 on the year. We’re looking for him to continue that streak with the first of our NHL prop bet picks.
Auston Matthews over 0.5 goals (-110)
Over 0.5 goals (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable to -125.
We certainly can’t talk about goal-scoring and not mention Auston Matthews. Our experts correctly predicted that Team Matthews would win the All-Star Tournament, and Matthews has been the true winner of the 1st half of the season. The Toronto superstar already has 40 goals on the season, which some skaters never do in a full season! Let’s not forget that he was recently the first American-born skater with a 60-goal season, and he’s on pace to smash that this year.
Facing the New York Islanders doesn’t generally scream goal-scoring opportunities, but this season has been much different. They’re a bottom-10 goaltending team, and that’s largely due to them allowing the 2nd-most shots per game. A Matthews shots-on-goal prop would be in play if it wasn’t so inflated with him being on home ice, but with how he’s been shooting, we’re confident that he can find the back of the net. He just scored 2 goals against the Isles when they played in mid-January, so we’re trusting him to do so again with the 2nd of our NHL prop bet picks.
