FREE NHL PICKS

BY PROFESSOR MJ

 

Hi hockey fans, I hope you had a nice weekend! We’ve got a fairly busy day in the NHL, and I see three profitable bets. Enjoy the read!

PICK #1: St. Louis Blues -124 (decimal 1.81) vs Los Angeles Kings

The Kings will be playing the final of a 6-game road trip. As you can imagine, a lot of traveling was involved and that’s never a good thing for players. Los Angeles has won 4 of the first 5 games in this trip and might feel satisfied with what they have accomplished already.

The Blues have won four of the last five meetings with the Kings. They are unbeaten at home thus far this year (4-0).

Jake Allen has been confirmed as the Blues starting goalie, but no word yet on LA’s goalkeeper.

PICK #2: Ottawa Senators -120 (decimal 1.83) vs Montreal Canadiens

Al Montoya will make his second start of the season for the Habs. In his only start this year, he lost 5-1 at Los Angeles. He appeared in two periods at Washington, where he allowed 2 goals on 9 shots. As bad as Carey Price as looked like this year, Montoya has done even worse by stopping only 86% of the shots he faced. He proved to be an adequate backup last season, but he still only won 8 of his 18 starts (44.4%).

The Sens will be missing two important pieces of their offense, though. Kyle Turris has been ruled out because of a viral infection, while Bobby Ryan broke a finger about 10 days ago.

Montreal has won the last three meetings, but Ottawa had won the previous three.

A -120 line in favor of the home team implies that both teams are of equal strength. Although I don’t believe the Habs are as bad as their record shows, they remain a below-average team, in my opinion. Meanwhile, Ottawa has won 5 of their first 11 games, but don’t get misled by those numbers since their 5 of their 6 losses occurred in extra time! In other words, the Sens have only lost a single game in regulation!

PICK #3: Columbus Blue Jackets -137 (decimal 1.73) vs Boston Bruins

The Bruins are coming off a very disappointing overtime loss. With 0.9 second left a faceoff was taking place in Boston’s zone, but that was enough time for Kopitar to win it clean while Tyler Toffoli slapped it past goalie Tukka Rask for the game-winner in a game that appeared to be headed for a shootout.

 

Boston will be missing their third leading scorer in 2016-2017, David Krejci, and also defenseman Adam McQuaid. Meanwhile, Cam Atkinson is questionable for the Jackets. He suffered a lower-body injury last Saturday and only placed 1:32 in the third period.

The Bruins are 1-2 on the road, with their only win happening in Arizona. After winning 6 out of 8 games, Columbus dropped its last game by a 4-1 score in St. Louis. They will be looking to rebound in front of their home crowd, where they were 28-12-1 last year.

Enjoy the games and good luck on your bets!

Professor MJ

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