| Yesterday | 0 | 2 | 0.00 | -4.00 |
| Last 30 Days | 0 | 2 | 0.00 | -4.00 |
| Season to Date | 0 | 2 | 0.00 | -4.00 |
Winnipeg +110 over BOSTON
The Bruins are headed in a different direction. After years of being contenders and being tough both pysically and defensively, Boston moved out a bunch of players that fit the Bruins mold for the blue-collar, hard-working team that we’ve been so accustomed to seeing for years, even decades. The Bruins fired their GM and unloaded seven regulars including Milan Lucic. Four of those seven players had 40 points or more, including Dougie Hamilton.Last season Boston allowed 30 more goals than in 2013-14, and the D-corps lost a key cog in Hamilton while Chara is on the rack. Tuukka Rask may not be as good this time around with a less physical bunch surrounding him.
Up front the Jets are strong with Andrew Ladd, Bryan Little, Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele and Mathieu Perreault. That’s a pretty decent top-5 to work with. Defensively, the Jets are strong too with Jacob Trouba, Dustin Byfuglien, Tyler Myers, Toby Enstrom and Mark Stuart. The Jets were also a strong puck possession team and goals against last season was another major strength. Ondrej Pavelec posted a .920 save percentage while backup Michael Hutchinson was outstanding at times and will keep Pavelec from getting complacent. Winnipeg was ousted in the first round of the playoffs by the Ducks but it looks worse on paper than it was on the ice. The Jets led all four games. They took some bad penalties and couldn’t hold onto those leads but that just shows you how close they were. Clean up the penalties, learn from last year’s correctable flaws and Winnipeg could be a real threat all year. We’ll put that to the test early.
Pittsburgh/DALLAS over 5½ -102
Phil Kessel is supposed to score about 100 goals this year with Sidney Crosby feeding him. At least that’s what almost everyone agrees upon. They also have one of the NHL’s best players in Evgeni Malkin. With those two alone on the ice, Pittsburgh will score goals. That’s three point producers but it doesn’t end there with the Penguins top two prospects, Derrick Pouliot and Olli Maatta, figuring on producing too. GM Jim Rutherford also upgraded the bottom six forwards, swapping Nick Bonino in for Brandon Sutter and adding Eric Fehr, Matt Cullen and Sergei Plotnikov in free agency. The Pens are not great on defense but all those blueliners have to do is get the puck to the forwards and the production will come in droves. They’ll now get a chance to fire away on one of the weakest goalie/defense combos in the league.
Kari Lehtonen was awful last year so the Stars brought in Antti Niemi, who starts this one. Niemi might be worse than Lehtonen but neither can survive the barrage of shots that figure to come their way. Dallas is all offense and no defense. The Benn/Spezza/Seguin line is as deadly as any line in the NHL. This is a club that is defined by its sharpshooters and all they did in the offseason was pick up another one in Patrick Sharp. The Stars scored the second most goals in the league last year. This year, they might be first with all that production and a healthy and possibly electric Valeri Nichushkin. John Klingberg is an offensive defenseman that might put up 65-75 points. The problem is that Dallas cannot prevent goals. They couldn’t last year and they won’t be able to this year. Dallas figures to win a lot of 6-4 or 6-5 games and this could surely be one of those shootouts. This total is priced in the same range as St. Louis/Edmonton and that simply cannot be.
BUFFALO +118 over Ottawa
The Sabres figure to be one of the more interesting teams to monitor this year. When we look at Buffalo’s season win total, we see a 29½ but when we look at their season point total, we see 76½. 29½ wins equals 59 points. That’s 17 points lower than their season point total so one of these numbers is off. Figuring in about 10 ties, it would appear to us that the sharps hammered this one over 29½ wins and so we’re happy to take these Sabres at home taking back a price. Jack Eichel might be the best consolation prize that this league has ever seen. He won’t have to shoulder the offense alone, as GM Tim Murray acquired No. 1 center Ryan O’Reilly minutes before drafting Eichel. Murray also dealt for Evander Kane last season and he’s another offensively gifted talent. Matt Moulson adds more depth. We also like that Murray picked up a #1 goalie in Robin Lehner. How fitting is it that Lehner now faces the team that dealt him and that never really gave him an extended look? Buffalo is no longer an easy out. This might be the loudest building in the NHL tonight and we trust the Sabres to feed off it and respond.
