NHL Thursday best bets: Playing pucklines
With a jam-packed 11-game slate on the docket, let's get right into our best bets.
Blue Jackets (+220) @ Hurricanes (-260)
I've been attacking the Columbus Blue Jackets a lot of late and the returns have been very strong. I'm going right back to the well Thursday with the Carolina Hurricanes.
Columbus is playing very poor hockey right now. The team controlled just 43% of the expected goals at five-on-five over the last 10 games.
By comparison, the Hurricanes rank first in the NHL during that time with a 60.73 xGF% at five-on-five. They should dominate the run of play and pile up chances, especially considering their star power and the ability to get advantageous matchups with last change.
I think the Hurricanes will take care of business with relative ease, especially if Columbus is missing important players. Blue Jackets head coach Brad Larsen mentioned a few things are up in the air - including the status of Jakub Voracek.
Bet: Hurricanes -1.5 (-110)
Kraken (+175) @ Blues (-210)
The Seattle Kraken are not a good hockey team. Their goaltending, surprisingly, has turned out to be the worst in the NHL, and they don't have nearly enough offensive firepower to compensate.
Even so, I think this line is a little extreme. The St. Louis Blues are a playoff-level squad, but they're not at their best right now. At five-on-five, they've controlled around 49% of the expected goals over the last 10 games. That's about average - certainly not anything to write home about.
Vladimir Tarasenko is not expected to play, and neither are David Perron and Brayden Schenn. That's a lot of top-six-caliber forwards out at one time.
Seattle's goaltending is unreliable, but the Kraken are not giving up much despite the consistently large goal totals. Wednesday night, for example, they conceded five goals to the Dallas Stars despite allowing only 25 shots and 2.32 expected goals.
In terms of goals saved above expectation, Chris Driedger is ahead of Philipp Grubauer by half a puck per game. He's more likely to keep the Kraken in the mix if they deserve to be. With this many key forwards out for the Blues, I think Seattle will be able to keep things close.
Bet: Kraken +1.5 (-135)
Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ToddCordell.