NHL Hockey Best Bets for February 24, 2016
Short card of action in the National Hockey League for Wednesday night. Here are our ‘best bets’:
MONTREAL CANADIENS AT WASHINGTON CAPITALS:
We’ve been looking for spots to get in front of this Capitals’ freight train but this doesn’t look like a ‘flat spot’. But have the Capitals even had ‘flat spots’ this season? Not really and that’s why they’ve only got 10 regulation losses (second place in that category is Dallas with 17). The Habs played fairly well against Nashville the last time out but Mike Condon was outplayed by Pekka Rinne and Montreal lost in a shootout. The Canadiens have found some level of competence lately (4-5-1 in their last 10) but the injury situation has gone from bad to worse. Montreal will be without three of their top five defensemen tonight and they didn’t have great depth at the position to begin with. The Canadiens luck this year has been so awful that earlier this week P.K. Subban was throwing pucks to fans after warm ups–just like hockey players do at every level. What could go wrong with that? Guess again–he hit a baby (who is fortunately going to be fine).
Had the Washington Capitals hit a baby with a puck thrown into the stands it would have likely cured the infant of an illness of some sort. Not saying that the Capitals are capable of ‘healing the sick‘ though it wouldn’t be a huge shock after the season they’ve had. Washington has a 44-10-4 record giving them 92 points after 58 games. They’ve lost just 10 games in regulation and have a differential of +61 which is all the more amazing considering that the team with the second best differential in the league–the Chicago Blackhawks–is +28.
This is a game where we’d love to bet on a downtrodden underdog against the best team in the league but we just can’t do it.
BET WASHINGTON CAPITALS -225 OVER MONTREAL CANADIENS
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS AT BOSTON BRUINS:
These teams are very similar at this point–they’re separated by two points in the standings and trying to grind their way into the postseason. If the season ended today, they’d both be playoff bound as they hold the wild card positions in the Eastern Conference but their are four teams within five points of security a spot. This is a ‘must win’ game for both teams but we have serious reservations with the Bruins’ shabby play at home. They’re just 12-15-3 at the TD Garden while Pittsburgh is competent on the road (13-11-4). We’ll take the small dog price with the Penguins.
BET PITTSBURGH PENGUINS +110 OVER BOSTON BRUINS