Small card tonite with a lot of questionable lines. None of these really jump out at me as super strong plays. Chicago in my opinion should be favored by a lot more than -130, but they'vs played like crap and they scare me. Buffalo looked like an offensive juggernaut last nite, so they kinda scare me. The Rangers have played the Pen's tough so far this year, but suck in Pittsburgh, so that game scares me. But whatever, that's why its called gambling....
Play of the Day's - 6-3 (+3.3 units ytd)
1). Vancouver -180
It's a lot of chalk to lay, but there is much reason why it's so high. For starters, let look at Pekka Rinne, Nashville's projected starting goalie.
This season, which is essentially his first as a starter, he started out of the gates smoking hot going, 6-2 with 2 shutouts. But a closer look at those 6 wins shows that he really didn't beat any high caliber teams. Minn at the time was struggling with goal scoring (they since have turned it on), Colorado was dealing with injuries and the rest of the teams were average at par.
Then came a road loss in St. Louis. From there, the bricks started to fall out of place for poor Pekka. Since 12/08, he has gone 4-7-0, with only one road win (@ Toronto where he faced a mere 17 shots). His offense has not helped him over this time frame, scoring only 1.9 goals per game when he was the starter. So its really not all on him to blame. But in tonite's game, if they don't score more then 3 goals, they will have a tough time winning.
Vancouver has played terrible as of late as well. Sundin has not contributed at all (which should have been expected as he is a slow starter and is gettin kinda old) and Luongo looks like he is still shaking the rust off. But head to head, Van has had the strong advantage over Nashville. Nashville is 8-21-1 over its last 30 games against Vancouver. In terms of goaltending, "Luongo is 6-3-2 with a 1.71 GAA in 11 home games this season. Since joining the Canucks .. he's 3-2-0 with a 1.61 GAA and two shutouts in five home starts versus Nashville, which has lost three of its last four visits to Vancouver."
Advantage Luogno,,, Vancouver's franchise high 7 game home losing streak ends tonite.
Betting note - I am laying .75 units on this game, and will parlay the sht out of it, but use at your own caution as it is a high bet. Could the Canucks potentially choke tonite??? Anything is possible. I still think one of the Swedish twins will score tonite on the power play.
Best of the Rest
System Plays
2. Chicago -130 (they scare me with how awful they played prior to the break. they also are 2-16-2 in Anaheim... system says play them though)
Non System Leans (2-1 last nite)
Pitt -130 (Crosby got the green light... Pen's need this win)
Buffalo @ Cal Under 5.5 (Kipp vs. Miller)