Hopefully you were able to have a relaxing Wednesday night, because the NHL won’t be having another night that slow for the foreseeable future. We have a great 10-game slate on the board tonight with some incredible matchups. That also means we have some of the best skaters on the ice, including the return of Alex Ovechkin to the Washington Capitals. While he has a great matchup against the Anaheim Ducks, we’ve found even better value elsewhere, and both of our favorite plays are within the first set of games.
Along with our player props, be sure to check out all of our NHL picks for today’s action.
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Targeting an Edmonton Oilers game nearly always means talking about Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl. While they deserve all their praise, we’re going to the unsung hero of their team: their linemate Zach Hyman. One of the most surprising stats that most fans would never guess is that Hyman leads the entire NHL in expected goals, and it’s not close. He’s in first with 40.5 expected goals and Toronto Maple Leafs John Tavares is 2nd with 32.7.
To demonstrate how wide of a margin that is, Florida Panthers Matthew Tkachuk is in 3rd with 32.5 expected goals. We’re looking for Hyman to find the net to inch closer to a 30-goal season against the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight, who have allowed the 7th-most goals per game since the start of 2023. Hyman is also no stranger to the Pens as a former member of the Leafs. He’s notched a goal in each of his last 4 meetings against Pittsburgh and 5 in total. We’ve targeted this exact prop just one other time this season, and Hyman came through at +155 odds. With another great spot for him tonight, we’ll trust him to come through again.
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The New York Rangers are coming off one of the toughest losses to swallow all season. They outshot the Winnipeg Jets 51-21 and advanced metrics gave them a nearly 73% chance to win that game, yet they lost 4-1. They won’t be facing a goaltender the caliber of Connor Hellebuyck when they play the Detroit Red Wings tonight. There was a serious debate between Adam Fox and Panarin for this play, and both could be made. However, let’s go over why we’re sticking with the Bread Man. Firstly, he’s simply racking up more points, so even if he does notch a goal, an assist could quickly follow.
Panarin leads the team with 65 points through 57 games and 47 of those have been assists. Fox is generally a target due to him being virtually always on the ice, however, Panarin is also averaging over 20 minutes of ice time per game. That means he’s not locked into only skating with his linemates and also has elite goalscorers like Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider to dish the puck to. Perhaps most importantly, Panarin has recorded at least an assist in each of his last 5 games against the Wings, including 2 apples in 2 of those games. He also has 18 assists in 18 games against them, so we’re backing the consistency of the Bread Man tonight.
Don’t miss out on our NHL mega parlay at +925 odds for today’s action!
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