Parlays

Any Central Division matchup between the top three teams is must-watch television, and the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars are facing off on a Saturday afternoon in a possible second-round playoff preview. Both teams have been struggling over their past 10 games, but that’s what happens when the top three of that division have been decided for most of the season. I think both teams will show up to deliver a great game on Saturday.

The Avalanche will be extra motivated to put forth a good effort in this game, as their last game was an 8-6 loss to the league’s worst team, the Vancouver Canucks. The Avalanche put themselves in a hole early, rallied for a three-goal comeback in the third, and then gave it right back to lose in a high-scoring affair. The goaltending has been a massive question mark over the past couple of weeks, and shutting down the Stars would go a long way to ending those fears.

The Stars might be coming off a win, but they’ve been struggling as of late with an injury-depleted group. Tyler Seguin, Radek Faksa, Roope Hintz, Sam Steel, Michael Bunting, and Tyler Myers are all solid pieces of the lineup, and Myers is the only one who might be available for this game. Dallas needs to get a few of these bodies back before their suspected first-round matchup with the Minnesota Wild.

The Avalanche have Cale Makar out for Saturday’s game, but the rest of Colorado’s lineup will find a way to bounce back from their most recent loss. There aren’t many more times this year you’ll be able to get the Avalanche at such a favorable number.

Avalanche vs Stars prediction: Avalanche ML (-115) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number. 

The Pittsburgh Penguins will be hosting the Florida Panthers on Saturday afternoon. Like a lot of the teams in the Metropolitan Division, the Penguins are in the thick of the playoff race. They are sitting in second place in the Metropolitan Division with a three-point cushion over the New York Islanders. Although they have the cushion, they can’t afford to kick their feet up and get comfortable. The standings have been jockeying all season long and that will continue right up until the end of the regular season. The Penguins are one of the best offensive teams in the league, averaging 3.46 goals per game. The Panthers on the other hand are below average offensively, averaging only 2.92 goals per game. They are also one of the worst defensive teams, averaging 3.29 goals against per game.

The Penguins should already be in playoff hockey mode as every point from now until the end of the season matters. I expect a dominant performance from the Penguins on home ice. Give me them on the money line.

Panthers vs. Penguins prediction: Penguins ML (-220) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

The Nashville Predators will take on the San Jose Sharks Saturday night. Both of these teams have 79 points and sit at 8^th and 9^th in the Western Conference. The Predators were one of the hottest teams in hockey a few weeks ago but have now dropped 3 of their last 4 games. The exact opposite can be said for the Sharks. They were in a slump and have now won 4 straight games while averaging 4 goals per game. In their sole head-to-head this season the Predators won by a score of 6-3, but were outshot 30 to 19 with more penalty minutes. This should be a huge game with serious playoff implications.

In looking at the statistics, the Sharks rank 7^th in shooting percentage this season. The Sharks also average slightly more goals per game compared to the Predators. The Predators also give up more power play opportunities which could play a major role against a rolling Sharks team. The Sharks also come into this one with the second best for in the Western Conference over their last 5 games. Overall, I am rolling with the Sharks to extend the streak and get the win.

Predators vs. Sharks Prediction: Sharks ML (-115) available at the time of publishing. Playable at that number.

The Houston Astros face the Athletics again on Saturday afternoon after the A’s exploded for an 11-4 victory on Friday. Prior to Friday, the A’s were dealing with a stagnant offense in which only Shane Langeliers had been hitting. The rest of the bats came to life on Friday. On Saturday, we get two starting pitchers who had rough first outings in Tatsuya Imai and Luis Morales. Both pitchers are largely unknown commodities in terms of stats and established track records. So how do we play it? I am looking for the Astros to bounce back and take the Saturday game.

Imai is new to MLB this season, His debut was going well for a couple of innings, and then it unraveled on him. We will need to wait before deciding what he really is as a major league pitcher. We know more about Morales though. His numbers across 48 innings last season were good, but he is definitely an extreme fly ball pitcher. All but one of his outs last week were recorded via fly ball, and his homerun rate is high to start his career. That seems like bad news when pitching at “home” in this ballpark. I look for the Astros to slug on Saturday.

Astros vs Athletics Prediction: Astros ML (-115) available at the time of publishing. Playable to -135.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have won three straight games entering a Saturday contest against the Baltimore Orioles. Both squads have had an up and down start to the young season, but the starting pitching matchup in this one should be interesting. Shane Baz (6.75 ERA, 1.41 WHIP) had a less-than-ideal start to the season and faces a Pittsburgh lineup that found success against right-handed pitching in the opening matchup of the series, forcing an early exit for Orioles starter Kyle Bradish.

Both offenses rank middle of the pack against RHP early on this season, but Baz is tough to rely on after ending the 2025 season ranking in the 19th percentile in pitching run value. The sample size is a small pool to pull from, but the Pirates’ bullpen has outperformed Baltimore’s through seven games with a 4.11 combined ERA and a pair of saves. Neither offense has proven to be better than another, but Pittsburgh starter Carmen Mlodzinski (4.15 ERA, 1.38 WHIP) showed flashes of greatness with 8 strikeouts and 0 walks in 4.1 innings of work to debut the season. At a near coin flip price, I’ll back the home team to pull out back-to-back wins and take the Pirates money line.

Orioles vs Pirates prediction: Pirates ML (-102) available at time of publishing. Playable up to -120.

The Boston Red Sox took the series opener against the San Diego Padres 5-2,  thanks to Willson Contreras and Marcelo Mayer who both went deep in the bottom of the sixth inning to give the Sox the lead. Both teams have struggled to start the season, entering this matchup at 2-5. Offensively, the Padres have been one of the worst teams in baseball, ranking 29th with a .192 batting average and averaging just three runs per game. Boston hasn’t been much better, hitting .219 (22nd) while scoring 3.1 runs per game.  

On the mound, Rand Vasquez gets the start for the Padres after an impressive outing against Detroit, where he threw six scoreless innings with eight strikeouts. For Boston, they’ll send the left-hander Connelly early to the mound, who enters 0-0 with a 1.69 ERA. Early looked great against the Reds in his season opener, throwing 5.1 innings, allowing five hits and striking out six. While both starters are coming off strong performances, this matchup leans towards Boston. Early has been terrific during spring training, Vasquez was not. Even though the Padres have the better bullpen ERA to start the season (3.56 ERA) compared to the Red Sox 3.96 ERA, Early should be able to go deep into this game against a Padres team who has struggled to produce runs. It’s only a matter of time before Roman Anthony and Trevor Story get things going at the top of Boston’s lineup, and this could be a matchup where it happens. Look for the Red Sox to get things going offensively and pick up another win in front of their home crowd. 

Padres vs Red Sox prediction: Red Sox ML (-150) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

We’ve come to the Final Four, and the first matchup features the Connecticut Huskies vs the Illinois Fighting Illini. Illinois came out of the South, benefiting from Iowa dispatching top-seeded Florida. Over in the East, UConn had to do the dirty work — mounting an improbable comeback to oust Duke at the buzzer. UConn has become a team that is hard to bet against, but head coach Dan Hurley and his antics have also made it a tournament villain for many fans. All that aside, I do like Illinois in this matchup — and as long as this spread stays close, I am happy to grab it. Be careful here, though, because this game is likely to stay tight and we don’t want to risk the dreaded win-no-cover if we can avoid it.

Why will Illinois win? Here are several factors. First, the Illini boast the #1 offense in the country in terms of efficiency, and they have only gotten better as the season has gone along. UConn has an elite defense, but offense tends to win out at this stage. Second, UConn is great at keeping teams out of transition — but Illinois doesn’t care about that. The Fighting Illini seem to prefer to play in half-court sets anyway. Third, Illinois is the #3 offensive rebounding team in the nation — and that tends to put defenses in a terrible position. Finally, Illinois is the best team in the country at keeping opponents off the foul line and while Connecticut is one of the worst at getting to the line. That means every point for the Huskies is likely to be a grind.

You might note that these teams played early in the season, and the Huskies won by 13. Don’t make too much of that game because lots of things have changed since then, and teams are doing almost nothing that they were doing 5 months ago. The Illinois offense has taken off since the first meeting, and this game should go very differently. Give me Illinois to cover this game at -2, but let’s not push for a multi-possession victory too aggressively here.

UConn vs Illinois prediction: Illinois Fighting Illini -2 (-115) available at the time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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The NCAA Tournament has produced plenty of memorable moments and even a few genuinely shocking results, such as UConn’s miraculous victory over Duke in the final seconds. However, while it’s not quite the National Championship game, it certainly feels as if all roads have led to this matchup in the Final Four between the Michigan Wolverines and Arizona Wildcats. These teams have been the class of college basketball for the vast majority of the season, and both sides have shown their quality en route to fairly dominant runs to this year’s installment of the Final Four in Indianapolis. This game is priced competitively and oddsmakers are certainly expecting a barnburner in a showdown between the top 2 teams on both KenPom and BartTorvik. In what should be the Game of the Year in college basketball, the only question that remains is which of these juggernauts will come out on top and play for a national title.

Given that this is a real clash of the titans, there’s only so much that is really separating the top teams in the sport. Ultimately, I strongly believed that Arizona was the best team in the nation heading into the postseason, and my thoughts haven’t changed heading into this weekend’s matchup. With that in mind, it’s hard to ignore the plus-money price we’re getting with the Wildcats on Saturday. The biggest potential concern that I’d have with backing Arizona in this one is the math advantage that Michigan could have in this game, as the Wolverines attempt far more threes than their counterparts. If Michigan is knocking down shots from beyond the arc, it’s going to be extremely difficult for any team to hang with an offense of this caliber. However, Michigan is shooting nearly 45% from deep in this tournament and Arizona boasts a strong 3-point defense, so we can expect some regression from the Wolverines on that front. Furthermore, the Wildcats are a supremely elite team in a myriad of areas, and Tommy Lloyd’s team should hold advantages when it comes to turnover margin (where Michigan is a below average unit), rebounding margin and free-throw rate. In a game that is expected to come down to the wire, backing an underdog that does a lot of the little things at a very high level is a pretty attractive option.

Both teams certainly want to get out and run, and we’ve seen each program use their prowess in transition to great success in this tournament. In a game where the rubber will really hit the road and victory will likely be decided by the slimmest of margins, getting stops in transition will matter, and Arizona has already done an excellent job of that in March, specifically against the likes of Arkansas and Utah State. The Wildcats frontcourt is also uniquely suited to slow down a Michigan interior that has been one of the most efficient units in the paint all season long. The twin towers of Aday Mara and Yaxel Lendenborg command so much defensive attention that it often leads to open shooters for the Wolverines on the perimeter. But with Motiejus Krivas, Koa Peat, Tobe Awaka and Ivan Karchenkov forming a very formidable defensive frontcourt presence, the water could get shut off a bit from the outside, as the Arizona guards should stay home on shooters. Speaking of the guards, the Wildcats clearly have the superior backcourt in this game, and there should be opportunities from Brayden Burries to get to his spots and hit shots from the perimeter. And when crunch time arrives, there are very few players I’d rather have on both ends than Jaden Bradley — a proven closer when the lights are brightest. Arizona is the slightly better team for my money, so I’ll gladly take the Wildcats as short underdogs in what should be a game for the ages.

Michigan vs Arizona prediction: Arizona ML (+105) available at time of publishing. Playable to -105.