We are loving the action throughout this impressive NHL season so far. As we move towards the mid way point in the season, each division’s ladder is starting to take shape. Every single win or loss can have a significant impact on where each team will finish at the end of the season, so it is important that you don’t miss any of the action!
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Look below to find our free NHL picks, as we preview the best five games on today’s schedule.
Vancouver Canucks @ Tampa Bay Lightning – 7.00PM ET
The Vancouver Canucks are in game two of their five game road trip, and on Thursday night they hit the ice to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Canucks have gone win-loss-win-loss in their last four games, and this takes their season record to 16-16-3. The Lightning have won three of their last four games, with wins over the Blue Jackets, Flames and Sabres.
Denis Kirilov
The Tampa Bay Lightning will host a slightly short-handed team of the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday in the NHL. The defending champions have struggled since the restart of the Championship, but they quickly managed to get back on their feet. The Lightning are on a 3-1 run as they completely smashed the opposition of the Blue Jackets, the Flames, and the Sabres. The team from Tampa aims at the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Being 2nd with tied 53 points as the leaders from Florida gives them a good enough chance at taking back what’s theirs.
The Vancouver Canucks have been one of the best performing teams in the NHL for the last month. They went on a 7-game winning streak in December which was snapped after a harsh 1-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings. Then, they defeated the Seattle Kraken, 5-2, but fell the same way to the Florida Panthers in their last match. Despite their fabulous performance throughout the last couple of weeks, the Canucks remain 13th in the West with 35 points from the same number of games. They will be without Brandon Sutter and Alex Chiasson who entered the health and safety protocols last week. I think that even with them on the ice, they would have had a lot of trouble against the reigning champions. Hence, my pick here goes in favor of the Lightning as I suspect that they will be able to come on top in regular time.
Denis’ NHL Pick: Moneyline 3-way – Tampa Bay Lightning (-165)
Tony Battalio
The Vancouver Canucks are still in the early stages of their lengthy five game road trip as they head south of the border to Tampa Bay for this one. The Canucks come into this game with a record of 16-16-3 on the year as they have traded wins and losses for their last four games. They will be looking for a big win in this one against one of the best teams in the National Hockey League this season. Vancouver currently finds themselves out of the playoff race at seventh in the Pacific Division as the season approaches the halfway mark.
“We know what we’re up against. We know how good they are. We know we have to put our best foot forward against a really good team.”
🗣 Coach Bruce Boudreau on facing the Lightning pic.twitter.com/5zHzRnApuL
— Vancouver #Canucks (@Canucks) January 12, 2022
The two time defending Stanley Cup champions come into this game with a record of 24-9-5 through their first 38 games of the year. The Tampa Bay Lightning were one of the least affected teams due to the COVID-19 pandemic postponements and it shows in their play on the ice. As they have hardly missed a beat as of late as they enter this game winning three of their last four contests and in the second place of the very competitive Atlantic Division. Coming off of a Kucherov hat trick against the Sabres, the Lightning as a team will be looking to follow it up with another dominant performance in this one at home against the Canucks.
Tony’s NHL Pick: Tampa Bay Lightning (-275)
Michael Lantz
After winning six straight games before the league went on COVID pause, the Vancouver Canucks have been a bit inconsistent as they look to rise in the Western Conference rankings. They won their first game back on December 29th, giving them their seventh straight win. But since then they’ve fluctuated between wins and losses. They fell to the Los Angeles Kings 1-2, before beating the lowly Kraken 5-2, only to follow that up with a big 2-5 loss to the Florida Panthers. They’ll hope to not drop both Florida games as they spend Thursday night facing a Tampa Bay Lightning team that’s recently struggled a bit themselves.
Tampa Bay are undoubtedly Stanley Cup favorites—after all, they’ve won the last two. They sit in second in the Atlantic Division, but there has definitely been some cause for concern lately. Since the league restarted after the COVID break the Lightning barely escaped a bad Canadiens team and then were bullied by the Panthers and Rangers—two of their biggest competitors in the Eastern Conference. Since those losses they’ve been back and forth: they won two consecutive games against the Columbus Blue Jackets and Calgary Flames, only to lose to the Boston Bruins 2-5 on Saturday. They got a little fight back on Tuesday, beating the Buffalo Sabres 6-1. While Vancouver has shown big improvements lately, and will be no easy feat, I expect the Lightning to grab a win against them at home.
Michael’s NHL Pick: Tampa Bay Lightning (-275)
Columbus Blue Jackets @ Carolina Hurricanes – 7.00PM ET
The Columbus Blue Jackets kick off a three game road trip when they travel to Carolina and take on the Hurricanes. The Blue Jackets have only won one of their last five games, and this takes their season record to 16-17-1. The Hurricanes had their five game winning streak snapped last time out, thanks to the Panthers, 3-4, in overtime.
Denis Kirilov
The Carolina Hurricanes have proved to us that everybody should be careful when coming up against them. The team from Raleigh sits in 3rd place in the Eastern Conference with 50 points out of 33 matches. They are undoubtedly the best team in the NHL, if we average things up. With just 73 goals conceded for a span of 33 games, they are surely with the best defense in the League. On top of that, their attack led by the electrifying Finnish duo, Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen, has led Carolina to 115 goals during this campaign. The team, however, suffered a tough loss in their last match at PNC Arena as they had to kneel before the Florida Panthers after a rollercoaster game that finished with an overtime goal by Anthony Duclair, 3-4.
The Columbus Blue Jackets are surely one of the promising teams in the NHL. They somehow couldn’t live up to the expectations as something needs to be changed in order for the team to become competitive next season. They are currently 10th in the East with just 33 points out of 34 games. Having the misfortune to be in one Division with a lot of the top teams, this would probably mean that they will soon be out of the Playoffs contention. 14 points seems to be too much for them to recover from, but the season is long and everything is still possible. Their forward, Alexander Texier, might miss the game against the Hurricanes, which will surely mean that they will have limited options in attacking positions. I think that the Hurricanes will be eager to make up for the loss against the Panthers and I am willing to take their spread for this game.
Denis’ NHL Pick: Carolina Hurricanes -1.5 (+102)
Tony Battalio
The Columbus Blue Jackets are set to hit the road for three games and it starts with a visit to play one of the best teams in the National Hockey League this season. The Blue Jackets started off the year surprisingly hot but have since cooled off and are currently on a downward slope. They have only managed to win 1 of their last 5 games and will need to get it turned around quickly if they want to remain in playoff contention in a crowded and competitive Metropolitan Division. Columbus has a difficult three game stretch ahead that includes 2 more stops in Florida to play the Panthers and Philadelphia so every point they can pick up on this trip is huge.
As for their opponents for the evening, the previously mentioned Carolina Hurricanes come into this game with one of the best records in the NHL this season. With a record of 24-7-2 through their first 33 games they find themselves sitting in the driver’s seat of the Metropolitan Division, tied with the New York Rangers but ahead on tiebreakers at 50 points a piece. This will be their second game against the Blue Jackets in two weeks, in the last meeting they beat Columbus 7-4 on the road. As for the result of this one, I expect more of the same as I have the Carolina Hurricanes picking up the victory over Columbus this time at home.
Tony’s NHL Pick: Carolina Hurricanes (-260)
Michael Lantz
Since the beginning of the new year, the Columbus Blue Jackets have gone 1-4, including a 4-7 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on New Year’s Day. They’ll face off against the Hurricanes again tonight, and despite losing a little over a week ago, they have to take great pride in knowing they scored four goals against the league’s top defensive team. They’ll hope to make some adjustments on the defensive side of the puck, but they’ve had a pretty hard time all year stopping pucks from going in the goal as they’ve given up 122 of them.
The Hurricanes will be a daunting task, as they’re not only a defensive juggernaut, but have a good selection of scorers as well, including Sebastian Aho who has 37 points on the season. The Panthers were on a five-game win streak going into their Saturday matchup against the Florida Panthers, before falling in that game 3-4 in overtime. Still, there’s no shame losing to a team as good as Florida—especially in OT. But, Carolina will want to continue to prove they’re among the best in the league by getting on another lengthy win streak. That’ll start with Columbus, who I think the ‘Canes should be able to handle with ease in Raleigh.
Michael’s NHL Pick: Carolina Hurricanes -1.5 (+102)
Seattle Kraken @ St. Louis Blues – 8.00PM ET
The road trip continues on for the Seattle Kraken who will face off against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night. The Kraken are playing on back-to-back nights, and last time out they lost to the Stars, 2-5. The Blues have won four of their last five games, with their only loss coming against the Penguins, 3-5.
Denis Kirilov
The Seattle Kraken face off the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night in the NHL. The rookies have been looking for their rhythm from the very beginning of the Regular Season. However, they haven’t managed to find it as they only enjoyed one fantastic week in November when they defeated the top teams in the League including the Washington Capitals, the Carolina Hurricanes, and the Florida Panthers. Apart from that, they have been on lots of negative runs, which have been piling up loss after loss. The team’s issues mainly come from their lack of control over the matches. They leave it to their opponents who frequently find a way to punish their mistakes in defense.
The St. Louis Blues are the best home team in the Western Conference this season. They have accumulated a total of 30 points over the span of 19 games played in Enterprise Center. This really helped them improve to 4th place in the West with 47 points, just 3 points away from the top spot of the Nashville Predators. The team had to deal with a lot of COVID-19 problems throughout the first half of the campaign, but they managed to get over that with ease. They have won their last four matches at home and I reckon this will be yet another win for the statistics. My prediction here will be in favor of the Blues who should be able to cover the spread without any trouble.
Denis’ NHL Pick: St. Louis Blues -1.5 (+120)
Tony Battalio
The Seattle Kraken come into this game after playing against the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night. That game did not go too well for the Kraken as they found themselves in a two goal hole after the first period. They ended up losing the game by a score of 2-5 and I don’t expect their luck to get much better in this game either. The loss dropped Seattle’s record to 10-21-4 on the season as well. It was the seventh straight loss for the Seattle Kraken as they just can’t seem to figure things out right now.
we heard everything is bigger in texas…¯\_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/362YNeB6mU
— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) January 13, 2022
The St. Louis Blues come into this game with a record of 21-10-5 through their first 36 games on the season. They are currently tied for second place of the Central Division, with the Colorado Avalanche with 47 points a piece. The Blues are currently on a two game winning streak and have picked up victories in four of their last five games. They will be looking to add a third straight win in this one and put themselves in sole possession of second in the Central Division with a victory in this game. As for the result of this one, I have the Blues picking up the victory against the Seattle Kraken at home.
Tony’s NHL Pick: St. Louis Blues (-205)
Michael Lantz
Things just continue to go downhill for the Seattle Kraken. Sure, they’re only in their first year as a franchise, so they are allowed some time to figure things out. But they can’t be thrilled that their team filled with veteran talent is now in the midst of a seven-game losing streak. A 2-5 loss to the Dallas Stars last night furthers my expectations for them to be sellers at the deadline and start building to compete in three to five years. But first things will have to get worse before they get better as they face a very good St. Louis Blues team on Thursday.
St. Louis has won four of their last five, including a blowout 5-1 win over the Washington Capitals and a 2-1 gritty victory over the same Stars team the Kraken were thrashed by last night. The Blues’ goalkeeping has been on point as of late and they’re getting great scoring production from Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich. They’re slowly but surely building a cup contending team, as they hope to make a run to a championship like they did in 2019. So, they should have no problem on Thursday at home against a Kraken team that’s looked stale in the new year.
Michael’s NHL Pick: St. Louis Blues -1.5 (+120)
Buffalo Sabres @ Nashville Predators – 8.00PM ET
The Buffalo Sabres kick off a short two game road trip in Nashville on Thursday night when they take on the Predators. The Sabres are looking to snap their six game losing streak, but they will have a tough task against the Western Conference leading Predators. The Predators are currently on a five game winning streak, and this lifts their season record up to 24-11-2.
Denis Kirilov
The Buffalo Sabres are coming into this match on a 6-game losing streak. They have been quite terrible since the Christmas break, losing to teams like the New Jersey Devils and the New York Islanders. This awful performance dragged them back to 14th place in the East with just 26 points from 35 matches. They will likely once again miss out on the Playoffs, but that was expected, since the team is still not competitive enough. They will need to work on their defense and use a more conservative approach for their matches.
The Nashville Predators are a pleasant surprise this season. They find themselves on top of the Western Conference with 50 points from 37 matches. The team is on yet another 5-0 run as they are yet to lose a game in 2022. In their last meeting, the Predators managed to overcome Colorado’s challenge after overtime. Matt Duchene scored the last two decisive goals in the game which will surely have an impact on his performance in the near future. Alongside him, the whole roster of the Predators has boosted its confidence with the success they are achieving and I think this will help them against a team like the Buffalo Sabres. In my opinion, this one is an easy call and it’s Nashville covering their spread.
Denis’ NHL Pick: Nashville Predators -1.5 (-132)
Tony Battalio
The Buffalo Sabres are one of the worst teams in the league this season. However it didn’t always seem that way, as when the season started they were surprisingly competitive before crashing back down to reality around the time November came to a close. Now they come into this game with a record of 10-19-6 through their first 35 games on the season. They are currently on a six game losing streak and haven’t won a game since December 16th. So they will be looking for a victory in this one, however it will not come easy against a streaking Nashville Predators team.
The previously mentioned Nashville Predators are coming into this game with a record of 24-11-2 through their first 37 games on the year. Nashville is currently in first place of the Central Division as they are on a five game winning streak that has lasted the entire month of January. They will be looking to make it sixth straight victories in this one against the Sabres. As for the result of this game, I expect exactly that, as I have the Nashville Predators picking up the win over the Buffalo Sabres at home in this one.
Tony’s NHL Pick: Nashville Predators (-360)
Michael Lantz
Even though the Buffalo Sabres aren’t having as awful of a season as last year, they still have a long way to go to become a legitimate threat in the NHL. They fell 1-6 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday and now have the unfortunate task of taking on another one of the NHL’s top teams in the Nashville Predators. The Predators are feeling it in 2022, as they have not lost once in the new year. This included a massive 5-4 win on Tuesday night against the Colorado Avalanche—the league’s best offensive team.
The Predators are showing they’re for real as they widened their lead in the Central Division to three points. They once again got a phenomenal performance from Roman Josi, who tallied three assists and should be in the running for the Norris Trophy. Matt Duhene continued to have a huge year as well, as he scored two goals against the Avs to help propel the Preds to victory. Nashville will look to keep the wins coming in 2022 against a pretty bad Sabres squad. But, they can’t overlook this team as they’ve been known to pull off an upset from time-to-time. Still, with this one being in the “Music City”, I’ll go with the Preds.
Michael’s NHL Pick: Nashville Predators (-360)
New York Rangers @ San Jose Sharks – 10.30PM ET
The road trip continues on for the New York Rangers and on Thursday night they will face off against the San Jose Sharks. The Rangers have won four of their last six games, which includes wins over the Lightning (twice), Oilers and Ducks. The Sharks are currently on a three game winning streak, and this takes their season record to 20-16-1.
Denis Kirilov
The San Jose Sharks host the New York Rangers in their SAP Center on Thursday night in the NHL. Surprisingly, the Rangers are ahead of the Sharks in the current standings. They are fighting for the top spot in the Eastern Conference, sitting in 4th place with 50 points out of 37 games. The team enjoyed a fantastic month of November, helping them move up the leaderboard, but they had some troubles in December. These issues have been transferred into the new year as they lost 2 out of their last 3 games against the Vegas Golden Knights and the Los Angeles Kings. However, we shouldn’t disregard their performance against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Edmonton Oilers, and the Anaheim Ducks that ended up with a victory for the Rangers.
The San Jose Sharks have disappointed their fans in 2021. They did nothing impressive as they remained a mediocre team with high potential. The Sharks are now off to a 3-0 run, but these victories are not anything special either. They defeated the Buffalo Sabres, the Philadelphia Flyers, and the Detroit Red Wings, all of which are teams who are struggling at the moment. On top of that, the Sharks haven’t been dominant in their wins throughout the season which also suggests some issues for the team. I think that the Rangers will get back to winning with a victory over San Jose who is not the same team as it was in previous years.
Denis’ NHL Pick: New York Rangers (-128)
Tony Battalio
The New York Rangers are certainly not enjoying their time out west as despite having won four of their last six games, those two losses have come on this west coast road trip. They will be looking to break a skid of losses on this trip as they take on the San Jose Sharks in this one. The Rangers currently find themselves tied for first place in the Metropolitan Division, but sitting in second behind the Carolina Hurricanes based off of tiebreakers. Following this game with the Sharks, the Rangers will return to the East to finish off their road trip with a game against the Philadelphia Flyers, so a win in this one would be a huge momentum booster for them.
“The octopus on the ice did not work!”
Who else enjoyed @DanRusanowsky‘s call of Couture’s OT game-winner from last night? pic.twitter.com/FZO9o0Nylb
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) January 13, 2022
The San Jose Sharks come into this game with a record of 20-16-1 through their first 37 games on the season. San Jose is currently on a three game winning streak after picking up wins over the Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers, and Buffalo Sabres. Their last loss was to Detroit, and that was quickly avenged with a win only a few days later over the Red Wings, now they will be looking to make it four straight with a win over the Rangers in this one. As for the result, I have the Sharks picking up the victory over New York at home.
Tony’s NHL Pick: San Jose Sharks (+106)
Michael Lantz
The San Jose Sharks continue to stay alive in the Western Conference playoff race, as they’re in fourth in an extremely competitive Pacific Division. They’ve won three games in a row all by the score 3-2. Early in the season they were excelling thanks to the strong goaltending tandem of James Reimer and Adin Hill. Reimer recently went down with injury, leaving goaltending duties up to Hill, who has proved he can take over with ease. They’ll look to come up big again on Thursday as they play a New York Rangers team that’s dangerous on both sides of the puck.
After going on a series of wins against the Edmonton Oilers and Tampa Bay Lightning, the New York Rangers headed west, where they’ve had a bit of a turbulent ride. They were blanked 1-5 by the Vegas Golden Knights, beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-1, and then fell to the Los Angeles Kings 1-3. They now head to Northern California to face a San Jose Sharks team that’s starting to catch fire. The Sharks have been winning their recent games with a solid defense, the Rangers have the strongest attack they’ve faced recently, so this will be a major test. Meanwhile the Rangers have shown they can be a bit unpredictable on this road trip, coming up with awful offensive performances in losses. They’ll be tested on Thursday as they go up against a solid defense in San Jose. Still, I’ll pick the Rangers to end this Vegas/ Cali road trip on a high note.
Michael’s NHL Pick: New York Rangers (-128)
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*Odds and spreads correct at time of writing, courtesy of FanDuel.
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