NHL betting trends, odds and predictions for Friday, November 3rd, 2017 from various handicappers and websites
NHL Knowledge
Edmonton won four of last five games with New Jersey, winning last two meetings in OT. Under is 5-1-1 in last seven series games. Devils are 2-3 in last five visits to Edmonton. New Jersey won three in row, eight of last ten games; they won their last five road games. Over is 7-3 in their last ten games. Oilers lost eight of last ten games; under is 4-2 in their last six games. Edmonton lost five of last six home games.
Nashville won three of last four games with Anaheim; over is 4-2-3 in last nine series games. Predators split their last six visits to Anaheim. Nashville lost four of its last five games; under is 7-2 in its last nine games. Predators are 2-3 in their last five road games. Ducks won four of last six games but are 2-3 in last five home games. Four of their lat six games went over the total.
Armadillosports.com
NHL Picks and Betting Tips
By Parker Michaels
Bangthebook.com
MORNING LINE REPORT
We finally cooled off a bit yesterday with just a 2-3 night which is disappointing considering we hit the big ugly road dog with the Rangers over Tampa Bay. We’re been on the right side of a lot of overtime games which are generally a coin flip so I’m not looking forward to when those start to balance out for us, but for now we’ll just enjoy the ride as it’s something we can’t control.
We have just two games on tap for this evening but it looks like a couple of solid plays. Let’s keep this short today and just get right into how we’ll approach tonight.
NEW JERSEY DEVILS @ EDMONTON OILERS
Projected Goaltenders
New Jersey – Cory Schneider/Keith Kinkaid (unknown)
Edmonton – Cam Talbot/Laurent Brossoit (unknown)
Injury Report
New Jersey – Zajac (out), Palmieri (out), Johansson (questionable)
Edmonton – Sekera (out)
The New Jersey Devils kicked off a three game road trip through Western Canada with a 2-0 shutout in Vancouver on Wednesday, their third consecutive win. The Devils are off to a franchise-best 9-2-0 start including a perfect 5-0-0 mark on the road.
Taylor Hall is having a resurgent season thus far with 15 points in 11 games and says he feels much more comfortable with his teammates this year but the overall success of the Devils all seems a little too good to be true.
The Devils still feel like a bit of a paper tiger and we’re just waiting for it to all crash down soon enough. New Jersey has been fortunate with their shooting to this point but they’ve really been dominated in possession almost every game. In fact, the Devils have only won the 5-on-5 possession battle in four of their 11 games and sit 28th overall with a 46.88 5-on-5 Corsi (score and venue adjusted, courtesy of naturalstattrick.com)
Marcus Johansson went head first into the boards just 57 seconds into Wednesday’s game and did not return. Unfortunately the Devils didn’t have a practice yesterday so we won’t get an update on his status until this morning’s skate. New Jersey called it an upper-body injury but it’s believed he may be concussed and there’s a good chance we won’t see him tonight.
The Edmonton Oilers have dropped back-to-back home games to the Capitals and Penguins as they continue their five game homestand and they weren’t in the mood to talk much after Wednesday’s 3-2 setback. It was another game where the Oilers played well enough to win but couldn’t get the right break at the right time. Pat Maroon said they’re at the point where there’s nothing left to talk about and it’s time to just go out and win a game.
The lack of depth and secondary scoring continue to be the main issue for the Oilers and I blame Todd McLellan as much as anyone. I can’t stand the way he deploys his lineup each night and until he separates McDavid and Draisaitl this team is likely to remain inconsistent at best.
It feels like the Oilers are going to break out one of these nights soon much like Montreal has this past week and in a game where they should control the flow, tonight could be it.
We have two teams tonight trending in opposite directions so the Devils are going to be the popular pick but it seems pretty clear how this game will play out. The Oilers regularly dominate possession while the Devils don’t, so expect the puck to be on the Oilers sticks a lot tonight in the offensive zone. The Devils will have their moments with a few offensive breakouts and it will come down to whether they continue their hot shooting with a few lucky ones or if Cam Talbot can get back on track. They need him to be better if there’s any hope of turning things around.
This line is a little short by my estimation so we have some value on the Oilers. I think Laurent Brossoit is going to get a start here soon so that’s my only concern with locking this in early but either way there’s going to be enough value to play the Oilers. Everything lines up pretty well for them here so we’ll begrudgingly lay the juice on the home side.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS @ ANAHEIM DUCKS
Projected Goaltenders
Nashville – Pekka Rinne/Juuse Saros (unknown)
Anaheim – John Gibson/Ryan Miller (unknown)
Injury Report
Nashville – Bonino (out), Ellis (out)
Anaheim – Kesler (out), Eaves (out), Getzlaf (out), Fowler (out), Bieksa (out)
The Nashville Predators road woes continued Wednesday night with a 4-1 loss at San Jose as the team struggles to find goals. The Predators have scored two or less goals in six straight games now and possess the NHL’s worst 5-on-5 offense with just 13 goals in 12 games. Unlike a team like the Oilers, the Predators just aren’t generating enough scoring chances and their lack of depth down the middle is a major contributing factor.
There’s help on the horizon though as Nick Bonino is nearing a return after returning to practice for the first time in three weeks on Wednesday. He’s been upgraded to day-to-day but not expected to be activated for tonight.
Ryan Johansen will play tonight after receiving a boarding penalty on Marc-Edouard Vlasic last game. The league deemed there was no need for supplemental discipline so he won’t be suspended.
This is the first of a back-to-back for Nashville so we’ll have to wait and see if it’s Rinne or Saros in net tonight.
The Anaheim Ducks will be looking for some measure of revenge tonight after being eliminated by Nashville in the Western Conference Final last spring and their current injury list is about as long as it was when they exited in Game 6. Despite the multitude of injuries the Ducks are staying afloat with a 6-5-1 record and will look to bank some points with eight of their next ten games at the Honda Center. Anaheim won’t actually leave the state of California again until November 27th so this might be the most crucial stretch of the season as the team looks to remain in the playoff hunt.
With Ryan Getzlaf still out with a facial injury until next week, Randy Carlyle made some lineup changes in Thursday’s practice. Rickard Rakell was back at center on the top line with Cory Perry and Ondrej Kase. Derek Grant centered the number two line with Andrew Cogliano and Jakob Silfverberg while the third line saw Antoine Vermette with Chris Wagner and Nick Ritchie. With limited options at the moment I think this is one of the best combinations Carlyle can deploy so I think we’ll see a better effort from the Ducks tonight than in Wednesday’s 3-1 loss to Toronto.
Anaheim also opens a back-to-back tonight so it could be Gibson or Ryan Miller tonight. Miller was sensational in his season debut on Sunday.
The current line here is a touch short but nothing outrageous. It normally would fall just short of my criteria for a play as I like to have at least 8 cents of value (that’s strictly just because that’s the number where I see a significant uptick in win percentage) but I’m willing to bend the rules for this one based on the strong situational spot for the Ducks tonight. I would recommend a play on them up to my full range of -111 tonight.