Friday's Best NHL Bets
By Covers.com
New York Rangers at Pittsburgh Penguins
Winning a championship is hard. Defending it is even harder, especially when two of your biggest stars are less than 100 percent.
The Pittsburgh Penguins may be without Sidney Crosby when they begin their season as defending Stanley Cup champs against the New York Rangers Friday. Crosby is nursing an injured groin but told reporters he “feels pretty good” after testing it in practice earlier this week.
"I did a lot more battling and things like that in the corners," Crosby told the Sporting News. "Leaning on guys, and stuff. I was happy with the way it felt."
While Crosby’s status is still up in the air, the Pens will definitely be without postseason sparkplug Maxime Talbot, who could be out until January while recovering from shoulder surgery. Talbot was huge for Pittsburgh in the run to the Cup including scoring the two winning goals in Game 7 of the final.
The Penguins are shuffling lines to make up for holes in the forward corps, which could slow down an offense that scored more than three goals a game and averaged 29 shots on goal.
Pick: Under
Florida Panthers vs. Chicago Blackhawks (-153, 5.5)
There are some huge expectations for a young Blackhawks team to live up to in 2009-10. After getting within a few overtimes of the Cup final, Chicago is everyone’s dark horse to win the West.
However, if the Hawks’ exhibition contests against the ZSC Lions this week is any indication, Chicago still has work to do before claiming the conference’s top spot. The Blackhawks dropped a 2-1 game to the Swiss club heading into their season-opening game against the Florida Panthers in Helsinki, Finland Friday.
Chicago knows it has work to do before facing the Panthers. They took a 9-2 win over HC Davos the day before losing to the Lions and their tough zone defense. Chicago’s explosive offense was held in check by ZSC and wasn’t given room to operate and make plays.
"It's tough, especially the way we played (against Davos) when I thought we played very well," forward Patrick Kane told the team’s website. "Then to have an effort like that; it's definitely something that is tough to swallow. But we'll have to learn from it and move on from here. We got bigger things ahead of us. It'll be tough to put this one behind us.”
Pick: Florida +141
FLORIDA (0-0-0-0, 0 pts.) vs. CHICAGO (0-0-0-0, 0 pts.) Game is being played in Finland
There are no Top Trends with records of significance that apply to this game.
Head-to-Head Series History
FLORIDA is 1-1 (+0.4 Units) against the spread versus CHICAGO over the last 3 seasons
CHICAGO is 1-1-0 straight up against FLORIDA over the last 3 seasons
2 of 2 games in this series have gone UNDER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons . (Under=+2.0 Units)
DETROIT (0-0-0-0, 0 pts.) vs. ST LOUIS (0-0-0-0, 0 pts.) Game is being played in Sweden
Top Trends for this game.
ST LOUIS is 14-10 ATS (+26.6 Units) vs. division opponents over the last 2 seasons.
Head-to-Head Series History
ST LOUIS is 5-9 (+0.5 Units) against the spread versus DETROIT over the last 3 seasons
DETROIT is 9-5-0 straight up against ST LOUIS over the last 3 seasons
6 of 11 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons . (Over=+0.6 Units)
PHILADELPHIA (0-0-0-0, 0 pts.) at CAROLINA (0-0-0-0, 0 pts.)
Top Trends for this game.
CAROLINA is 8-0 ATS (+8.0 Units) in home games on Friday nights over the last 2 seasons.
Head-to-Head Series History
PHILADELPHIA is 6-2 (+3.5 Units) against the spread versus CAROLINA over the last 3 seasons
PHILADELPHIA is 6-2-0 straight up against CAROLINA over the last 3 seasons
5 of 8 games in this series have gone UNDER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons . (Under=+2.0 Units)
NY RANGERS (0-0-0-0, 0 pts.) at PITTSBURGH (0-0-0-0, 0 pts.)
There are no Top Trends with records of significance that apply to this game.
Head-to-Head Series History
PITTSBURGH is 10-9 (+0.9 Units) against the spread versus NY RANGERS over the last 3 seasons
PITTSBURGH is 10-9-0 straight up against NY RANGERS over the last 3 seasons
10 of 17 games in this series have gone UNDER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons . (Under=+2.2 Units)
FLORIDA vs. CHICAGO
Florida is 2-7-2 SU in its last 11 games when playing Chicago
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Florida's last 5 games when playing Chicago
Chicago is 1-4 SU in its last 5 games
The total has gone OVER in 5 of Chicago's last 7 games
DETROIT vs. ST. LOUIS
Detroit is 15-8 SU in its last 23 games
Detroit is 1-4 SU in its last 5 games
St. Louis is 1-5 SU in its last 6 games when playing Detroit
The total has gone OVER in 5 of St. Louis's last 7 games when playing Detroit
PHILADELPHIA vs. CAROLINA
Philadelphia is 6-1 SU in its last 7 games when playing on the road against Carolina
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Philadelphia's last 5 games when playing on the road against Carolina
Carolina is 16-5 SU in its last 21 games at home
Carolina is 1-6 SU in its last 7 games when playing at home against Philadelphia
NY RANGERS vs. PITTSBURGH
NY Rangers are 1-4 SU in their last 5 games
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of the NY Rangers last 6 games
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Pittsburgh's last 6 games when playing NY Rangers
Pittsburgh is 5-0 SU in their last 5 games when playing at home against NY Rangers