NHL Best Bets: Golden Knights vs. Predators Game Picks

The Nashville Predators want to continue their winning streak tonight when they welcome the Vegas Golden Knights to Bridgestone Arena.

All Odds Courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook

Vegas Golden Knights (-110) vs. Nashville Predators (-110) Total: 6 (O-102, U-120)

Even though the regular season hasn’t entirely gone according to plan for the Predators, they’re playing some solid hockey and have won three straight games. The Preds have also posted a 6-4 record over their past ten, while their opponents are on the opposite end of the spectrum and have been struggling, owning a 2-6-2 record over that same sample size. 

This will be the second meeting of three between these clubs, with the opener seeing the Golden Knights register a 5-4 victory. The Golden Knights are a puzzling team to follow, with injury concerns and some overall inconsistencies. These teams are currently priced evenly on the moneyline, entering this contest at -110. That likely demonstrates the issues that Vegas deals with, considering they’d probably be a more significant favorite here under more favorable circumstances.

Looking toward the projected goalie matchup tonight, the Golden Knights are expected to start Logan Thompson, while the Predators should do the same with Juuse Saros. Both of these netminders made appearances at the All-Star Game. Thompson has posted a 19-13-3 record, paired with a .913 save percentage, while Saros is listed at 19-13-5, along with a .920 save percentage. 

The Preds should have a slight edge in goal tonight, especially considering the struggles that the Golden Knights have been facing lately. This is still a good Vegas team, but it’s tough to have confidence in them for this matchup when considering how well the Preds are playing. As a result, the value price of the Preds on the moneyline at -110 shouldn’t be ignored here. 

Best Bet: Predators moneyline (-110) 

The first matchup between these teams ended surprisingly, considering they combined for nine goals. The Preds and Golden Knights are both in the bottom half of the NHL in goals scored per game, while they also both sit in the top half in goals allowed per game. As a result, you’d likely think that would result in a lower-scoring environment. Over the Golden Knights’ past five games, they’ve seen six or more goals scored in just one of those games, while the Preds have seen that transpire in three of them. Even with what we saw in Game 1, we’ll tack that up as an outlier, meaning we like the value of the under six tonight at -120. 

Best Bet: Under 6 (-120) 

You might not see a lot of high-powered star talent in this matchup, but we must dig deeper to find some value tonight. Some veteran talent leads the Preds on offense, which includes Matt Duchene. The numbers for Duchene maybe aren’t where some of the Preds management team expected them to be when he signed his long-term contract, but he’s still been able to tally 38 points in 47 games. Those certainly aren’t numbers to scoff at, and there’s plenty of value in backing him to score tonight at +220. 

Best Prop: Matt Duchene to Record Over 0.5 Goals (+220) 

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