What a time to be alive –– daily hockey for the next six months. The 2024-25 NHL season is officially underway and instead of Tuesday’s three-game slate, we have been blessed with a five-game slate tonight. Here are my favorite bets over on DraftKings Sportsbook.
2024-25 NHL Record: 3-0
Toronto Maple Leafs at Montreal Canadiens
Auston Matthews Anytime Goalscorer (-160)
Mitchell Marner Over 0.5 Assists (-120)
We aren’t going to overthink things here. Mitch Marner plays alongside Auston Matthews, who is coming off a 69-goal season and has netted five goals in the last four meetings against Montreal. In last season’s opener, Matthews got his historic season going with a hat trick against this same Canadiens team and Marner assisted on one of those. While Marner had a down season in terms of points, he still posted an assist in 38/68 games (56%) last season. As long as he shares a line with Matthews, any assist/point props for Marner could be sneaky cash cows all season.
The Canadiens didn’t have much roster turnover this past offseason either and will be deploying virtually the same squad that has struggled to beat the Maple Leafs in previous seasons, having lost 10 of the last 15 meetings. On top of that, they’ve surrendered 25 goals in just the last five meetings.
Parlaying Matthews to score a goal and Marner to record an assist into a Same Game Parlay (SGP) on DraftKings Sportsbook would yield you plus odds at +150, something I strongly consider doing. You can even add Maple Leafs Moneyline for -160 odds to make it three legs and +210 odds. I think you’re catching my drift at this point –– Toronto should walk away with a win and have some fun in the process by padding the stats in its season opener.
New York Rangers at Pittsburgh Penguins
New York Rangers Moneyline (-142)
The Rangers are arguably the best team in the league from top-to-bottom. They have plenty of offensive firepower and depth, an elite defenseman in Adam Fox along with quality depth pieces and one of the best goaltenders in the league in Igor Shesterkin. Plus, this team made it to the second round of the playoffs after sweeping Washington in four games in the first round. You can never count out Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, and Pittsburgh has some quality offensive and defensive depth along with trustworthy goaltending, but it feels like the absence of Jake Guentzel is going to show.
Pittsburgh ranked 18th in goals per game (3.09) and sixth in shots per game (32.7) last season but didn’t necessarily add eye-opening pieces to improve the offense and goal-scoring. Veteran Kevin Hayes and 20-year-old Rutger McGroarty are expected to see bottom-six roles and shouldn’t move the needle for the Penguins. On the other side, the Rangers scored the seventh-most goals per game (3.39) and allowed the seventh-fewest goals per game (2.76) last season and are fielding virtually the same roster.
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Winnipeg Jets at Edmonton Oilers
Connor Hellebuyck Over 28.5 Saves (-115)
If the Oilers are going to operate as they did last season, then the plan is to get as many shots on the net as possible. Edmonton led the league in shots per game (33.8) and considering it is still led by Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman, that should be the case again this season. Winnipeg is usually defensively sound, allowing the 11th-fewest shots per game (29.6) last season but when facing Edmonton, the stakes rise and the matchups are always competitive.
As a result of the competitiveness, Edmonton tends to get the puck on the net often against Connor Hellebuyck. In the last nine meetings between these two teams, the Oilers have averaged 36.3 shots per game but Hellebuyck has usually held his own, recording 30+ saves in eight of those games. There’s some hesitancy to trust the Oilers to come out of the gate with their usual offensive excellence because of how awful they were to start the 2023-24 season. They lost 13 of the first 20 games of the season, sure, but then proceeded to go on some wild winning streaks and make it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. McDavid and company will be hungry to make a statement in the first game of the season and they can’t do that without getting the puck on the net often.
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All odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook, lines and odds subject to change.
All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests.
