It’s the third NHL slate of the season, which means back-to-backs have returned. For tonight’s nine-game slate, this applies to the Maple Leafs, Canadiens and Penguins, who all played last night and enter as road underdogs on the Moneyline. I went 2-2 yesterday thanks to an absolute no-show from Toronto and its top playmakers โโ let’s do better tonight. Here are my three favorite bets over on DraftKings Sportsbook.
2024-25 NHL Record: 5-2
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Montreal Canadiens at Boston Bruins
Bruins Puck Line -1.5 (-112)
Boston did just surrender six goals to the surrendering Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers in its season opener two days ago but 30-year-old Joonas Korpisalo received the start over Jeremy Swayman, and he’s coming off a rather awful season with Ottawa in which he allowed 3.27 goals per game and finished with just a .890 save percentage. It is unclear whether or not Swayman is “ready” for tonight because he was holding out for a new contract during the offseason and hasn’t gotten enough reps yet, per Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery. I’m not buying it, though โโ he allowed just 2.53 goals per game and finished with a .916 save percentage last season. He’s going to be fine.
Nonetheless, the Bruins have owned the Canadiens for nearly a decade now. Across the last 20 meetings between these two teams, Boston has come out on top a whopping 16 times and the majority of those wins were not particularly close. The Bruins did drop their season series opener against the Canadiens last season but outscored them 16 to 7 in the other three matchups. The Canadiens just played at home last night and the vibes are high after shutting out the Maple Leafs. But, they’ll be operating on no rest on top of already having their first road game be in Boston, which has seen its team post a 58-15-9 home record across the last two seasons.
The Bruins have also won nine of the last 10 meetings by an average of 2.4 goals. The Canadiens started Sam Montembeault against the Maple Leafs last night and he was a brick wall, stopping all 48 shots. 25-year-old Cayden Primeau is starting tonight, and he was solid in 21 starts last season, but I’d be willing to bet that Montreal won’t be so lucky to repeat that performance and shut down two talented squads in back-to-back nights.
Columbus Blue Jackets at Minnesota Wild
Kirill Kaprizov Anytime Goalscorer (-125)
In five career games against Columbus, Kirill Kaprizov has scored seven goals. He was unable to net a goal in last year’s matchup on three shot attempts but given his track record, I’m willing to test it here in the season opener. The Blue Jackets were flat-out bad defensively last season, allowing the second-most goals per game (3.63) and second-most goals above expected (201.06). Elvis Merzฤผikins has slowly gotten worse throughout his career and is coming off a rough season in which he recorded 40 starts, 3.45 goals allowed and a .897 save percentage. Things will either stay the same or get worse for him as Columbus didn’t do much in the offseason to address the defensive issues either.
On top of that, Columbus was particularly bad at limiting opposing wingers from scoring. Kaprizov shares a line with Marco Rossi and Mats Zuccarello and primarily plays left wing, which is an elite matchup as the Blue Jackets allowed nearly one goal per game (0.95) to opposing left wings last season. Even better, the Wild were also a top-10 power play team (22.7%) and drew the third-most penalty minutes (683) last season. Why does this matter? Columbus deployed the seventh-worst penalty kill unit (76.3%) and allowed the 10th-most power play goals (56). Oh, and three of Kaprizov’s seven career goals against Columbus have come from the power play.
Dallas Stars at Nashville Predators
Over 6.5 Total Goals (+100)
This line was originally set at 6.0 when I started writing but it has since moved to 6.5, so we pivot, and I still feel good about this line at plus odds. (You can also still take the alternate total for 6.0 goals at -135.) It felt like a low-scoring game at first but Scott Wedgewood is getting the start over Juuse Saros for Nashville, which should lead to more scoring. Wedgewood started 28 games for Dallas last season but only posted a .899 save percentage and will likely have trouble slowing down the offensive attack he used to face in practice. Jake Oettinger is starting for the Stars but the Predators have new offensive pieces, so I’m expecting both offenses to take over tonight and clear this total of seven goals on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Dallas’ offensive presence has rarely ever been questioned, ranking third in goals per game (3.59) and fourth in expected goal percentage (54.24%) last season. Its young talent like Wyatt Johnston and Thomas Harley are truly breaking out and there are going to be very few teams strong enough to stop this team on a nightly basis. On the other side is a Predators squad that looks quite different than it did just one season ago. Nashville bolstered the offensive firepower by signing both Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault, who are each coming off of 40-plus goal seasons. Last season, the Predators still brought the heat on offense, ranking 10th in goals per game (3.24) and sixth in expected goal percentage (52.94%).
The goaltending is strong, which could lead to some hesitancy from bettors to take the over but this total has gone over in three of the last five meetings between these teams. It’s hard to see that trend not continuing with how rejuvenated Nashville’s offense should be on top of Dallas’ quality of depth and production from all roles.
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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.
