Top NHL Betting Picks of the Week – October 7th Edition

We’re almost a week into the 2019-20 regular season in the National Hockey League, and we’re seeing some surprising trends to start the season. The Columbus Blue Jackets, who swept top-seeded Tampa Bay out of the playoffs last year, have dropped two games to start the season and already have a -8 goal differential. The New York Rangers, basement dwellers a year ago, have roared out with two wins. The Detroit Red Wings, who have been rebuilding for some time, have a nice 2-0-0 start to the campaign. The St. Louis Blues started their Stanley Cup defense with a 1-0-1 start, but the Dallas Stars are one of just two teams in the NHL to have a 0-3-0 start to the season — after pushing the Blues to the brink of elimination in the Western Conference semifinals last season. What can you expect in your NHL betting this week? We have a couple of primo picks for you.

Top NHL Betting Picks of the Week – October 7th Edition

The first full week of the 2019-20 NHL season starts tonight with the @StLouisBlues visiting the @MapleLeafs in Toronto and the @BlueJacketsNHL welcoming the @BuffaloSabres to Columbus. Full schedule: https://t.co/0XXh0AQz2X #NHLFaceOff pic.twitter.com/9EUbvVLD5C

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) October 7, 2019

Tuesday, October 8

Dallas at Washington (7:00pm ET, ESPN+)

The Dallas Stars have lost each of their first three games of the 2019-20 season, each by a goal. In their opener at home against Boston, the Stars gave up two first-period goals but then got one back in the second period. However, they could not close the gap. In St. Louis two nights later, the team actually went up 2-1 before giving up the equalizer and the game-winner. The next night, in Detroit, the Stars led 2-0 after the first period before seeing Detroit tie the game in the second. In the third period, the Red Wings took an early lead before the Stars tied the game 33 seconds later but then Detroit got the game-winner with 54 seconds left in regulation. The issues that have plagued the Stars the past few seasons apparently remain so far. The team has plenty of offense, but their defense just does not know how to stop opponents consistently. Adding one of the top goalies of the game in Ben Bishop has not helped, because even with his skills it is impossible to overcome sloppy defense. Washington comes in with points in each of their three games so far. They went to St. Louis and delivered a 3-2 win in their opener, spoiling the Stanley Cup banner hanging for the hosts, and then they went to New York and beat a scrappy Islanders team, 2-1. They returned home on Saturday to face the Carolina Hurricanes, falling in overtime, 3-2. In that loss, the Caps got T.J. Oshie’s second goal of the season and saw Braden Holtby stop 25 shots. However, a key problem came on the power play, where Washington went 0 for 6, including a 4-on-3 chance in overtime. Can Washington solve their extra-man woes with the Stars coming to town? MLB Betting Prediction: Washington 4, Dallas 3

Boston at Vegas (10:00pm ET, ESPN+)

The defending Eastern Conference champion Boston Bruins start the 2019-20 campaign on a Western road swing, beginning with a 2-1 win in Dallas on Thursday and following it up Saturday night with a 1-0 win in Arizona. There has been no Stanley Cup-loss hangover for the B’s, as they have shown uncharacteristically strong defense as they wait for that tic-tac-toe offense to get up and running. Jaroslav Halak was terrific in net for the Bruins on Saturday, stopping all 35 shots that he faced, and Brad Marchand scored the only tally of the night. The Bruins have now won 15 in a row over Arizona. The Bruins’ next stop is Las Vegas, where they face a Golden Knights team that has won their first two games by a combined score of 9-2. They began with a home-and-home against the San Jose Sharks, winning the opener at home, 4-1, and then winning two nights later in San Jose, 5-1. In that second win, Tomas Nosek had a pair of goals and an assist for the Golden Knights, and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 34 shots. The Golden Knights had some reasons to be motivated to play hard against the Sharks, who eliminated Vegas in the playoffs in a Game 7 overtime that was turned by a controversial five-minute major penalty call. Vegas is now 7-1-2 all time in the regular season against the Sharks. But can they play similarly dominant hockey against the Bruins? MLB Betting Prediction: Vegas 3, Boston 2