It's that time of the week again. Saturday means it's Hockey Night! The games we're going to look at are Florida at Tampa Bay at 7:00 PM ET and Vancouver at Vegas at 10:00 PM ET.
Some of the results this season have been a little surprising game-to-game, but one thing we can rely on is FanDuel Sportsbook providing all the up-to-date odds we need.
We've documented before the extent to which Vegas is dealing with injuries, and this game is no different. The Golden Knights are still missing two-thirds of its first-line (Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone), in addition to Zach Whitecloud, Nolan Patrick, and William Karlsson. Of course, every team has its share of injuries, but Vancouver's are not as significant as Vegas'. The Canucks still have leading scorer J.T. Miller in the lineup, and the off-season addition of Conor Garland has been paying off with him sitting third in team scoring.
In the absence of Pacioretty and Stone, the Golden Knights have leaned on Chandler Stephenson and Jonathan Marchessault to lead the way offensively. However, neither of these clubs is lighting the lamp at an impressive rate. Vegas is 22nd in goals per game, and Vancouver is worse than that, sitting in 26th. Defensively they've both done a better job, each allowing just three goals against per game. Without Vegas' stars, it seems like an excellent bet to lean towards a low-scoring affair. In addition, we'll take the Canucks' on the puck line. It's always an added benefit taking a spot of one-and-a-half goals in a contest we expect not to have that many goals scored.
The Picks: Canucks Spread +1.5 (-205), Total Goals: Under 5.5 (+106), Jonathan Marchessault - Points: Over 0.5 (-122), Conor Garland - Points: Over 0.5 (+104)
