NHL Betting Guide for Wednesday, December 29: Oilers are solid road dogs in St. Louis

It’s back! After an extended holiday break to contain the COVID-19 outbreaks impacting the league, the NHL finally got back underway last night. If yesterday’s results were any indication, we should expect some high-scoring games over the coming days, as goalies get re-acclimated to the speed of the game. All three contests went over by a substantial margin, with two unsuspecting games requiring overtime or a shootout. We’re hoping for more excitement on night two, featuring a six-game slate.

These are some of our favorite wagers from FanDuel Sportsbook!

The Seattle Kraken have been involved in some high-scoring games over their recent stretch — a brand of hockey that suits the Philadelphia Flyers just fine. The betting market has adjusted towards the under for tonight’s inter-conference battle, but we’re taking a stance on the over at plus-money.

Seattle is on an outrageous over streak, seeing some inflated outcomes over their past nine games. In six of those games, the Kraken have gone over, scoring seven or more goals in each contest. Goaltending has been letting Seattle down, as Philipp Grubauer and Chris Driedger have allowed at least three goals in eight of the nine contests. Goaltending has been an issue all season for the Kraken, as they’ve allowed the third-most goals this season, going over in 19 of 30 games.

That’s unlikely to change against a Flyers team that was finding its offensive footing before the holiday shut-down. Philadelphia has scored four or more in four of their past five games, going over in all four contests. However, this season, the Flyers’ goaltending has also been suspect, particularly over their previous 11 contests. Over that span, Flyers goalies have allowed three or more goals in nine of 11 contests, going over in eight of those games.

We saw last night that goaltenders are having a hard time getting re-acclimated to the pace of play. We’re expecting that to continue in tonight’s contest between two teams with a penchant for high-scoring affairs. Over 6.5 is the play.

The Picks: Over 6.5 +106

All NHL predictions and picks are courtesy of SportsGrid.