Carolina Hurricanes vs. Nashville Predators December 17th Betting Picks

It's a short slate in the NHL tonight, but I do have one pick I like. 

I also want to apologize to Black Hawks fans as apparently my buying Chicago playoff futures caused Connor Bedard to go down with a fluke injury. NHL teams are notoriously vague regarding everything health related. It makes some sense in that you don’t want opponents targeting a specific body part. But in a world of legalized sports betting, not sure how they don’t have to declare more. Yada yada yada, Bedard left last Friday’s game in St Louis clutching his shoulder, so it's not much of a mystery where he’s hurting. 

The specifics and seriousness will remain unknown, other than that he is on IR and will not return until 2026. Hopefully it will be really early in 2026. Anyways, on to an NHL pick.

NHL Season Stats
Record: 9–18
Units: –8.28

Carolina Hurricanes at Nashville Predators

Over 5.5 Goals (-140 FanDuel)

The Predators did not go into 2025-26 intending to tank. Or if they did, they went about it kind of oddly as they’re loaded with 34 and 35 year olds like Steven Stamkos, Ryan O’Reilly, Jonathan Marchessault and Roman Josi not to mention 31 year old Filip Forsberg. These are all pretty much their best players in addition to 30 year old goalie Juuse Saros. They slogged along at or near the bottom of the league for 1 ½ months, but have gone on a bit of a run lately as winners of 7 of their last 10 and now sit within striking distance of a Wild Card slot.

They’ve gotten there thanks to just filling up the net and hoping they don’t yield too much on the other end. They lead the NHL with 42 goals scored in 11 games back to November 24th, but have yielded 38 in that same time span, the 6th worst mark in the league. Saros has been completely meh, with an 89.5% Save% and -1.95 GSAA in 8 games.

Carolina is one of the top five teams in the league and can win any sort of game. My play here is that they will just adapt to what looks like a relative shootout as that’s how Nashville has trended lately. Plus the Canes figure to be a bit shaky in the pipes as 3rd stringer Pyotr Kochetkov likely gets the nod as starter Frederik Anderson slogs through a difficult season. Kochetkov has a 90.4% Save% and 0.76 GSAA, so he gives the Canes essentially league average play. That’s better than Andersen’s 87.2% Save% and -8.22 GSAA.