NHL Bets Today: Islanders vs Red Wings, Caps vs Wild Betting Breakdown

MLB is firmly in Hot Stove season, but we’ve actually gotten a couple super interesting trades in the NHL over the past week. Hot Stove and Cold Ice don’t miss, so I don’t know what we call this. But anyways, it impacts one of my picks below. 

So let’s get going here with a couple NHL picks as we head into the brief Christmas break next week.

NHL Season Stats
Record: 8–17
Units: –8.17

Islanders at Red Wings

Islanders ML (+115 HardRock)

Lets go with the hot hand here. And that would belong to the team from the burbs here as the Islanders have won 6 of their 7 December games. Goalie Ilya Sorokin has been one of the best netminders in the league lately, with a 93.2% Save% and 5.08 GSAA over the last month. Its not the deepest team in the league, but Bo Horvath ranks 6th in the league with 19 goals, and top draft pick, D Matthew Schaeffer already looks like a star at the precocious age of 18.

Detroit’s not a bad team, in fact it looks like there’s a good chance that they end their playoff drought. They’re just not getting great goaltending. John Gibson came over from Anaheim in the offseason and has just not delivered thus far with an 89% Save% and .3.74 GSAA. And that’s really the difference in this matchup. Oh and the plus money on the Islanders on two otherwise pretty evenly matched squads.

Capitals at Wild

Wild ML (-115 DraftKings)

We’re looking at a real terrific matchup here. Minnesota was already playing like the second best team in the league, right after the indomitable Avalanche. They’ve gone 12-2-1 over the last month and have outscored their opponents by a 46-27 margin. And now they’ve added superstar D Quinn Hughes to a lineup that already features Kirill Kaprizov (20-17-37) and Matt Boldy (18-19-37). Plus they’ll start one of the hottest goalies in the league in Jesper Wallstedt, who’s rocking a 93.7% Save% and 15.54 GSAA over that hot team stretch.

The Wild will likely face the one goalie that’s just hot, as Logan Thompson has a 14.68 GSAA and 92.2% Save%. The Caps have played well too, on a 10-2-3 run with a +22 Goal differential.

So why go with the Wild? They’re at home, they looked a shade better already and they’ve added an absolute difference maker to their blue line. And the price is very reasonable.