Saturday Pucks:
Jackets at Bruins (-230) Bruins finally doing what we anticipated they would do this year, now having won 5 in a row and playing great defense. Bruins come in off of 2-1 loss to the Rangers last night. Jackets are 2-7 on 2nd night of back to back's. They are 1-4 in their last 5, but it's been a tough schedule. 3 of the 4 losses were to MON, NYR and NYI. Bruins only way to look here and I like them, but it will have to be in a parlay.
Flyers (-180) at Sabres- Flyers have been shut out 2 games in a row and have serious goaltender problems with Mason out. I don't know how you can keep running Emery out there right now, I'd make Zepp the starter and start him as much as possible. Sabres are dreadful and aren't scoring AT ALL right now. They've lost 13 of 14 and have had little success against the Flyers recently. The numbers call for an unders game but no chance that I want any of that unless I KNOW Zepp is starting, and at -120 that does not interest me. No interest here. PASS.
Leafs at Blues (-220) Blues playing well of late, scoring lots of goals, Wings briefly derailed them last time out, but they have momentum. I'm not convinced that this Blues team is a Cup contender, I don't think they have the goalie play to go a long way. As a Hawks fan I was kind of hoping that Rinne's injury would allow us to get back in to the 1 spot and draw a WC game and avoid the Blues in the first round, but after watching last night's Jets game, I really think I'd rather play St. Louis first. The Leafs have been a hard team for me to figure out this year, but I do know they've been bad on the road, losing 8 of their last 10, and I don't think they win here either. Only way to play is Blues in a parlay, which I'll look to do, probably with Boston.
Isles (+110) at Habs- Isles playing great hockey right now. They are making a believer out of me and I think they are really starting to believe in themselves. Habs will be without Price tonight. Tokarski has been pretty decent backing him up, but I don't want any part of Montreal without Price here. Isles coming off impressive win against Pens last night, but are 6-1 on 2nd night of back to back's, so that shouldn't worry you. I like the Isles here, but I'd like a little better number. I'm undecided right now, but if that line sneaks up a bit I may look to jump on NYI.
Canes at Sens (-160)-Canes bit me last night when they put up a pathetic effort at home against the Canucks. Now they come in to this one in a spot where they've really struggled, they are 1-7 on 2nd night of back to back's. Sens aren't playing great but should find a way to win this one. Not sure what to do here, I think the -160 is too rich, which means only way to play Sens is in a parlay, not sure how confident I am to do that. Other thing to consider is that Khudobin will be in net for Canes and he's been somewhat hot as of late. PASS
Preds at Wings (-145) Preds come in off of an impressive win last night against the red hot Caps, but things get a little tougher tonight, against the Wings who return home after going 4-2 on a 6 game road trip. Both teams are without their starting goalies, although I like Mrazek a little more than I like Hutton. I really think that reality set in tonight for Nashville and that the Wings come away with this one. Only way to play it is either in a parlay or a Puck-line at +195. I don't know if I'm comfortable with that type of play with the way the Preds play defense. I'll think on this one for a while. Would like to be involved with the Wings in some fashion here.
More later, going to settle in and watch some hoops.