We only have three games across the board tonight, but some interesting matchups are on offer: an Eastern Conference game between Toronto and the NY Rangers, as well as a divisional game between Minnesota and Colorado.
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Picks Summary
- Colorado Avalanche -1.5 (+120)
- William Nylander 2+ Points (+200)
*All odds from Bet365 (check our Bet365 Review)
Toronto Maple Leafs vs. New York Rangers
Friday, February 28, 2025 – 07:00 PM ET at Madison Square Garden
Nylander Having a Season to Remember
Despite always being one of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ go-to goal-scorers, William Nylander has really stepped his game up this season, scoring the joint 2nd most amount of goals at this stage of the season. Nylander’s previous regular season goal tally was 40 goals in each of the previous two seasons.
At his current scoring rate, he is projected to score 47 goals.
Despite having a season to remember, Nylander has been very cold in front of the crease lately. He has scored zero goals in his previous 8 games (3 of those games included the 4 Nations Cup). Although we believe Nylander can get back on the scoreboard tonight against a New York Rangers team that is very betable these days, we are more intrigued by his odds to score over 1.5 points in this game.
The Pick
William Nylander not only scores goals. He has had 336 assists in 661 regular-season games and only had one season out of ten where he had more goals than assists. Thus far this season, Nylander has scored 33 goals and 25 assists in 58 games played.
Throughout his career, Nylander has had 31 points in 22 games against the NY Rangers. We love the fact that he failed to score a single point last time out and he also failed to score a single point the last time Toronto faced the NY Rangers.
Tonight could be the night Nylander goes off, and at +200, we are more than happy to get involved.
NHL Pick: William Nylander 2+ Points (+200) at Bet365
Minnesota Wild vs. Colorado Avalanche
Friday, February 28, 2025 – 09:00 PM ET at Ball Arena
Wild Rely on Kaprizov
Although the Minnesota Wild are ahead of the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference, we wouldn’t back them to best the Avalanche in a best-of-seven without their star player Kirill Kaprizov. Kaprizov has been absent for the majority of the season, only featuring in 37 games compared to 59 for some of his teammates. Most interesting of all is the fact that Kaprizov still remains their top goal-scorer and point-scorer this season.
We are opposing a big trend here, as we are looking to target the home team Colorado at -1.5 on the PK line. When looking at both teams’ stats, the Wild rank as the 2nd best ATS team when playing on the road, while the Avalanche have a mediocre ATS record on home ice, having gone 11-18.
However, it must be noted that the Wild have been set at +1.5 for most of their road games, while the Avalanche were set to -1.5 for most of their home games.
The Pick
Colorado has been strong defensively at home in recent games, forcing two shutouts. They only allowed one goal on the 3rd occasion and managed to cover the -1.5 PK line in all three games.
Minnesota comes into this road game somewhat limited offensively without Kaprizov and, interestingly enough, follows a similar trend to Colorado, only the complete opposite. Minnesota has lost 3 of their previous 4 road games; two of those losses saw them get shutout while they only managed to score one goal on the 3rd occasion.
We are backing the team that is hot right now, and Colorado has the firepower to win this matchup by 2+ goals.
NHL Pick: Colorado Avalanche -1.5 (+120) at Bet365
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