Saturday’s NHL Picks – November 10th, 2018

Back for my second week of picks at DobberHockey. Last week was rough, as the 3-3 record would indicate. But the saving grace was that both my Gold and Silver picks came through, albeit barely.

Interestingly enough, two of the teams I’m betting against this week have been two of the clubs who’ve been playing a lot better to start the year than most experts projected — but that’s quickly changing: one squad can’t keep pucks out of their own net, and the other is in the news more for off-ice reasons than for its performance on it (cough, Ottawa, cough).

Regardless, this Saturday’s loaded NHL board includes a total of 11 matchups for us to choose from, including three matinee affairs. So make sure you are strapped in early and ready to make some loot.

Good luck.

Gold

Ottawa Senators @ Tampa Bay Lightning – Pick: Lightning

Before you start spitting hate on Twitter, yes, I realize the Senators came out and laid a beatdown on a good New Jersey Devils team a day after their Uber fiasco, but they followed that up by laying an egg against the Vegas Golden Knights two nights later.

Don’t get it twisted: Ottawa is just downright bad, with holes up and down the lineup and an ageing Craig Anderson in net, Guy Boucher and Co. are in for a very long campaign in the nation’s capital.

Aside from the serious lack of talent on the Senators’ roster, Tampa Bay is quite obviously the real deal, as the team boasts the likes of such superstar studs Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman, and Steven Stamkos, just to name a few. Not only do the Lightning employ one of the most lethal scoring attacks, but they are rounding into Cup-contending form with wins in eight of their last 10.

If you need a slam-dunk lock for Saturday, the Bolts are a great place to start.

Silver

Golden Knights @ Montreal Canadiens – Pick: Golden Knights

Since blanking the Boston Bruins on October 27th, Habs netminder Carey Price has been seriously struggling to stop the biscuit. In his five starts since the shutout over the Bs two weeks ago, Price has been absolutely lit up, allowing 22 goals to go along with an embarrassing .854 save percentage and a 1-3-1 record.

Montreal was pegged by many pundits at the start of the year to be in the mix as one of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference. And after a shockingly hot start, the club is starting to fall back to earth and align with itself with those preseason projections, losing six of their last 10 games.

Conversely, the Golden Knights entered the year with lofty expectations following a storybook run to the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, but have failed miserably to live up to them. Vegas has registered a very pedestrian 7-8-1 record over its first 16 games while struggling to light the lamp. The Knights have scored the third least goals in the league at a measly 39 (only the offensively challenged L.A. Kings and Florida Panthers have managed to score less).

There’s no denying that Vegas has been playing fairly inconsistent hockey of late, but the Habs are starting to slide and are allowing goals at a seriously alarming rate. If the Knights can get an early tally or two right off the jump, this could be a very one-sided affair.

Bronze

Chicago Blackhawks @ Philadelphia Flyers – Pick: Over 6

If you’re looking for one of those good ol’ fashioned low-scoring, tight-checking goaltending battles, do yourself a favour and change the channel on this bad boy. These two clubs might as well have a piece of swiss cheese between the pipes, as Philly and Chicago have combined to already allow a staggering 120 goals against.

Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford has looked like a shell of his former self over the last four contests, going 0-4-0 while allowing 18 goals on only 138 shots. Sprinkle in the Flyers’ neverending goalie pit that is somehow getting deeper, and this matchup screams high scoring.

These two clubs struggle mightily to keep pucks out of their own net, and I expect that trend to continue on Saturday night in the city of Brotherly Love. Hammer the over, even if it creeps up to a 6.5 total.

Side Bets
 

Calgary Flames @ L.A. Kings – Pick: Under 5.5

Toronto Maple Leafs @ Boston Bruins – Pick: Maple Leafs

Arizona Coyotes @ Pittsburgh Penguins – Pick: Over 5.5

2018-19 Record

Gold: 1-0       

Silver: 1-0
Bronze: 0-1
Side Bets: 1-2

**

Flip Livingstone is a former NHL writer for theScore with past experience at such outlets as Postmedia, Hockey Night in Canada, and the CBC. You can follow him on Twitter @FlipLivingstone.