We're officially past the one-month mark of the NHL's 2024-25 campaign and so far, in terms of picks, we're feeling pretty good about our overall record as we head into a critical stretch for clubs across the league ahead of the holiday season. Take your pick of intriguing storylines heading into Saturday: Winnipeg at the top of the table, Ovi chasing Gretzky, Carolina on an eight-game heater – the league is absolutely buzzing right now.

The cherry on top? Our favourite betting day of the week is serving up a bevy of tantalizing matchups that have us fired up to sprinkle a few wagers and start stacking this holiday paper. Take in our top-three picks along with three side bets below. We might be rocking with a number of heavy favourites, but slap these into a parlay and let's get this paper.

Complete 2024-25 Saturday Record (Daily Record Tracked/Posted @Flips_Picks):

Gold: 1-3
Silver: 4-0
Bronze: 2-2
Side Bets (Located at Bottom of Article): 9-3
2024-25 Combined Saturday Record: 16-8

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Gold Selection
New York Rangers @ Detroit Red Wings – Pick: Rangers ML (-205)

Let's get this out of the way off the jump: the New York Rangers are a team that won't be embarrassed often. Meaning, Thursday's dismantling at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres is definitely an outlier in terms of this club's overall expectations. With the Detroit Red Wings on the second night of a tough back-to-back, this is a sensational spot for the Blueshirts to bounce back in a very big way. The Rangers are once again a lethal squad on special teams, owning the eighth-best power-play and top-ranked penalty kill in the league so far. These are angles that are likely to translate into success for Peter Laviolette's group against a Detroit side struggling to generate quality chances.

Take Friday against the Toronto Maple Leafs as a prime example where the Wings managed only 22 shots on net for one goal. In fact, Detroit has actually scored the least goals of any Eastern Conference team this season. With the Rangers out for blood, this one could get out of hand early – especially when you factor in New York's eight wins out of their last nine meetings against the Wings. We're keeping this week's Gold Pick short and sweet; Rangers steamroll and take two points from Detroit.

Silver Selection
Columbus Blue Jackets @ L.A. Kings – Pick: Kings ML (-210)

This feels like the classic case of two teams heading in different directions. There's no denying the future is bright in Cannon Country, as the Blue Jackets prospect pool is deeper than most, but their time as a winning franchise is still a couple seasons away and they've looked sloppy of late while dropping three consecutive games. The Jackets also have only one win in their last six meetings with the Kings and even more concerning is the fact they are a really bad road team with just a single victory in their last 16 games away from home.

As for the Kings, they've taken five of the last six while hosting Columbus and their offense is starting to click, racking up 19 goals over the previous five games while rolling three quality forward lines capable of putting up points in a hurry. The odds for this matchup don't exactly jump off the page with value in L.A. on the moneyline, but considering how favourable a spot this is for a home team in the Kings that've dropped only one game in regulation at Crypto.com Arena this season, we're not shying away from hammering this spot. Slap it into a parlay and thank us later. Kings cruise in this one.

Bronze Selection
Cole Caufield 4+ Shots On Goal (+118)

Is there really anything better than Leafs-Habs on a Saturday night? While many fanbases would definitely disagree, especially with the Canadiens looking much more like an AHL group right now instead of an NHL one, this is still a juicy tilt with no love lost between two bitter Atlantic Division rivals. Considering how bad the Habs are right now and with the Leafs looking stingy in their own end, the obvious angle would be to hammer Toronto here and move on. However, there's a more intriguing angle that is also providing much more value that we think should be exploited.

One positive so far for Montreal has been the play of Cole Caufield, who is off to the best start of his career with 10 goals already under his belt, accounting for over a quarter of the Canadiens' total offensive output. Caufield has feasted on Toronto, racking up more goals and shots against the Maple Leafs than any other team in his career to the tune of 10 and 42, respectively. With the Buds on the second night of a back-to-back, they could be a little lackluster in their own end and we expect that to mean good things for Montreal's deadliest shooter.

Side Bets
Alex Ovechkin 3+ Shots On Goal (-345)
Edmonton Oilers @ Vancouver Canucks – Pick: Over 6.5 (-102)
Carolina Hurricanes @ Colorado Avalanche – Pick: Hurricanes ML (-126)

Flip Livingstone is an NHL betting and NHL fantasy writer and daily podcast host with experience at outlets such as theScore NHL, Narcity Media, Postmedia, and Hockey Night in Canada. You can follow him @Flips_Picks.