NHL Picks/Props

Happy Belated New Year’s Poolies!

It’s been quite a week in the NHL, with an even further intensified playoff race in both conferences coming to the forefront of late with Gary Bettman’s High Parity NHL. Should be another amazing winter of exciting meaningful hockey (for most teams) down the stretch!

After a solid 1 month run of going at over an 80% clip, I split my picks in half last column. This week I’m banking on yet another above .500 card. So without further ado….

Well it was a terrific ending to 2011, with a 5-1 week, just those pesky Islanders getting in the way of a perfect Saturday night.  Luckily I left that game off of my pro-line ticket. Thunder on the other hand had a week she’d like to forget only picking the Avs and Isles as winners, over Washington and Minnesota respectively, which is still gutsy in my book. Here’s a look at the matchups I like for this upcoming Saturday.  I stayed away from the Bruins Canucks rematch, even though the B’s have won 9 of their last 10 while scoring 49 goals in the process. Lots of early NHL action as Bettman is worried about Wild Card weekend in the NFL (Go Niners!!! Oh wait, that’s next weekend).  Let’s get it on:

Happy Holidays Folks!

It’s been an enjoyable week of hockey during the Christmas break to say the least. From an eventful NHL schedule to the World Juniors and of course, HBO’s 24/7 the lead-up to this weekend’s Winter Classic, I’m loving it, and I’m sure many of you are as well!

Anyhow, onto a quick recap of my last card. I followed up my perfect week with nearly another, as I headed into the late games undefeated. However, I ended up missing the final two results by a single goal, yet remain with an above 80% run dating back to late November. Here’s to keeping the hot streak alive.

Another crazy busy week, so I’ll try to keep it short and sweet. From the last couple of weeks it seems all those slam dunk games haven’t been turning out slam dunks; time to get back to the fundamentals. That Philly-Boston matinee is going to be a dandy; too bad Pronger and Giroux are out. There are 12 games on the schedule, so here we go.

Now THAT is what you call a rebound week! ! After experiencing my 1^st sub .500 week since last spring, I came back with a vengeance last week nailing EVERY winner! Not only did I sweep the sched, but I decided seriously go on a limb with an EXTREMELY BOLD prediction for an underdog... (I made the gutsy call to select the New York Islanders to defeat the New Jersey Devils in Jersey). Now take a second to let me put this into perspective for you. The Isles had lost 4 in a row, 14 of their previous 16 and hadn’t nailed down a single victory on the road all season, heading into Jersey vs a Devils team, who was hot, winning four of their previous five!! Despite all the odds against them, the Islanders actually came through! Now that is the Gold I provide!

Anthony bounces back 6-0 with his picks last week. How about sending some of that my way?? We had a little rough patch last week with only two winners, while Thunder managed an impressive 4-2 record with picking winners such as the Leafs and Jets. It’s time to step up and answer the call. I was heading home from work Wednesday afternoon and wished my colleague, an avid Leafs fan, luck that evening as his team was going up against the Bruins.  I told him I thought the game would end 6-3 in Boston’s favour, where he argued that the game would be closer with how well the Leafs have played as of late.  I agreed with him to an extent and conceded that the sixth goal would be an empty netter. Surely enough the B’s pull out a 6-3 win with an empty netter to seal the deal. Hopefully some of that insight will rub off for this week, and/or I just wasted it all on a single game. Hope everyone enjoys this Saturday’s action and a triple header on CBC for us hockey nut bags in Canada.

Phew! The law of averages saw this coming since last spring…but last time out my column resulted in my 1^st sub .500 card since April 8^th of last season. Time to bury last week’s rare outlier with another dependable lineup, so without beating around the bush, let’s cut right to the chase this week.

A tough week last week for Anthony as he’ll have some wounds to lick after only picking a single winner, however I don’t think there was anyone who wasn’t surprised with the Sens, Coyotes, Devils, Hurricanes, and Blues all winning last week.  Two weeks ago Thunder and I tied again in our proline dealings with 3-3 splits, although picking 5 out of 6 winners straight up hopefully helps build confidence for this week.  Although I’m only 7-11 with my proline picks this year, my straight up winners looking much better at 11-7.  Thunder has been as steady as can be at 9-9, but we all know .500 isn’t going to get you into the playoffs so it’s time for her to step up her game. Anyways, let’s see if we can get some winners for you this week:

Good afternoon poolies! Firstly, off the bat, I just wanted to give a thumbs up to my colleague Marty who last week managed to nab 5 of his 6 winners, despite evening out in ProLine terms. If you followed his winners moneyline through offshore wagering, you were pretty happy. Anyhow, on my front, I remain on the verge of hitting at a rate of 60% thus far in 2011-12, and feel confident I can spike that back up further this week.