Olympic Winter Games Best Bets: Men’s Hockey (2/12)
The United States and Canada will begin their journeys in the Men’s Hockey event for the Winter Olympics. The USA Women’s team looks far and away the best in the world. Will the Men’s team follow?
Here’s a best bet for the USA-Latvia matchup, along with another bet for the Canada-Czechia game. Enjoy!
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Thursday’s Best Winter Olympics Bets
(Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook)
Canada vs. Czechia (Men’s Hockey)
Canada is currently one of the favorites to win the whole thing. The team is filled with NHL stars and has previously won major events. With Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby, Brad Marchand, and so many other notable stars, Canada is dangerous.
That said, Jordan Binnington will likely start in goal. He’s been inconsistent, which should add some unease for Canadian fans and bettors. Logan Thompson is another goalie on the roster. Still, he was blocked due to reported friction with his other coaches, so we’ll have to monitor whether he gets any time in net for Canada iatthe Olympics.
On the other hand, Czechia has David Pastrnak, Martin Necas, and Tomas Hertl. They’ll be competitive and could make it to the next stage. They’ll have to score consistently and get some good goalkeeping from Lukas Dostal and Karel Vejmelka. Both of those goalies could be the starter in this one, as they were fighting for the job previously.
They’ve got a mix of NHL stars, but not nearly as many as Canada. It’s probably good for Czechia to get Canada out of the way early and then focus on winning the other group games.
I’ll take Canada to earn some momentum today with a multi-goal win.
Pick: Canada -1.5 (-225)
USA vs. Latvia (Men’s Hockey)
The USA will be just as good as Canada. This team has elite talent like Austin Matthews, Jack Eichel, Brady and Matthew Tkachuk, and more studs. On paper, the defense seems deeper and more versatile than Canada’s, for example. They’ll have four lines that can really work. Plus, when Connor Hellebuyck is playing at his best, it’s super hard to score against him.
On the other hand, Latvia has never finished better than 8th in the Olympics. They also struggled in 2022 but won a bronze medal at the 2023 IIHR World Championship. There’s not much NHL talent in Latvia, but they will have Arturs Silovs, the goalie who played in the 2023 World Championship. They’re just not going to score at a very high rate, if at all.
I’ll take the Under 6.5 in this game.
Pick: Under 6.5 Goals (-106)