Top NHL Betting Picks for Friday, January 15 (2021)
The third day of the NHL season brings us yet another glorious five-game slate. We got off to a good start Wednesday with a 2-1 day (+1.25 units). For Friday, we will focus on two games. And be sure to follow me on Twitter as I will post plays on days w don’t offer a full writeup.
Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook.
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Toronto Maple Leafs (-210) vs. Ottawa Senators (+175)
Toronto enters Friday fresh off an exciting overtime victory against their fellow North Division rival, Montreal Canadiens. The Leafs battled back from a 3-1 deficit, going on to win 5-4 after Morgan Rielly put one past goaltender Carey Price.
William Nylander and John Tavares led the way with 3-points apiece while netminder Frederik Andersen made 28 saves on 32 shot attempts.
Personally, I’m not reading too much into their performance. If not for two power plays and puck luck resulting in a lucky bounce off the referee, this team had no business winning. They displayed their typical poor defensive play and Anderson was shaky in net.
Ottawa makes their season debut tonight after a busy offseason. They drafted World Junior standout, Tim Stutzle, and acquired Matt Murray, Derek Stepan, and Alex Galchenyuk. These players will bring veteran leadership and motivation as all have something to prove after collective down years. They also brought aboard former Florida Panther standout, Evegenii Dadonov, who will bring a scoring touch as the organization rebuilds on the fly.
While the defense leaves much to be desired, this team surprisingly ranked 11th in the NHL last season in xGF/60. While none of their offensive additions outside Stutzle spark unmitigated excitement, they should be improved while continuing to be a tough team to play against under head coach, DJ Smith.
The Leafs struggled with Montreal on Wednesday and Ottawa will play a similar brand of hockey. Also, watch for the status of Auston Matthews as he was on the receiving end of a few vicious crosschecks.
St. Louis Blues (+120) vs. Colorado Avalanche (-140)
The preseason Stanley Cup favorite Avalanche looked anything but as they fell to the Blues 4-1 on Wednesday night. Colorado was done in by a horrific first period that saw them outshot 17-5. Systemic breakdowns led to defenses lapses that proved costly as they continually turned the puck over.
The second line consisting of center Nazem Kadri, Gabe Landeskog, and Brandan Saad were horrific. Kadri was a minus-4, while his fellow wingers were both minus-3. This has led to Landeskog being moved back to the top line with Nate MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.
St. Louis was led by their second line as winger Oskar Sundqvist buried two goals while the team played sound defensive hockey. Goaltender Jordan Binnington turned in a vintage performance, stopping 26 shots on 27 attempts.
The Blues are an outstanding team, but I’m looking for the Avs to rebound after an embarrassing performance in the season opener.
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Jordan Anderson is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Jordan, check out his archive and follow him on Twitter @Jordan_A03.