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Top NHL Betting Picks for Thursday, December 9 (2021)

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Thursday brings us an exciting ten-game slate. Below we’ll break down the betting angles of a late-night Western Conference showdown between the Winnipeg Jets and Seattle Kraken. 

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Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook

Compare odds from all major sportsbooks for today’s games >>

Winnipeg Jets (-110) vs. Seattle Kraken (-110)

Both these teams entered the season with high expectations. Winnipeg brought in Nate Schmidt and Brenden Dillion to shore up their porous defense, while Seattle hoped their inaugural draft would yield better results than their 9-14-2 record has shown. 

The Jets possess a high-octane offense, led by leading goal scorer Kyle Connor and stud centermen Pierre-Luc Dubois and Mark Scheifele. 

Seattle is a solid yet unspectacular team. Offensively, they’re led by Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Eberle, who have registered eighteen and seventeen points, respectively. 

Management built this team from the backend; however, their goaltending has been a significant letdown to date. 

Prized free-agent goaltender Philipp Grubauer has been horrendous this season. Registering a putrid 3.17 GAA and -12.8 GSAA. If this team has any playoff aspirations, they’ll need him to return to his former self.

Despite a rough start, this Kraken team has begun to turn it around after winning five of their last eight games and will look to keep it going tonight on home ice. 

Let’s look at each team’s advanced metrics this season 5v5:

Numbers courtesy of Evolving-Hockey

  • CF%: WPG (51.80) SEA (48.97)
  • xGF%: WPG (49.3) SEA (48.45)
  • GF/60: WPG (2.41) SEA (2.22)
  • GA/60: WPG (2.03) SEA (3.31)

Seattle’s team was predicated on analytics. Though their metrics leave much to be desired, twenty-five games is too small a sample to make any accurate assumptions. One thing is for sure. This team lacks high-end talent. At best, Schwartz and Eberle are second-line players, so they’re unlikely to withstand a track meet. 

Winnipeg has never graded out well analytically but perennially yields solid results due to their talented offensive group and goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. The 2020 Vezina Trophy winner continues to be dominant and keep this team in games. Though inconsistent of late, this Jets team has an advantage in all three positional aspects of the game. Coming off a poor performance against a robust Carolina Hurricanes team, I expect this team to play a strong, well-rounded game. 

Pick: Winnipeg Jets (-110)

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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.