When good teams are matched up against bad teams, it is hard to find a moneyline that provides value because of how heavily favored the odds are. A good thing to consider in this situation is taking a look at the point spread and considering taking the favored team to win by two goals or more in order to get some better odds to maximize profits.
Pointspread (-1.5): Calgary Flames (-135) vs Buffalo Sabres (+105)
These two teams are on opposite ends of the league standings, which means the moneyline is heavily favored for Calgary. It also doesn’t help that the Sabres are on the second night of a back-to-back after taking a 6-1 shellacking against the Edmonton Oilers last night.
The Sabres suffered a 6-1 trouncing at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers last night and although they don’t have a long trip, they will be traveling to Calgary on the second night of a back-to-back against the Flames. Craig Anderson is the team’s most experienced netminder and played the entire game against the Oilers despite allowing six goals, leaving the Sabres likely to turn to Dustin Tokarski in the crease.
The Flames are coming off a convincing 6-3 win against the New Jersey Devils on the same night they acquired forward Calle Jarnkrok from the Seattle Kraken. As long as everything works out with his documents at the border, he should be in the lineup for this game and be able to slot into the third line center spot and provide the Flames with more depth down the middle.
Considering the Flames’ depth at center and the lack of depth at that position on the Sabres, the goaltender and defense will have their hands full. The Flames are a potent offensive team with a dominant 19-5-5 record on home ice and rank sixth in the league in goals for per game while averaging 35.9 shots per game. The Flames are in the first night of back-to-back of their own but regardless of whether Jacob Markstrom or Dan Vladar gets the nod against the Sabres, they should have no issues covering the spread.
Point Spread (-1.5): San Jose Sharks (-105) vs Colorado Avalanche (-115)
The Avalanche are the best team in the league and although the Sharks are not terrible, they are not good either. San Jose got goaltender James Reimer back to help provide some support in the crease but with Reimer taking a 3-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings last night, expect them to go with Zach Sawchenko in goal.
The Avalanche were forced to re-shuffle their forward group after trading Tyson Jost to Minnesota for Nico Sturm and also added a strong defenseman in Josh Manson to solidify their back end. Valeri Nichushkin is currently reaping the rewards of Gabriel Landeskog’s injury with a goal and assist in his last game while playing on the team’s top line with Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon.
The Avs are riding a two-game win streak and picked apart an injury-riddled Kings team in their last game on the back of Darcy Kuemper. The starting goaltender has started four straight games and is coming off back-to-back shutout performances and taking on a Sharks team that is tied for 28th in the league in goals for per game, who was also just shut out by the Kings.
Despite the Avalanche being the road team in this game, the Sharks will be in tough considering Reimer is not the expected goaltender for this game. There is hardly any value in taking Colorado on the moneyline and although that is a fine option, if you want to look for a safe play, betting on the Avs on the point spread will give you much better value.
Odds via Yahoo and BetMGM.
