Saturday’s NHL Free Pick
(The Spread) – It is a must-win situation on the road for the Nashville Predators Saturday night, while the Vancouver Canucks have the Western Conference finals in their sights.
View Current NHL Playoff Betting Odds
Oddsmakers from online sports book SBGGLOBAL.com have made the Canucks -210 on the moneyline tonight and the Predators are +175 underdogs. The over/under total for tonight’s game is currently 5 goals.
Vancouver grabbed a 3-1 series lead Thursday night as it scored two third period goals, the first coming on a highlight reel score from Ryan Kesler and the second ending it when Henrik Sedin notched an empty netter with 21 seconds left. Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne, who has a 91 percent save percentage and a 2.57 goals-against average in the playoffs, stopped 24 of 27 shots against him in the losing effort.
The Predators’ one win in this series came at Vancouver in Game 2 via a 2-1 score. Now Nashville must figure out how to duplicate that feat.
NHL Playoff Picks: While I can’t completely trust Nashville to win a road game at a much more powerful Vancouver team, I can trust the Preds to stay in the game. To do that, Rinne and the Nashville defense must be at the top of their game. I expect that to happen. Rinne has proven himself as one of the best goalies in the NHL this season and even more so during the playoffs. According to the latest NHL trends, eleven of 15 games in this series have gone under the total over the last three seasons. These two squads have made a history of going under the total when squaring off with each other. Game 4 was the oddity and not the norm. Look for this one to stay under due to strong efforts by Rinne and Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo.
SATURDAY NHL PLAYOFFS FREE PICK: NASHVILLE PREDATORS/VANCOUVER CANUCKS UNDER 5
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