NHL Picks for December 12th: 8.00 Parlay for Tuesday
With 10 NHL games scheduled for tonight, our resident hockey expert EJ Garr turns his attention to 3 games for betting value. He gives his thoughts on the Kraken, Canucks and Sharks games and combines his tips into an 8.00 odds parlay.
- Seattle Kraken vs Florida Panthers: Under 6 Goals
- Vancouver Canucks vs Tampa Bay Lightning Over 6.5 Goals
- San Jose Sharks vs Winnipeg Jets Over 6.5
NHL Tuesday Night Parlay Odds: 8.00
Odds via bet365 as of 8:00 am on December 12, 2023. Odds may now differ.
SEATTLE KRAKEN VS FLORIDA PANTHERS: KRAKEN FALLING APART
The Seattle Kraken have officially fallen apart, and an 8-game losing streak is a direct result of not being able to score goals. Remember last season when the Kraken put up a franchise-record 100 points and made the playoffs?
Yeah, that’s not happening this year, and all of that success was supposedly leading to another solid season in the Emerald City. Not so much, and if gets much worse the Ducks and Sharks are going to fly right past them in the Pacific Division standings. Well, the Sharks might not be playing well enough to pass anyone, but Seattle isn’t playing much better than San Jose right now either.
At least the Sharks are showing up and giving a fight lately, but the Kraken offence has simply been offensive and I don’t mean that to signify anything but lousy! There was a time earlier in the season that a Seattle Over was easy to expect to see, but those days are over and the goals simply aren’t coming to hold up their end of the bargain.
Meanwhile, the Panthers have won their last 3 games and 4 of their last 5 overall, so this is simply not a good time for the Kraken to host Florida. The Panthers have Sergei Bobrovsky listed as the starting goalie tonight, and he looked unstoppable against Pittsburgh the last time he took the ice.
Bobrovsky is sporting a sweet 2.42 GAA, and the Kraken are barely averaging 2.5 goals per game so I expect another night of struggling for the home team tonight.
As you may know from reading my articles, the Under doesn’t hit my board very often. I can’t let the Kraken mishaps on offence go unnoticed, and I believe it will lead to another under from this affair on Tuesday night.
VANCOUVER CANUCKS VS TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING: LIGHT THE LAMPS
Light the Lamps! How does 5 – 4 sound to you? That sounds about right to me, and at even money, I see this as another opportunity to put a Tampa Bay total on the board. I have posted Tampa Bay totals so often this year, and this is going to be a high-scoring affair that produces no less than 7 goals.
Tampa Bay finally got goalkeeper Andre Vasilevskiy back after missing the first month of the season, and while he has had some shining moments in his 7 starts he has also had some beatdowns come his way too.
Vasilevskiy had a great comeback start in the 8 – 2 win over Carolina, but then he fell apart in his next three starts. After giving up 8 goals combined to the Stars and Penguins the 8 – 1 thumping by the Stars happened so everyone was wondering what they were getting back when he returned.
Since then, however, Vasilevskiy has recovered and now carries a modest 3-game win streak into this game. Can I say I was 100% shocked when he was given the second start against Dallas after giving up a snowman, but the 4 – 0 shutout of the Stars certainly rebuilt his confidence.
Now the real test comes because the Canucks are still among the lead leaders in goal-scoring and their defense hasn’t exactly been stellar of late. While the Nucks have won 3 of their last 4 games, the pucks have been finding their net too often and I think Tampa Bay will be able to find 3 of their own goals in this game tonight.
For me, this is a 3 – 3 game waiting to happen, and with another even-money offer, I will gladly put this total on the board.
SAN JOSE SHARKS VS WINNIPEG JETS: SOUND THE HORNS
Shouldn’t this total be about 13? HA! I mean have you watched the Sharks play hockey this season? Even though I am joking a bit about the 13-goal total, it didn’t make me cringe at all and we just might have a snowman sighting in California tonight.
Winnipeg’s offence isn’t all that and a bag of chips as we know, but this is a spot where they can, and will, break out a massive performance to add to their current 4-game win streak. Defensively, the Jets have been outstanding lately, and yes, it is my only concern for this total.
The one thing I am not concerned about, however, is the Sharks defense… Wait, can we say Sharks and defense in the same sentence without being arrested for stupidity?
As you know, I put the Sharks +1.5 on the board against Detroit last week, and all they did was win outright, 6 – 5! In fact, the Sharks have played 4 straight 1-goal games, and it’s not like they are playing weak squads along the way. I would say that the Rangers, Knights, Islanders, and Red Wings are playing pretty damn good hockey this year, and the Sharks have hung with all four of them.
I certainly don’t expect a beatdown to come all of a sudden because San Jose is playing the best hockey they’ve played all year right now. If I was being offered a better price than 1.80 for the Sharks +1.5 I might have gone there in this spot, but I don’t want to pay for it. I will gladly expect pucks to find both of these nets tonight as a high-scoring game finishes our parlay for the night.
And yes, I am aware that the last 9 times the Jets have played it was a stone-cold under every time! NOTED! I don’t care because this is about tonight and the Sharks are across the ice this time! Expect goals here, and expect that 9-game run of unders for the Jets to come to an end tonight.
SAFER GAMBLING
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