The NHL regular season is a long and grueling saga, as felt by most teams, including the Colorado Avalanche. The defending Stanley Cup champions have persevered through a glut of injuries and find themselves surging back to the top of the division. As such, the NHL picks continue to maintain a short price on Colorado at +700 to repeat as champs.
It is not the only title contender on the upswing. The Boston Bruins broke out of their slump last week and the NHL betting odds shortened even more to +350. So unlike last week’s list, there are more familiar favorites in this new Highs & Lows… on top of an underdog staying hot.
Top Five
1. Avalanche
It was a fruitful four-game road trip to the Atlantic as Colorado collected eight points and is now just three points back of Dallas for the division lead with two games in hand. The Avalanche edged Toronto and Ottawa and blew out Montreal and Detroit. Its power play (PP) stayed red-hot, with Colorado now having scored at least one PP goal in seven straight games.
Nathan MacKinnon has been unstoppable for Colorado and tallied nine points in this four-game stretch. He’s on an eight-game point streak and has recorded a point in all but one of his last 18 games. The rest of the league is on notice as Colorado builds toward the playoffs.
- Championship odds: +700
2. Coyotes
Moving up the rankings are everyone’s favorite desert dogs… or more like desert underdogs. The Coyotes were one of five unbeaten teams last week and they once again pulled off a pair of upsets over Vancouver (+135) and Calgary (+220). The ‘Yotes improved to 20-14 (20-11-3) at home and are a whopping +18 units on the moneyline.
Arizona now owns wins over Minnesota (twice), Tampa Bay, and Vegas at the Mullett Arena. The team has hurt its online sports betting odds at winning the NHL Draft Lottery, but it continues to thrill its fans at home. Clayton Keller has 15 points in his current seven-game point streak.
- Championship odds: +100000
3. Bruins
You can’t keep a great team down. Maybe it was the Chicago fans chanting “overrated” after Boston lost to the Blackhawks in the biggest upset of the season. But Boston went into Winnipeg, Minnesota, and Buffalo and destroyed their hockey teams. The Bruins went 3-0 on the puck line all on the road.
Jeremy Swayman had back-to-back shutouts and has narrowed the gap between him and Linus Ullmark. The 24-year-old is 11-3-1 in 2023 with a 93.7 save percentage. The Bruins may soon have a goaltender controversy on their hands. But it’s a good problem to have.
- Championship odds: +350
Final: Bruins beat the Sabres, 7-0.
After starting the road trip 0-2, the Bruins beat the Jets, Wild and Sabres by a combined score of 15-2.
Back-to-back shutouts for Jeremy Swayman.
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) March 19, 2023
4. Rangers
While most people had the New York Rangers in their NHL predictions, few expected them to own Pittsburgh as badly as they did. The Rangers’ 22 goals were the highest scored last week and 10 of them came against Pittsburgh, which it outscored 10-2 in back-to-back games at Madison Square Garden.
But we can’t discount this recent explosiveness from the Rangers. This type of offensive output, 5.5 goals per game, is exactly what everyone wanted when Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane arrived. The irony is that neither has been putting up that many points and it’s been more of a team effort… which may be a better deal for New York.
- Championship odds: +1100
5. Oilers
Edmonton also picked up momentum by going 3-0 last week. The Oilers scored 16 goals and of course, Connor McDavid was involved in nearly half of it. The Hart Trophy favorite now has 134 points, which is the most since Mario Lemieux’s 1995-96 season, where he finished with 161.
At their current lines, the Oilers are the second favorites to come out of the West and are slightly ahead of Vegas and Dallas, both at +1600. If this team can get enough good games out of Stuart Skinner and Jack Campbell gets it together, Edmonton may just break through.
- Championship odds: +1200
Bottom Five
28. Senators
Thanks to its most recent skid, Ottawa is likely out of the running for the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Senators just can’t get enough good goaltending to make up for its inefficiencies on 5-on-5 offense. Ottawa shot just six percent, while the netminders managed to save just 84.7% of shots for a 90.7 PDO this week. But chin up, fans: Ryan Reynolds is coming to save the day.
- Championship odds: +15000
29. Canadiens
Montreal finished the week having allowed the most goals at 26. The team is not even trying on defense, letting in four or more goals in seven of its last eight games. This includes nine goals from Florida and eight from Colorado. With two lottery picks, the “Habs” remain ecstatic to make NHL news by winning the Connor Bedard sweepstakes.
- Championship odds: +100000
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again:
For a team that’s 27-37-6, sitting 28th in the league, and beyond injured, there’s a hell lot of team spirit and camaraderie on this Habs squad ♥️ https://t.co/Phjxd59YKc
— /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) March 20, 2023
30. Penguins
The Canadiens did not go winless despite their abhorrent defending. The Penguins were just in the Top 5 last week but had one of their worst weeks in the Sidney Crosby era. Yeah, it’s that bad, as Pittsburgh got outscored 6-16. Tristan Jarry may still be playing hurt, as he got pulled against Montreal and has a save percentage of 84.2 this month.
- Championship odds: +3300
31. Jets
Another Canadian team that joins this Bottom 5 is the Jets. There is now a real chance that Winnipeg, which was atop the Central Division at one point, will miss the playoffs. Winnipeg managed to edge Nashville, but that’s sandwiched by two shutout losses to Boston and St. Louis.
- Championship odds: +3300
32. Blue Jackets
Last and where they should be, the Blue Jackets are not even worth betting online at this point. Columbus’s only win this week came against San Jose. But that was enough winning for this team as it proceeded to give up seven goals apiece to Vegas and Anaheim.
- Championship odds: +100000
