Best 4 Nations Bets Today: Expert Picks for Thursday, February 12

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Published on February 13, 2025

The 4 Nations Face-Off Tournament continues Thursday night at Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, as the United States and Finland lock horns for their first games of the tourney. The puck drops at 8 p.m. ET, and the game can be viewed or streamed on ESPN/ESPN+. We'll take a look at some same-game parlay (SGP) opportunities for the opening match for both nations. Let's get started.

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Best 4 Nations Bets Today: Expert 4 Nations Picks for
Thursday, Feb. 13

For the latest NHL Odds, including NHL Futures and NHL player props, visit RotoWire's NHL Betting page. For up-to-date NHL player news and NHL Injury Report info, head to RotoWire's NHL Lineups page. You can find more picks at Bookies.com/picks. Here are our NHL Best Bets today, featuring expert NHL picks for an action-packed slate of games.

USA vs. Finland - 8pm ET

Team USA is considered a co-favorite in this tournament. At most shops, Team Canada has slightly shorter odds to win it all, but Team USA was right there at the top of the odds list.

I am not trying to be a homer, but I rounded off and submitted a $69.72 futures bet on the Americans at +155 before the tournament started. I took some of the remaining winnings from Super Bowl LIX and made a $100 futures bet on the Indiana Fever to win the WNBA Championship. We'll see what happens.

As far as this game is concerned, we have quite the goaltender matchup. Connor Hellebuyck (34-7-2, 2.07 GAA, .925 SV%, 6 SO) is confirmed as the starting netminder for Team USA. The Michigander has been on fire so far this season for the Winnipeg Jets, and he is on pace to not only post a career-high 50 victories, but he is also in line to go for nine shutouts.

For Finland, it will counter with Nashville Predators tendy Juuse Saros (11-23-6, 2.95 GAA, .899 SV%, 4 SO) in the crease for Game 1. While the Predators offense hasn't been helping him out with a ton of support, Saros is still just 29 years old and at the top of his game. It won't be easy for Team USA.

However, this American team is stacked from top to bottom at forward. They're stacked so much so that New York Rangers sniper Chris Kreider is likely to be a healthy scratch, or at the very least, a fourth liner in this event. Quinn Hughes suffered an injury prior to the tournament, so he is out, and Ottawa's Jake Sanderson will be in as the seventh defenseman. Noah Hanifin, originally scheduled to be the odd man out on D, will now likely pair with Brock Faber on the third group.

Team USA is led by Kyle Connor, Jack Eichel and Matthew Tkachuk on the top-scoring line, and the other half of the top-six will be Jake Guentzel, Auston Matthews and Jack Hughes. That's a lot of offense coming down the ice at Saros. He won't get much of a reprieve with the third and fourth lines, either.

On defense, the Metropolitan Division rivals Jaccob Slavin and Adam Fox team up for a top pairing, with Zach Werenski and Charlie McAvoy working together. That's just unfair, and Finland will especially have a difficult time cracking the code to generate offense. Even then, when they are able to give the D the slip, it still has to negotiate past Hellebuyck.

We didn't cash with Canada on Wednesday on the puck line, but we'll go right back to the puck line with Team USA. We went high on the total in the Canada-Sweden game, but we'll go Under due to the presence of Hellebuyck, as he isn't likely to be tested much by the Finns.

As far as player props are concerned, we hit an Anytime Goal Scorer (AGS) prop with Nathan MacKinnon but misfired on the other. On Thursday, let's roll with Florida's Tkachuk as an ASG play for the chance to nearly triple up. He enters on a hot streak with seven goals and 13 points in the past six games. Let's take a shot on Eichel, too. He enters with eight goals in his past 12 games for VGK, so hopefully he'll keep the hot hand.

Team USA -1.5 (-134 at FanDuel Sportsbook)
Under 6 Goals (-110 at Caesars Sportsbook)
Jack Eichel Anytime Goal Scorer (+260 at FanDuel Sportsbook)
Matthew Tkachuk Anytime Goal Scorer (+270 at FanDuel Sportsbook)

Don't make any bets on your favorite sports betting apps without consulting the latest NHL odds first.

Today's Best Hockey Bet(s)

We hit the Over in the 4 Nations opener between Canada and Sweden, as it was 3-3 after regulation, with Canada picking up the 4-3 victory in overtime thanks to Toronto's Mitch Marner. Regardless of the winner, the game was going Over after the Swedes tied it late.

On Thursday, our best play will be to go Under in the USA-Finland battle.