NHL Best Bets and Player Props for Wednesday, October 18

NHL Best Bets and Player Props for Wednesday, October 18

This article is part of our NHL Picks series.

Just two games on the NHL slate tonight, but you better believe we're betting on both of 'em! Here are the best NHL bets and player props tonight, with odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook. 

Check out FanDuel this NHL season with the FanDuel promo code, which gets new customers $200 in bonus bets instantly when they place a first bet of at least $5. FanDuel has competitive odds for their NHL player props all season long as well.

Capitals vs Senators Best Bets

Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals travel north of the border to Canada's capital city to take on the Senators. The Caps had a similar road trip around this time last year that stopped in Ottawa, and the Sens handed them a 5-2 loss while peppering 44 shots on goal. The Caps defense has looked porous under new bench boss Spencer Carberry so far, and their offense hasn't looked too promising either. The Senators are 2-1 and all 3 of their games have registered 7+ total goals. I like the Sens to throw a lot of rubber at Caps netminder Darcy Kuemper tonight, who stood on his head in their come-from-behind win over the Flames on Monday. Brady Tkachuk is a man amongst boys out there, and has a favorable matchup against a flimsy Caps D corps. I'm also looking at some wily veterans to get on the scoresheet for their respective clubs. This should be a fun game to watch.  

Penguins vs Red Wings Best Bets

Is this the start of a new era in Hockeytown that we're seeing the makings of? The Wings came out hot in their first 3 games so far, with a narrow 4-3 loss to the Devils to open things up, and then back-to-back wins over the Lightning and Blue Jackets. They outshot the Lightning 42-25 in their 6-4 win and then blanked the Blue Jackets 4-0. The Pens stumbled out of the gate with a 4-2 home loss to the Blackhawks, but have notched 2 straight Ws over the Caps and Flames by 4 and 3-goal margins. Both teams press the play in the offensive zone and at times leave their goalies out to dry. This is a fun matchup for action on the scoresheet. If the Pens want to steal this one, I think Tristan Jarry will need to have a stellar performance. Let's see if Jake Guentzel can continue his assist streak too, the guy's got 5 in 3 games. Hometown boy Alex DeBrincat was +4 with 3 points and 5 shots in his debut at Little Caesars Arena, so I expect another passionate performance from him tonight too.  

Happy hunting y'all!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Grant Leonard
Former Junior B ice hockey player, and current believer that the Washington Capitals' aging core still has another Cup run left in the tank. Writing about hockey and sports betting for RotoWire since 2022.
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