NHL Picks Today: Best Bets for NHL Opening Night

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Published on October 8, 2024

NHL Best Bets Tonight: Expert Hockey Parlay Picks for
Tuesday, Oct. 8

The NHL has three games in action on Tuesday for the North American regular-season openers. Of course, we had a pair of games overseas in Czechia in the NHL Global Series, with the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils tangling. Now, it's a nationally televised tripleheader on ESPN/ESPN+, and we'll try to get into the black with a solid parlay or two. Let's get started!

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Best NHL Picks Tonight

St. Louis Blues at Seattle Kraken

The Blues and Kraken kick off the afternoon at 4:30 p.m. ET from Climate Pledge Arena in the Pacific Northwest.

These are two teams that failed to make the playoffs a season ago, and they're each hungry to get back there.

Seattle replaced the departed Ds Brian Dumoulin and Justin Schultz with Ds Josh Mahura and Brandon Montour while adding some punch up front with F Chandler Stephenson. Some veteran leadership will go a long way with a still very good, and very young core.

In St. Louis, the Blues made waves by plucking two pieces from the Edmonton Oilers Western Conference champion roster. D Philip Broberg and F Dylan Holloway were signed away via offer sheets, joining F Radek Faksa and D Ryan Suter as the most notable offseason moves.

With players like Fs Pavel Buchnevich and Jake Neighbours in place, the Blues could have a sneaky good year. St. Louis went 3-0-0 against Seattle last season, while going 7-2-0 in the brief all-time series. Jordan Binnington was 2-0-0 with a 1.88 GAA and .940 SV% against the Kraken in 2023-24. He'll be the difference maker.

Blues ML (+120 at DraftKings)

Boston Bruins at Florida Panthers

We get a rematch of last season's Eastern Conference Semifinals, won by the Panthers in six games en route to their Stanley Cup title.

Florida actually lost all four regular-season meetings against Boston, although three of those matchups were decided by a single goal.

The Panthers will raise a banner at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, and there is usually a lot of pomp and circumstance, as well as pressure, when a team is playing with that extra emotion while looking at past accomplishments. It can be distracting to a team, and the Bruins will come into this skate with no pressure at all.

Based on last season's trends, as well as the banner jinx theory, we'll go with the road team here. In addition, the Under cashed in three of the four regular-season meetings, and you can expect both Sergei Bobrovsky and Jeremy Swayman to be on top of their games in this emotional opener.

Bruins ML (+135 at ESPN Bet)
Under 5.5 (+100 at Caesars)

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Chicago Blackhawks at Utah Hockey Club

In the final matchup of the night, we go to Salt Lake City for the first time for an NHL regular season game. The Utah Hockey Club debuts at Delta Center, and it's a very winnable game against Connor Bedard and the Blackhawks.

Last season, veteran tendy Petr Mrazek wasn't a bad backstop for Chicago, but he was god-awful on the road. He was 14-11-3 with a 2.48 GAA and .926 SV% at home in 28 starts, while going 4-20-1 with a 3.72 GAA and .885 SV% in 25 road starts. How about those tremendously different splits?

The Utah Hockey Club, formerly the Arizona Coyotes, are up-and-coming. The team went out and grabbed Mikhail Sergachev to settle down its blueline, and be the No. 1 defenseman. He'll bring stability, veteran experience and leadership after having his name etched on Lord Stanley's Cup in Tampa.

Head coach Andre Tourigny has this team going in the right direction, as then-Arizona saw a 13-point jump in the standings from the previous season. Utah could be a very, very tough out, and it should get started with a win against a team it is legitimately better than.

Chicago did add some nice veteran pieces like Tyler Bertuzzi, T.J. Brodie, Laurent Brossoit, Patrick Maroon, Alec Martinez and Teuvo Teravainen. It is no longer a pushover, but it will still be one of the NHL's weakest sides.