NHL Best Bets Today: Expert Picks for Thursday, December 5

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Published on December 5, 2024

NHL Best Bets Tonight: Expert NHL Picks for
Thursday, Dec. 5

The National Hockey League has a busy slate Thursday with nine games on tap. Six games have a puck drop at 7 p.m. ET, with the Seattle Kraken and New York Islanders going off at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+ and hulu. Out west, we have a pair of puck drops at 9 p.m. ET to wrap up the night in the province of Alberta. Let's get started.

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Best NHL Picks Tonight

Nashville Predators at Montreal Canadiens

The Predators (7-13-6) and the Canadiens (9-13-3) tangle at Bell Centre on Thursday night. Nashville is looking to turn things around after a 3-2 loss in Toronto on Wednesday.

The Predators have been wildly consistent, as they have lost four straight games by a 3-2 score. Wednesday's setback to the Maple Leafs was in regulation, but the previous three losses each came in overtime. The Preds are 0-2-3 in the past five games, and in the past 11 games they've managed just 23 goals, or 2.1 GPG. That's been a major reason for the lack of success.

Juuse Saros did a pretty good job kicking aside 25 of 28 shots in Toronto, but Auston Matthews got him twice in the opening 2:29 of third period, flipping a 1-0 lead in favor of Nashville to the home side William Nylander added a power-play goal at 5:06 after a Steven Stamkos tripping infraction, and just five minutes of uneven hockey led to another L for the Preds.

The Preds are playing on no rest, and that's been good and bad so far. Nashville is 1-2-1 in four games without rest. The Preds acquired Justus Annunen in a swap of Scott Wedgewood with the Colorado Avalanche. He is expected to make his team debut.

Annunen (6-4-0, 3.23 GAA, .872 SV%) had some good and bad moments with the Avalanche, but he will play sparingly in the Music City as long as Saros remains upright.

Sam Montembeault (7-10-2, 2.99 GAA, .901 SV%, 2 SO) will get the starting nod for the Habs. Like Nashville, Montreal has played three overtime games in the past five outings, but it has won two of those outings. Four of the past five have been one-goal games, too.

We'll side with the home team here in what could be another lower-scoring game unable to be decided in regulation.

Canadiens ML (+115 at BetMGM Sportsbook)
Under 6 (-115 at BetMGM Sportsbook)

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Colorado Avalanche at Carolina Hurricanes

The Avalanche (14-12-0) meet the Hurricanes (16-8-1) at Lenovo Center in Raleigh on Thursday night.

Colorado kicked off a five-game Eastern Conference road trip with a wild 5-4 win in Buffalo Tuesday behind the newly acquired Wedgewood. Alexandar Georgiev allowed four goals on eight shots in the first 11:49, as he was pulled early. Wedgewood, making his first appearance with the organization, stopped all 22 shots he faced.

Nathan MacKinnon (x2), Joel Kiviranta, Logan O'Connor and Artturi Lehkonen each scored five unanswered goals to make a winner out of Wedgewood in relief.

The Hurricanes welcomed Pyotr Kochetkov back from concussion protocol Tuesday, but he was on the short end of a 4-2 loss at home. Carolina has allowed 16 goals in the past three games, while lighting the lamp just five times in a three-game skid.

These teams met in Denver on Nov. 9, and it was a 6-4 victory in favor of the home side, as Georgiev bested Spencer Martin. We should see a matchup of Georgiev (7-7-0, 3.54 GAA, .867 SV%) against Kochetkov (10-3-0, 2.55 GAA, .900 SV%).

The home team won each game last season in high-scoring fashion, and we'll bank on Carolina getting untracked with a victory, as the offense finally gets on track against the leaky Georgiev.