Nashville Predators vs. Buffalo Sabres - 12/12/19 NHL Picks, Odds, and Prediction

Game: Nashville Predators vs Buffalo Sabres

Date: Thursday, December 12, 2019

Location: KeyBank Center in Buffalo, NY

TV: MSGB

Odds/Point Spread: Predators (-127) Sabres (+115)

Total/Over-Under: 6

KeyBank Center is the site where Linus Ullmark and the Buffalo Sabres (15-11-6, 2nd in the Atlantic Division) will play the Nashville Predators (14-10-5, 5th in the Central Division) on Thursday. The Sabres open this matchup at +115 while the Predators are coming in at -127. The total is set at 6. The Predators are covering 46.4% of the time, having gone 13-15 SU. Buffalo covers 45.2% of the time, going 14-17 straight up.

The Nashville Predators step onto the ice with a record of 14 wins and 10 defeats, putting them at 5th in the Central Division. During the year thus far, they have scored a total of 97 goals which is 4th in the conference and 13th in the league. Their goal differential is +6, putting them at 14th in the league. The Predators have earned a total of 33 points, which is 22nd in the league and 10th in the West. In terms of shots toward the net, they have earned a total of 983 which is 7th in the Western Conference and 15th in the league. As a team, Nashville has a total of 354 hits which means they are averaging 12.2 per game. They have earned a total of 283 blocks for the year. The man looking after the goal for Nashville is Pekka Rinne from Kempele, Finland. He is 37 years old and has played 945 minutes protecting the net for the year. Rinne is giving up 2.92 goals per contest which has him sitting 17th among West goaltenders and 32nd in the NHL among goalies. For the season, he has allowed 46 goals. He holds a save % of .897 which has him sitting 21st among West goaltenders.

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The Nashville Predators had a good night with a 3 - 1 win against the San Jose Sharks in their last contest. The Predators had a middle of the road offensive outing in this victory. In this game, they scored on 3 out of the 32 shots they put on net. Furthermore, they had 7 power play opportunities and netted 1 goal out of those opportunities. Nashville ended up with 33 penalty minutes in this matchup. The Corsi for the Predators was 36 and the Corsi against was 24 which earned them a Corsi percentage of 60.0%. Their Fenwick sat at 26 while the Fenwick against was 17, which means they had a Fenwick percentage of 60.5%. They earned 20 face-off wins and were beaten on 12 of all total face-offs. Their starts in the offensive zone were rated at 45.3% and they had a PDO of 101.4 for this matchup. In terms of their opponent's stats, the San Jose Sharks earned a total of 25 shots. They ended the game with 39 minutes in the box and they earned a total of 4 power play attempts.

The Sabres will be the team on the other side of the ice and for the current year they have 15 victories and 11 losses. In the matter of goal differential, they rank 9th in the Eastern Conference and 16th in the league with +4. They have compiled a total of 100 goals for the year which has them ranked at 8th in the conference. Buffalo has a team save percentage of .907 which has them 14th in the league, which means scoring chances could present themselves. They have a shooting percentage of 10.2% which is good for 6th in the Eastern Conference. In net for Buffalo is Linus Ullmark who is having a marginal season by surrendering 2.83 goals against average and that ranks him 13th among Eastern Conference goalies and 27th in the NHL among goalies. In the 1,019 mins he's played this season, he has allowed 48 goals. His save % is .915, which has him ranked 9th among Eastern Conference goalies and 18th in the NHL among goalies.

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The Buffalo Sabres squared up with the St. Louis Blues in a game where the Sabres notched a win by a score of 5 - 2. For this game, Buffalo had a 54.8% Corsi rating. That percentage was had by earning a Corsi of 34 and their opponent having a Corsi of 28. Their Fenwick rate was 57.7% by earning a Fenwick of 30 and the Blues ending the game with a 22 Fenwick. These Corsi stats tell us the story of the kind of game Buffalo played and we'd say they played well overall. They had a PDO of 110.5 and their oZS percentage was 30.0%. The Sabres converted 5 goals of the 33 shots on goal they tried. They had 2 power play opportunities in this game but were not able to net one. As for their opponent, the Blues had 2 power play chances but weren't able to take advantage of it. Buffalo gave up 30 shots on goal and the Blues earned 4 penalty mins.

Who will win tonight's hockey game against the spread?

Josh's Pick: Take Nashville (-127)

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