NHL Picks (Today's Free Predictions, Tips, Parlays)

2018 Buffalo Sabres Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/14/2018

The Sabres are saying they plan to be this year's Colorado, and they might even believe it. After finishing dead last in the NHL two years ago with just 48 points, the Avalanche jumped all the way into the playoffs last year. The difference, though, is that the Avs had won their conference three years before and were reasonably competitive the two years after that.

2018 Pittsburgh Penguins Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/13/2018

This is one of the easiest previews to write this year and every year. And it could be even easier if my editor would let me get away with just saying that "the Penguins are the Penguins". That's all you really need to say. They have won two of the last three Stanley Cups, they were tough in defeat last year, and they are icing basically the same team again.

2018 Washington Capitals Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/13/2018

It seems almost certain that no player has ever had more fun after winning the Cup than Alex Ovechkin did this year. And he deserves it after the career he has had and the year he put together last year. Now we have to figure out if there is going to be a Stanley Cup hangover for this team - or if they are still actually hungover after their celebrations, for that matter.

2018 Ottawa Senators Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/13/2018

I was going to make Ottawa the first of Eastern Conference previews I wrote this morning. But after reading Twitter for a bit it seemed like I should hold off a few hours. And it's a good thing I did. Ottawa finally made the trade that has been rumored and anticipated for months. And the return is, to be kind, underwhelming - which is pretty much what we have come to expect from the franchise. They were a mess this morning, and they are a mess now. Some things never change - even when they change dramatically.

2018 New York Islanders Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/13/2018

Here is the Islanders' offseason in a nutshell - they made big upgrades in the front office and behind the bench, had real hope, and then lost all of that hope when their superstar center, who they nurtured into the player he is since drafting him, bolted for Toronto. Now everyone is sad, the future is cloudy, and maybe playing home games in two different arenas will help. I should have given a spoiler alert before that, because you pretty much know everything you need to about the team right now. But I won't leave you there, faithful readers. Oh no. We will look into things in much closer detail. I'm here for you - unlike the fans in Barclays Center have been for the Islanders since their disastrous move there.

2018 Vegas Golden Knights Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/13/2018

This is the last of my Western Conference previews, and it's no coincidence that I put this off as long as I could. Like everyone else, I grossly underestimated this team last year. I thought they'd be last in the conference, and they played for the Cup. You can't be more wrong than that. I feel like I have a little better sense of them this year, but then I thought I had them figured out last year, too. So, I put this preview off so I didn't have to deal with it. Avoidance at the finest.

2018 Los Angeles Kings Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/13/2018

What I am about to write about the Kings is very similar to what I have written about seven or eight other Western Conference teams - and that is what makes this conference both brutally-tough and compelling. The Kings were a playoff team last year, had a solid offseason and are fully capable of being a playoff team this year. But they are not of the caliber of top teams like Winnipeg or Nashville in the conference. Instead, they are in a large group of teams that are playoff ready - far more teams than there are going to be spots.

2018 Toronto Maple Leafs Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/13/2018

You know how as you get older there are things you see that remind you that time is passing, and you get a little sad for a moment? This preview is one of those for me. For many years, writing a preview of the Leafs was an easy and repetitive process. Regardless of the expectations, all I had to say is that the Leafs suck because they always suck, that they were going to disappoint because they always do, and that they weren't making the playoffs.

2018 San Jose Sharks Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/13/2018

Stop me if you have heard this before - the San Jose Sharks are a very good team that could easily win the Pacific but could almost as easily find themselves out of the playoffs entirely if their luck is bad because the Western Conference is so brutally deep this year. Rarely has we seen a conference so deep and, aside from the top two teams, so hard to differentiate. You can make a case for 12 different teams to be playoff teams, and you don't have to try too hard in any of the cases.

2018 Vancouver Canucks Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/13/2018

As I have written in almost every Western Conference preview, the West is a tight and tough as it has been in a long time, with 12 teams poised to be very legitimate playoff contenders and at least nine of those very hard to distinguish from each other in real ways. It is going to be a brutal dog fight, and some very good teams are going to be hitting the golf course much sooner than they would like. Luckily, I guess, the Canucks don't need to worry about any of that.

2018 Montreal Canadiens Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/13/2018

Growing up as a Canadian hockey fan, I hated the Montreal Canadiens because they were better than us (my hometown team is the Calgary Flames). They were a proud franchise that used tradition as fuel, and they were always dangerous. They played in a holy temple, they revered their past heroes, and they won. A lot.

2018 Anaheim Ducks Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/12/2018

The Ducks have been a stable conference fixture. They have made the playoffs six years in a row and 11 times in the last 13 years. Over that time, they have won a Stanley Cup and played in the Western final three more times - most recently in 2017. They have been a model franchise. But the core of the team has been Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry since the start of this success, and they aren't getting any younger - both of them are 33, and this league is getting younger every year.

2018 Edmonton Oilers Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/12/2018

When you grow up in Columbus you hate Michigan. If you are from Austin the Sooners are the worst. Boston hates the Yankees with a deep-seated passion. And in Calgary where I am from you are raised with the certainty that everyone in Edmonton, 175 miles to the North, is inbred. So, I can't pretend to be even a little sad for the Oilers after last year went so very badly.

2018 Arizona Coyotes Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/12/2018

The Arizona Coyotes have been in the Phoenix area for 21 seasons now. And if you are being generous with your definitions, you could say they were not stuck in the middle of some deep and seemingly endless rebuild for six of those seasons. This most recent period of 'rebuilding' has been particularly brutal. They haven't made the playoffs since 2012. But they haven't been moving forward as they rebuild like you are supposed to - they finished last in the conference in 2015, but then repeated the feat this past season.

2018 Calgary Flames Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/11/2018

I live 10 minutes, in good traffic, from the home of the Flames. All but three of the hundred or more NHL games I have been to have been here. Everyone I know is a Flames fan to some extent - which only means that they live in Calgary, because this city loves their team. And among those fans there is a notable shift. The desperation for the playoffs entering last year quickly turned into frustration as the wheels fell off. But this year it feels different. People are quietly confident and more optimistic than they have been in a while.

2018 Minnesota Wild Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/11/2018

The Wild are in a dangerous place for a team to be - the territory that teams like the Blues, Sharks, Flyers and Blue Jackets know well from plenty of experience. They are a team that is always good enough to be a real playoff threat, and never any fun to play against, but never good enough to do any real damage against the teams that will actually win the Stanley Cup. It's not a fun place to be. Owners don't hate it because it adds playoff revenue - a few games worth, anyway - most years. But it doesn't energize fans. And it can be tough to break out of.

2018 Dallas Stars Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/11/2018

The Dallas Stars have a distinction I am not too happy about. Over the course of the last three years no team has come close to costing me as much money as they have. I have been optimistic about them heading into each season, and they have disappointed each time. In 2016 they had a stellar 109-point regular season but fell in the second round to the St. Louis Blues in frustrating fashion. The next year they fell off a cliff and didn't even come close to being competitive. And while they fell just short of the playoffs last year, it still felt like the gap between them and true contenders was vast.

2018 St. Louis Blues Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/10/2018

The Blues have surely been a tough team to cheer for in recent years. On paper they are a solid team each year, but they have not been able to fully put it all together and accomplish, well, anything really. But they always win enough to assure they don't get a decent draft position, either. They are a squad that has been locked into the middle of the league, and they have really struggled to break out.

2018 Winnipeg Jets Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/7/2018

The Winnipeg Jets are one of those teams perched simultaneously at the best and worst place to be. On one hand, they have everything ahead of them. They made the Western Conference final last year, and on paper they are good enough to be there or further for several years to come. Their window is open, and their potential is massive.

2018 Nashville Predators Predictions with Futures Odds and Expert Picks
by Trevor Whenham - 9/7/2018

The Nashville Predators played in the Stanley Cup final two seasons ago and then shrugged off the Stanley Cup hangover to post their best-ever regular season last year - a league-best 117 points - and a Vezina win for goaltender Pekka Rinne. It seemed like they were unstoppable. But then the playoffs happened, and they were frankly a bit ugly. Rinne was uncharacteristically awful, and the team couldn't help him out. Now we await to see if they can shake off the postseason disappointment and keep on rolling or if they take a step back.