Nick Parsons

Today’s Free Picks

The PLAY: Seattle Kraken +1.5 (-162)

This is a FREE PLAY on the Seattle Kraken, either on the PUCKLINE or on the MONEYLINE, depending on your risk tolerance.

Depending on your risk tolerance, I'm going to give you two options for this pick: to either play straight up on the money line, or to lay what I feel is a reasonable mid-sized price for the extra 1.5 goals of insurance.

I see this game going to extra periods, so I will lay the slightly higher juice for the puckline option, but I do also like Seattle as a live dog here on the road to win outright as well.

Two options here, as I say, depending on your risk tolerance.

Seattle is 12-10-6 overall, including 5-5-3 straight up on the road, but the Kraken have been consistently competitive as the visitors, going 9-4 on the puckline.

Utah's great start is now in the rear-view mirror as it enters 14-15-3 overall, but 7-5-1 at home. The Mammoth, though, are just 5-8 on the puckline at home.

Seattle just snapped a six-game slide with an important 3-2 overtime win at home over LA most recently, while Utah dropped its third straight at home to Florida on Wednesday.

I had the Panthers as a client pick in that contest. And now I expect the Mammoth to stumble again here against Seattle as they get caught looking ahead to a difficult upcoming Eastern road trip with games at Pittsburgh, Boston, and Detroit.

Overall, Seattle averages 2.5 goals per game, while allowing 2.9, while Utah averages 3.0 goals per game, while allowing 2.9.

Joey Daccord is scheduled between the pipes for the Kraken, and he's 8-7-4 with a 2.93 goals against average, while Karel Vejmelka is 12-9-2 with a 2.2 GAA for the Mammoth.

I think Seattle has much more than just a "puncher's chance" in this one. I like the way this one sets up situationally for the KRAKEN and think they offer great value, either to win outright, or on the PUCKLINE option.

Good luck, NP

The PLAY: Pittsburgh Penguins -110

This is a FREE PLAY on the Pittsburgh Penguins.

I had a play on Pittsburgh in its last game, and it held a 3-2 lead into the final minute of the game in its eventual 4-3 shootout loss to Anaheim.

To say that loss was frustrating, both for them and for my clients and me, would be an understatement.

Now they have a chance to take out their frustrations on the Canadiens, and at this price, I think Pittsburgh is worth the price of admission on Thursday night.

When we look at the Penguins, we find that they're 14-7-7 overall, including 6-4-3 at home, while the Habs are 15-11-3 overall, including 8-3-2 on the road.

The Penguins now enter after back-to-back shootout losses, also falling 3-2 in a shootout at Dallas before the home loss to Anaheim on Tuesday.

Pittsburgh, though, is in a good spot to bounce back in, with San Jose, Utah, and Edmonton all coming to town after this.

Montreal enters having lost two straight, most recently the 6-1 home loss to the Lightning on Tuesday.

With another tough road game at New York, I think this is a difficult position for the Habs to try to bounce back in.

Situationally speaking, this one favors the home side for sure in my opinion.

A quick tale of the tape finds Montreal averaging 3.2 goals per game, while allowing 3.5.

Pittsburgh, on the other hand, averages 3.1 goals per game, while allowing 2.7.

Clearly, the difference comes on the defensive end.

I think it's also important to consider their current form when evaluating this play. Looking at the Canadiens' last two games reveals that they are struggling to generate offense, while doing nothing to slow down their opponents on the defensive end.

The Penguins, though, have been competitive in back-to-back shootout losses, and they had plenty of chances to put it away late in each game; it really was so close and could have gone either way.

When taking into account all of these situational factors, and combining it with this extremely reasonable line, the value for sure swings to the PENGUINS in this matchup on Thursday night.

Good luck, NP