NHL Bet of the Week

The NHL is coming down the stretch and with only 12 games left for both the Minnesota Wild, and New Jersey Devils, both teams will be looking to get the two points from this game to help their playoff seeding. This article will explain why the under is the best bet this week in the NHL.

Wild’s Injuries

You could actually say “injury” when it comes to the Minnesota Wild’s health as a team and it would explain all you need to know. Kiril Kaprizov is still injured and he single handedly has driven the scoring for his team this season.

Kaprizov was responsible for a ridiculous 38 percent of his team’s goals before he was hurt. Kaprizov still ranks 22nd in scoring this year in the NHL and his absence is a major reason the under should play in this game.

The Wild have been able to show signs of scoring the game without Kaprizov, but it is a very small sample size and it was against teams that have no playoff chance as they were only able to score twice against the Boston Bruins two games ago.

Wild’s Style of Play

The Wild have been a defensive minded team all season. As mentioned above, they have relied on one player to drive their offense, which is something that is only possible when you keep the other team off the score sheet.

When you consider the majority of their forwards are good defensive players, and their blue line group is one of the most fundamentally sound in the league it would make sense why they have relied on defense for the whole season.

Lastly, they also have great goaltending this season led by Filip Gustavsson and Marc Andre-Fleury. The combination of fundamental defense and good goaltending is a great sign for under bettors.

Previous Matchup

As this is the second and final time these teams will see each other this regular season, let’s look back at the first matchup. The final was the Minnesota Wild winning 3-2 in a shootout in Minnesota.

This game will be played in New Jersey, and I could see a similar result in the score, however, this time with New Jersey winning. Either way, the end result should also see similar shot totals from each team with the Devils failing to reach 30 and the Wild failing to reach 25.

There were also five power plays in the last matchup with only one being cashed in for a goal. There shouldn’t be as many power plays in this game, but if there is, rest assured only one of two goals should be scored as a result.

If the shots are low as last time, and the teams stay out of the penalty box, combined with the lack of Kaprizov, the under should easily hit and you can cash in on this week’s NHL bet of the Week.