NHL Best Bets for February 13th. Top Picks for Tuesday's 11-game slate.

Football is done but there are other sports we can focus on until it returns.

Hockey has a heavy 11-game slate for us to chew on this Tuesday with lots of opportunity to get some bets in.

Let’s do that hockey!

Anaheim Ducks ML @ Montreal Canadiens (+120, DraftKings)

Play to: +115

These two teams are both coming in off losses but they were very different kinds of losses. The Ducks actually hung with the Oilers in their last game, taking an early lead and keeping the game tied until midway through the third period.

Overall, Anaheim now has a 3-1-1 record over their last five games and has been far better on the road this season, going 10-13 straight up (14-10 ATS) vs just 8-18 at home (13-14 ATS).

The goaltending wasn’t great for the Ducks in their last start, but they’ll face a much less potent offense tonight in the Canadiens who rank just 16th in power-play efficiency and fifth-last in goals per game. While the Ducks' special teams are nothing to write home about, they eclipse the Canadiens in penalty-kill and have been the better 5v5 team most of the season as well.

These teams are fairly close but the Canadiens have clearly been the poorer team of late.

They’re just 2-5-1 over their last eight games with three losses of 4+ goals over that span. With the Ducks set as the clear underdog, taking them to just win this game straight up feels like the right side to be on, even if we have to put our trust in one of the shakier goaltending tandems in the league.

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L.A. Kings: win in regulation (+125, bet365)

Play to: +115

The Kings are definitely a fragile team right now (4-6-5 over their last 15 starts) but with two consecutive wins under their belt, and coming off what was likely a well-timed break, it does feel like L.A. could potentially put together a nice run.

They were dominant in their win against the Oilers on Saturday, a spot where they gave the tired Oilers no breathing room or reason to believe they could get back in the game after being down early.

Feb 10, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Kings goaltender David Rittich (31) is congratulated after his first shut out with team against the Edmonton Oilers at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Additionally, while goaltending has been an issue they got solid netminding from David Rittich in that game, who may be the favorite to start today given Cam Talbot’s issues of late. The good news on Talbot (who has had nearly three weeks off since his last start) is that if he does get the nod in this matchup it will be coming on the road where he’s 10-5-3 (vs 4-8 at home) and has a .916 save % on the year.

The Kings as a whole have been far more trustworthy on the road as well, where they are 15-6 straight up on the season.

The Sabres took down L.A. 5-3 just a couple of weeks ago but the Kings fired 40 shots on net in that game and Buffalo has now scored 2 or less goals in four of their last six starts. There is always the chance that L.A.’s goalies blow up again and blow this, but the Kings' league-leading penalty-kill and 5v5 play (4th team xGF%) should be enough for them to score a revenge victory.

With Buffalo struggling and the Kings' odds now overly deflated in the market, I like taking the bigger +125 on offer for them to get this done in regulation and notch their third straight regulation win.

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Connor McDavid Over 3.5 SOG (-135, DraftKings)

Ladder bet
- over 4.5 SOG (+165, bet365)
- over 5.5 SOG (+340, bet365)
- over 6.5 SOG (+650, bet365)

McDavid comes into this game off a rare off night. The Kings held him to a poor outing in his last game, as he managed just two shots on net and zero points in the 4-0 Kings win.

The Oilers were on the road and on a back-to-back in that game and, tonight, neither of those limitations apply.

At home, McDavid has been dominant of late as well, landing 5 or more SOG in all six of his last six starts in Edmonton. Further, over his last 13 games, overall, the Oilers captain has managed 7 or more shots on net four times (30.7% hit rate).

The +650 odds on McDavid to go for over 6.5 SOG currently imply a probability of McDavid hitting that milestone of just 13.33%. And while his recent trends suggest this is good value to begin with when you factor in the Red Wings as opponents (32.5 shots per game), against whom McDavid landed 7 shots on net a month ago, this looks like an even better spot to go chasing these bigger milestone odds.

Elias Petterson over 2.5 SOG (-130, DraftKings)

Petterson has taken a bit of a backseat in terms of shooting since Elias Lindholm has come into the picture for the Canucks, but I wouldn’t necessarily count on that being a regular occurrence.

The Canucks center is still averaging well over 20 shifts a game (including first-team power play minutes) and should get plenty of opportunity against a weaker Blackhawks lineup that remains thin down the middle with no Connor Bedard.

Overall, Chicago has also allowed the 7th most shots on net per game (32.2) and is coming off a 4-3 loss to the Rangers where they ceded 35 shots against.

In the first meeting between these two teams, the Canucks cruised to a 2-0 home win, getting just 29 pucks on net. However, with this being the last game of a long road trip (in which they are just 2-1-1) I would also expect a little more sustained effort from the Canucks big guns as they try to secure the winning record and head home with some steam.

Despite his slow start after the all-star break, Petterson has shot the puck more in 2023 and has reached the 4 shot-on-goal plateau six times over his last 17 games (35% hit rate). While you could certainly think about laddering Petterson through 3.5 and 4.5 shots on net, I see this as a good time just to play the straight over on the 2.5 total as his odds to go over on this mark have drifted down a bit after a few slow games.

Even if shots do keep trending downward, the matchup against Chicago is simply too good to pass up and the circumstances of him coming off three slow games, make it a great buy-low spot, in general.