Check out our NHL best bets today for Tuesday, January 23 – our top hockey picks and predictions.
The Action Network's hockey experts have compiled their favorite betting picks for tonight's big nine-game slate, which we've also covered with our usual NHL game guides.
However, for our NHL best bets tonight, we're targeting four games in particular. The action kicks off at 7 p.m. ET with the final puck drop at 10:30 p.m. ET, so you can tail our experts with a long night of hockey action ahead.
Check out their picks for those games, which are all available on ESPN+, below.
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NHL Best Bets
The team logos in the table below represent each of the matchups that our NHL betting staff is targeting from today's slate of games. Click on the team logos for any of the matchups below to navigate to a specific bet discussed in this article.
| Game | Time (ET) | Pick |
|---|---|---|
  | 7 p.m. | |
  | 7 p.m. | |
  | 7:30 p.m. | |
  | 10:30 p.m. | |
Specific betting recommendations come from the sportsbook offering preferred odds as of writing. Always shop for the best price using our NHL Odds page, which automatically surfaces the best lines for every game. | ||
Stars vs. Red Wings
The Stars' high-powered offense should be able to create lots of quality chances in this matchup. They feature three well-balanced lines upfront led by a newly formed top trio of Roope Hintz, Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston.
Johnston is tremendous at supporting the right areas of the ice, keeping plays alive, and finding pockets of space to show off his high-level finish. He's getting a chance with two of the better forwards in the league, and to this point, the line has owned an absurd amount of the play.
In a small sample of 42.6 minutes together at even strength, the Stars' new-look unit owns a 4.87 xGF/60 rating.
As long as Johnston is skating in this role, he is likely to produce a single point often enough to make betting the Over 0.5 points at +110 odds a profitable proposition. At worst this is a middle-of-the-pack matchup for Johnston to produce too.
Considering they are on a 7-2-1 tear, the Red Wings are not defending as well as you might expect recently. They have allowed 32.34 shots against per 60 and an xGA/60 of 3.19.
If Alex Lyon's surprisingly brilliant play ever comes down to earth in goal, Detroit's defensive work is going to look middling again.
The Red Wings have allowed goals at the 11th-highest rate this season, and their recent defensive numbers aren't convincing of significant change.
Pick: Wyatt Johnston Over 0.5 Points (+110)
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Lightning vs. Flyers
By Tony Sartori
Simply put, Travis Konecny is the Philadelphia Flyers' strongest offensive player with 22 goals and 42 points in 47 games, and this matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning should present an abundance of opportunities for him to find the back of the net.
Konecny scored the last time he faced goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who is projected to start between the pipes for Tampa on Tuesday.
Vasilevskiy has been solid this season but has not played up to his usual expectations, posting a .901 SV% through 23 appearances on the crease. Some of this number is on Vasilevskiy, but a bigger portion is on the poor blue line play in front of him.
At 5-on-5, the Bolts rank 21st in the league in expected goals against per 60 minutes (xGA/60). Those are poor even-strength metrics, but special teams could also play a role in helping us cash this prop as the Lightning rank 27th in penalty minutes taken per game. Konecny skates with the first power play unit.
Making matters worse is the fact that defensemen Mikhail Sergachev and Erik Cernak, two of Tampa's best defensive players, remain sidelined with injuries. Finally, we are catching a great number on Konecny to score at +140 via FanDuel, a line that is 23 cents longer than the rest of the market at the time of writing.
Pick: Travis Konecny Anytime Goalscorer (+140)
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Golden Knights vs. Islanders
By Greg Liodice
Amid this rise of superstar young defensemen across the NHL, one name continues to evade many in the Norris Trophy contention, and that’s the New York Islanders’ Noah Dobson.
Dobson has quietly put together a stellar season, averaging more than a point per game with 41 assists. That is among the top 1% for defensemen in the NHL.
Aside from generating an abundance of points, he leads the Islanders in Corsi (shot attempts) with 973, but registers only 100 shots on goal. There are occasions when Dobson can go off for three to five shots, but there are times when he doesn’t register a shot on goal.
In the past five games, he has only six shots on goal, and in one of those games, he rang off five.
Sounds like someone is due.
The youngster is only going to continue to rip shots from the blue line. Now, with new coach Patrick Roy behind the bench, I can expect Dobson to have a more amplified role in the offense, even more than before.
He, Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat are major contributors to the Isles. Matching against a Vegas Golden Knights team that was recently ripped apart by its coach last night will be interesting. Both teams have reason to be coming in hot, so we may see a fast-paced game with a lot of shots generated on net.
Enter Dobson.
Pick: Noah Dobson Over 2.5 Shots (-110)
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Rangers vs. Sharks
By Brian Paget
Perhaps the biggest mismatch among many in this matchup between the New York Rangers and San Jose Sharks is the special teams.
Entering Monday, the Sharks own the NHL’s worst penalty kill while the Rangers’ power play, clicking at 28.7%, is the league’s second-best. The Blueshirts’ unit is also coming in hot, fresh off a victory in which they scored twice on the man-advantage.
The Sharks, for whom this will be the second game of a back-to-back, are likely to head to the box a few times in this one. They are 10th in the NHL penalty minutes as of Monday, and their tired legs won’t be of any help.
As a result, I’m taking Mika Zibanejad as my anytime goalscorer on Tuesday.
Zibanejad, who has a power-play goal and four assists in four games since battling the flu, is New York’s go-to option on the man-advantage and second-line center. He has 15 goals on the season, seven of which have come on the power play, thus he is tracking a bit behind his typical totals.
Zibanejad should be able to generate plenty of opportunities at even strength given the Sharks’ 3.66 xGA/60 entering Monday is the league’s worst. But expect the Rangers to also look to get No. 93 plenty of one-timer opportunities on the power play.
Zibanejad is a good bet to score in this one, and we’re getting very nice value on FanDuel at +180.
Pick: Mika Zibanejad Anytime Goalscorer (+180)
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