Check out our NHL picks and predictions for the big slate of games on Thursday, October 9.
The regular season rolls on with a loaded slate of nine games tonight. Our hockey professionals are targeting a trio of matchups, including Stars vs. Predators (8 p.m. ET, ESPN+), Blue Jackets vs. Wild (8 p.m. ET, ESPN+), and the night's finale of Blues vs. Sharks (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+)
In addition to a pair of moneyline bets for those earlier games, we're also targeting a mispriced player prop in nightcap matchup.
Let's dive in with our favorite expert best bets.
NHL Odds, Picks & Predictions
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 |
|---|---|---|
  | 8 p.m. | |
  | 8 p.m. | |
  | 10 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. Predators
By Greg Liodice
The Nashville Predators came into this season with a lot of buzz after their exceptionally busy offseason.
They added former Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault from Vegas, as well as Brady Skjei from the Hurricanes. On top of that, I’ve always seen the Predators as one of the deeper teams. Barry Trotz has done a wonderful job of turning this franchise around from mediocre to a contender in a year.
Goaltender Juuse Saros was listed as day-to-day as of Wednesday, but we learned he was a full participant in practice. Even if he wasn’t starting, Scott Wedgewood has a ton of experience with Nashville’s opponents in the Dallas Stars – playing for them for two and a half years.
I have no qualms about Dallas, and I think the team is a perennial contender for the Stanley Cup this season. However, Nashville is not an easy place to play in, on top of the hype around the new additions. Not only that, the Predators have 40-goal scorer Filip Forsberg and former Norris Trophy winner Roman Josi.
If you need any more ammunition, Jake Oettinger of the Stars is a notorious hot-and-cold goaltender. He started last season as statistically one of the worst netminders in hockey until he picked up his game later on.
Either way, this isn’t a fade to Dallas. This is more of a Nashville bet. I’m buying the hype and banking on all the honky-tonks on Broadway to be filled by the end of the night.
Greg's Pick: Predators (+100)
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Blue Jackets vs. Wild
Thursday's NHL betting board has nine games, but one game jumped out right away: Columbus vs. Minnesota.
Like plenty of hockey punters, I think this is going to be a pretty tricky season for the Minnesota Wild. The Wild have a superstar up front in Kirill Kaprizov and an emerging power on the blueline in Brock Faber, but the supporting cast leaves plenty to be desired.
Minnesota's blue line should still be OK, but Jared Spurgeon is coming off an injury-plagued year, and the depth behind Faber, Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin could be an issue.
Things are even dicier down the middle, where the Wild will rely on Marco Rossi, Joel Eriksson Ek and Ryan Hartman to lead the charge.
The Blue Jackets have plenty of holes in their lineup, too, but there's more than enough upside on this roster to make this a scrappy bunch.
Simply put, the gap between these two teams is much closer than these odds suggest.
Michael's Pick: Blue Jackets (+210)
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Blues vs. Sharks
By Nick Martin
Based on their season opener, the Blues look as expected. Their defensive play looked quite shaky at times versus Seattle, and they heavily out-chanced in 5-on-5 play.
The Blues do feature a pair of likely point-per-game players in Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas, though, and that duo helped steal a game against a Kraken side lacking true offensive star power.
That duo has excelled under coach Drew Bannister, who was hired on Dec. 12 last season after the dismissal of Craig Berube. In that time, Thomas has put up 60 points in 56 games while Kyrou has managed 52 in 56.
Kyrou, in particular, looked dangerous on opening night, netting two goals and hitting the inner post on a potential ice-breaker.
The Sharks allowed the most goals against in the league last season (3.98 goals against per game), and allowed 3.86 xGA/60 in the final half of the year. Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith should make them more competitive, but they should still be a safe bet to be among those who allow the most goals against this season.
Thomas is priced at -190 to record a point in this matchup, and I would argue Kyrou deserves to be priced closer to that number. At anything better than -150 I see value backing Kyrou to stay hot in this matchup.
Nick's Pick: Jordan Kyrou Over 0.5 Points (-140)
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