Our NHL betting picks believe the Flames will focus on defense on the latter half of a back-to-back vs. Utah, leading to a low-scoring game at Delta Center tonight.
NHL
Two teams desperately clinging to their Wild Card hopes out West collide Tuesday when the Calgary Flames visit the Utah Hockey Club.
Calgary enters the day five points back of St. Louis for the final berth, while Utah is nine back and will get wiped off the board unless they stack plenty of wins fast.
Our Flames vs. Utah Hockey Club predictions and NHL picks think Calgary will keep things close in a low-scoring final game of their road trip on April 1.
My Flames pick: Under 6 (-120 at BET99)
My Flames analysis
The Calgary Flames have been on a decent run of late, as their recent 3-2 SO win over the Avalanche has them at 5-1-1 over their last seven. It’s helped them vault the Vancouver Canucks as the closest team to the Wild Card, and they have a couple of games in hand on St. Louis to make some hay.
A Bottom-3 scoring team all season at a lowly 2.59 goals per game, Calgary’s been better offensively during this streak, scoring at least three goals in four of their last five wins. But they will be in tough against the Utah Hockey Club, a team they’ve lost to twice already in the regular season. They will also be playing the second night of a back-to-back, and that hasn’t worked well in their favor this season (3-5-1).
Utah enters action with a 5-2 win over Chicago, snapping a 3-game losing slide. The five goals must have seemed like a scoring bonanza, as they had scored just two goals across those previous three games. On the season, Utah’s only slightly better than Calgary in scoring, posting 2.81 goals per game, which ranks 23rd.
They have, however, touched the five-goal plateau in both wins over the Flames this year, winning 5-1 on October 30 and 5-3 on January 2.
Calgary’s gameplan — especially as they’re playing a back-to-back and against a team that has lit them up — is to be sound defensively, and try to escape Utah with two points. In all their back-to-backs this season, the Flames and their opponents only combined to go Over six goals twice.
With both teams desperate for the two points, I expect a tighter-checking affair between two traditionally low-scoring clubs.
Under 6
Nazem Kadri Over 3.5 shots on goal
Matt Coronato Over 0.5 assists
Nazem Kadri is tied for the Flames’ scoring lead, but he’s by far the top shooter on the team with 252 shots on goal, and no other Calgary player even has 170.
He’s been active against Utah in both games, putting up six shots on goal in the last meeting, while also picking up an assist in a 5-3 loss. Kadri had four shots on goal in a 5-1 loss in the first matchup.
Win or lose, he should be prominent for Calgary Tuesday.
We’ll end this 3-legged SGP with a flier on Flames forward Matt Coronato.
His scoring has tailed off, failing to register a point in three straight games, but he’s less than one week removed from one of his best streaks of the season, when he picked up four goals and eight points in six games.
Coronato has only played Utah once this year, but he does have an assist.
Learn how to bet a same-game parlay with these helpful tips and strategies.
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Utah has lost each of its last seven games following a road win. Find more NHL betting trends for Flames vs. Hockey Club.
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Eric has been involved in sports media in many different capacities since graduating from journalism school in 1999, back when getting your own column in a newspaper was still considered a thing. He doubled down and graduated from broadcast journalism school five years later, which led to a move to Toronto and a career with The Sports Network (TSN). From behind-the-scenes production work, he moved into the digital realm, where he had his own hoops column (At the Buzzer), while regularly live streaming and chatting with fans during broadcasts as the character known as LeBlog James. He was also a key contributor to TSN and CTV’s Olympic programming during the 2012 London Games.
Eric eventually found his way into the sports betting field in 2016 and has been a mainstay ever since. He was tagged on Twitter as a Top 10 NBA sharp during the 2021 season and has been interviewed about basketball and his handicapping process on shows from Vancouver to India. Eric is now a jack-of-all-sports at Covers, where his predictions span the alphabet soup: NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, F1, WNBA, Euro, and Copa.
When making picks, he focuses on finding value first and foremost, and ensuring readers have all the information they need to make an informed choice.
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