BEST LINES:  Pinnacle -½ +230 BET 365  -½ +225 SportsInteraction  -½ +225 5DIMES  -½ +228

Posted at 3:30 PM EST

7:05 PM EST. This season our approach is going to be a little different than regular readers are accustomed to. Whenever we’re playing an underdog, the bet will be split into two parts. We’re playing the underdog -½ +money for 1 unit and we’ll also play them with OT included for 1 unit. The take-backs are so high and offer so much value that over time will benefit us.   

8:05 PM EST. Regulation only. The Preds are high on the market's radar after a Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 2016-17 and a successful 2017-18 regular season, The NHL has a few blue blood clubs and Nashville fits that bill at the moment. We've long been critical of Pekka Rinne and will continue to fade the reigning Vezina winner when the opportunity presents itself. His stock is also very high after taking home that trophy, but do not be fooled, he is not the league's best goaltender and continues to give up soft goals regularly. Despite not really winning anything significant, the Preds are going to be raising multiple banners to the rafters. Nashville did technically win the President's Trophy and the big fat nothing that goes with it and they took home their first Central Division title, but again, the Preds have no meaningful hardware to show for last season's effort. The Avalanche gave them a bit of trouble in the first round and the Jets whacked them in the second round. The blueprint to beat them has been published and it doesn’t look like they have improved.

If you listen to Predators forward Craig Smith, you'd think they'd had a hell of a weekend, “That’s how you want to start, right? I think we did a lot of good things." A pair of wins is always nice, but beating up on the dregs that are the Rangers and Islanders isn't that impressive and the fact the Preds didn't look particularly well doing so should be of some concern. The Rags and Isles both outshot Nashville and it escaped by the slimmest of margins as pretty significant road chalk.

The Flames, on the other hand, missed the postseason last year and cleaned out the coaching staff before bringing in Bill Peters fresh off his stint behind the bench in Carolina. We've long been a fan a Peters and how his teams in Raleigh played, but he, like most coaches, was done in by shoddy goaltending. Calgary split a pair of games with the Canucks, losing the first in Vancouver on opening night and then storming back for a 7-4 victory at home at the Saddledome Saturday night. The result of that first game was pretty misleading, as Calgary outshot Vancouver 35-23, but that solid effort produced results the second time around when they again outgunned the Canucks 37-20. The Flames poor power-play was a significant topic of conversation last season and after a 0-7 opening night, it was right back in the forefront, but it's important to remember those powerplay goals cannot be counted on from game to game, as you either get the bounces or you don't, but they indeed are impactful. The Flames PP buried three in that win Saturday night. The fact that Calgary is wreaking havoc and drawing penalties is much more noteworthy than the number of PP goals they score.

Mike Smith has been shaky in the Flames net in both his starts to begin the season. Peters has said that he's going to give young David Rittich a look either tonight or on Thursday. Peters has no loyalty to Smith and suffered through four years of having to play the high priced starter in Carolina. Even if Smith does get the nod, the coach's leash will be short. Either way, the Flames are a tough out and a side worth looking at any time they’re taking back a price like this one.

Therefore:

OT included - Calgary +150 for 1 unit.

Regulation only - Calgary -½ +230 for 1 unit.

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