Intelligent Hockey: Best bets for Saturday's NHL slate

Betting successfully requires a dispassionate heart and cool rationality. But as this writer and readers of this column spend the week watching games and checking lines, some bets and props materialize that are irresistible.

This weekend, we are betting against teams in a special tier of awfulness and doubling down on the world’s best goal scorer who is coming off two goalless games. The stars have aligned for three mouth-watering options this Saturday.  

Chicago Blackhawks at Nashville Predators Saturday, April 16 – 12:30 PM ET  The Nashville Predators are perilously close to losing their foothold on a playoff wild-card spot. With the Las Vegas Golden Knights 7-2-1 in their last ten games, Nashville needs to keep winning to make it to the big dance in May. The margin for error being slim is the bad news. The good news is that Nashville’s opponent Saturday is the Chicago Blackhawks. 

How awful is Chicago? Since March 1st, only the Arizona Coyotes have a worse expected goals and high-danger chances percentage at 5-on-5. Moreover, Arizona’s only win without Jakob Chychrun and Clayton Keller came against Chicago. 

The Predators are coming off an ugly 4-0 loss against the Edmonton Oilers. The final score isn’t always indicative of the tale on the ice. This time it was. The Predators were bad in all three zones, and the Oilers succeeded at forcing their adversary into one-and-dones. 

I think against Chicago we see Nashville hew closer to the identity its coach, John Hynes, desires. I envision Nashville applying a physical forecheck and grinding the Blackhawks down with consistent retrievals. 

The Predators’ offensive cycle deftly marries power with finesse. Yes, Nashville attacks the middle of the ice by shooting into