Premium NHL Picks: January 5th

Two premium NHL picks tonight:

Calgary Flames @ Vancouver Canucks

Canucks have been amazing lately. They are 25-8-5 overall and 13-3-2 at home this season. In addition, they have gone 9-0-1 in their last 10 games. They beat San Jose Sharks 4-3 at HP Pavillion on Monday night after beating the Avalanche and Dallas Stars in a three game road trip.

Flames had won four in a row themselves but they had a disappointing and very surprising 5-2 home loss against the NY Islanders on Monday. They had 43 shots on goal but it didn't help them in the end.

This will be the second meeting between the clubs this season. Canucks destroyed the Flames 7-2 in December at Pengrowth Saddledome. 

When we look at the games between them in Vancouver in recent seasons, we see that the Canucks have dominated the Flames going 7-3 in last 10 games. They had 7-3 and 3-1 wins last season at home against the Flames.

Flames have not been good on road. They went 4-11 in their last 15 games on road.

Red hot Canucks should wrap this up in regulation time.

PICK: VANCOUVER CANUCKS TO WIN [In regulation]

2 units @ 1.80 [win]

Tampa Bay Lightning @ Pittsburgh Penguins

Roloson couldn't have made a better start to his new career at Tampa Bay. He stopped 34 shots last night in Washinton when the Bolts beat the Capitals 1-0 in overtime.

The win in Washington was the third in a row for the Lightning. They are 4-1 in their last 5 games and 12-8-3 on road overall.

Penguins had a long winning streak in December but they have been skidding lately. Only one win in last four games. They lost the Winter Classic in front of 40 thousand Pittsburgh fans against the Washington Capitals after losing to NY Islanders and Ottawa Senators.

Their powerplay has not been working well in last five games. They had 18 powerplay chances but only were able to convert one of them.

Pens had won the last game against Tampa Bay back in November with a score of 5-1 at Consol Energy Centre.

An interesting note, Tampa Bay is 9-4 SU in its last 13 games on road against Pittsburgh. 

They are having a very good season with great offense provided by Stamkos, St Louis and LeCavalier. Now they also have a good goaltending if Roloson can build on his performance from last night. I am expecting them to be a strong contender in the play offs this season. I wouldn't be surprised if they win tonight. 

I will go with UNDER in this game. Obviously, Penguins have had scoring problems especially with the low performance of powerplay units. They were able to score only 12 goals in last 5 games. Bolts play quite defensively and conservative on road. We saw only 6 goals in total in their last two road games in Atlanta and Washington. UNDER 6 goals seems to be a good choice for this game.

PICK: UNDER 6 GOALS [loss]

3 units @ 1.76