Three picks for Thursday’s NHL slate as 2024-25 season hits crunch time

Thursday could be one of the most important nights of the entire NHL season. 

Nine games are on the schedule, all featuring at least one team fighting for something as we enter the last fortnight of the regular season. 

Nights like these are always rife with betting opportunities, especially since the market tends to overreact to teams in must-win situations. 

We’ll highlight a few of those, plus another spot worth sprinkling on what should be a terrific night on the ice. 

Boston Bruins at Montreal Canadiens 

This is a classic contest between one team with everything to play for and another that can’t wait for the season to end. So, expect the betting market to react accordingly. 

And while it’s hard to stomach the idea of betting on the skidding Bruins — a team with nothing to play for and staring down their first last-place finish in 18 years — the truth is that they are going to be undervalued in this spot. 

It may seem like there’s a big gap between these two teams because one is the talk of the league while the other is sinking into irrelevance, but the reality is that we’re just dealing with two middling teams — one just happens to be in the playoff race. 

The Habs are quite the story and have a bright future, but they’re on pace to finish with 87 points. Don’t overreact just because they’re in a must-win situation on Thursday night. 

The pick: Bruins +150 (BetMGM Sportsbook). 

Colorado Avalanche at Columbus Blue Jackets 

Like the Habs, the Blue Jackets were expected to finish near the basement of their division but have flipped the odds and now find themselves in the thick of the playoff race. 

Colorado, meanwhile, is just waiting for the regular season to end. The Avalanche are all but assured to finish in the No. 3 spot in the Central Division and have very little to gain or lose from their final six games. 

This is also a rough schedule spot for the Avalanche, who were in Chicago on Wednesday and will be playing their third game in four nights across three time zones. 

The Jackets are a flawed team that can be exposed in their own end, but they have the offensive chops to skate with the Avs, especially if Colorado is not at its best. 

Columbus is coming off an eight-goal outburst in Nashville and looks reenergized with Sean Monahan back in the lineup. 

While the Habs-Bruins line looks like an overreaction to the narrative, this looks like a spot where you’d want to be on the same side as the team with everything at stake. 

The pick: Blue Jackets +138 (Fanatics Sportsbook). 

Pittsburgh Penguins at St. Louis Blues 

The Blues were irrelevant for the first four months of the season, but a 10-game winning streak at the perfect time has changed everything. 

Once a playoff long shot, the Blues are now locked into the first wild-card spot and look like a real threat to make some noise in the playoffs. 

That being said, these odds are just way too wide. 

Betting on the NHL?

St. Louis is in a much better place than Pittsburgh right now and could very well blow the doors off the leaky Pens, but the visitors are playing some decent stuff lately. 

Pittsburgh is 6-3-1 in its past 10 and has wins over Minnesota, Vegas, St. Louis, the Devils, Columbus, and Ottawa in that span. 

All of those teams are headed to — or fighting for — the playoffs. 

Don’t be shocked if Pittsburgh is the team to end the Blues winning streak. 

The pick: Pittsburgh +176 (Bet365).