Thursday NHL Picks: Go With Flames, Hurricanes

It's a fairly busy NHL schedule Thursday, with eight games on tap. Below, we're going to focus on two matchups in particular: The Calgary Flames vs the Boston Bruins, and the Pittsburgh Penguins vs the Carolina Hurricanes. The Bruins have stumbled to a 6-7-1 mark to begin the season, while the Flames, playoff outsiders a year ago, are a surprising 7-5-1. Pittsburgh is 2-5-2 over the past nine games. A the same time, Carolina has won seven in a row. Find the Thursday NHL picks below.

Before we get into the odds and predictions for these two games, make sure to check out our online sportsbook reviews, and the top NHL betting sites. And don't forget to check out the best mobile sports betting sites that will enable you to place your NHL bets wherever you are.

Flames vs Bruins Odds & Prediction

	Puck Line	Moneyline	Total
Calgary Flames	+1.5 (-165)	+160	O 6.0 (EVEN)
Boston Bruins	-1.5 (+140)	-185	U 6.0 (-120)

Just when it was looking as though that Boston was righting the ship, the Bruins went off the rails against Toronto. A 4-0 loss to the Maple Leafs came on the heels of back-to-back shutout wins over the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken. Prior to those victories, Boston had won once in six games (1-4-1), a skid punctuated by an 8-2 shellacking handed them by the Hurricanes.

Assessing the NHL picks, there's been plenty of all or nothing when it comes to the Bruins this season. Along with the two shutout wins, Boston has also been blanked in three of the club's seven losses. This is unusual territory for the Bruins to be staking out. Boston didn't lose its seventh game of the season last season until Dec. 23. En route to winning the Presidents' Trophy in 2022-23, the Bruins carried on all the way to Jan. 29 before the club was suffering a seventh loss on the season.

Special teams are proving to be alarming for Boston. Following an 0-for-6 performance in Tuesday's loss to Toronto, the Bruins are 29th in the NHL on the power play. The Leafs would score three times in seven chances against Boston's 20th-ranked penalty kill. To make matters worse, Boston is the most penalized team in the NHL. The Bruins have been assessed 79 infactions through 14 games.

Calgary comes to Boston off a 3-2 overtime win at Montreal in which Matt Coronato tied the game with less than three minutes to play in regulation time. The he scored the OT winner seven seconds into the extra session. Flames forward Anthony Mantha did not practice Wednesday due to an undisclosed injury.

Former Flames forward Elias Lindholm is among Boston's top scorers with 2-6-8 totals. Ex-Bruins goalie Dan Vladar is 3-3-1 record this season with a .908 save percentage for Calgary. Calgary's power play is in the midst of a 1-for-23 slump. Even worse, the Flames have allowed two shorthanded goals over that span of time. The Flames have been outscored 8-1 in the first period of their past seven games, going 2-5 in that stretch.

Boston is 4-4 straight up as a betting favorite this season. The Flames are just 3-6 SU as an underdog bet this season, but they tend to be a better bet when playing the Bruins. Calgary won both meetings with Boston last season. At TD Garden, the Flames are 3-1 straight up in the last four visits there and have outscored the Bruins 14-6 in those four games. Take the visitors in the Thursday NHL picks.

Calgary Flames To beat Boston Bruins on Thursday

+160

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Penguins vs Hurricanes Odds & Prediction

	Puck Line	Moneyline	Total
Pittsburgh Penguins	+1.5 (-115)	+220	O 6.5 (-112)
Carolina Hurricanes	-1.5 (-105)	-270	U 6.5 (-108)

Atop the Metropolitan Division with a 9-2 record, the Hurricanes have been making short work of just about every team this season. During their current seven-game winning streak, Carolina has scored at least four goals in six of the games and won all but one of the contests by multi-goal margins. The Hurricanes are 4-0 against Metropolitan Division opposition this season. They've also won four games in a row at home.

We're going streaking!

🔴 7 straight wins for the #Canes
🔴 7-game point streak for Neci
🔴 6-game point streak for Svech
🔴 5 straight wins for PK
🔴 3-game point streak for Orly pic.twitter.com/cNs82rlp0y

— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) November 6, 2024

Carolina has allowed just 27 goals this season (2.46 goals against per game). That's the second-best goals against total in the NHL. Meanwhile the Canes are averaging 4.09 goals per game. Both Martin Necas and Jack Roslovic have accounted for a team-leading seven goals. Four other players have scored at least four goals. In the absence of injured No. 1 goalie Frederik Andersen, who is week-to-week with a lower-body injury, backup Pyotr Kochetkov is 6-1.

Leading 3-1 in the third period, the Penguins lost 4-3 to the New York Islanders in their most recent game. In doing so, they accomplished something rarely done by the team. The Penguins lost a game when both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin scored. Over the years, Pittsburgh is 108-11-5 when both of the club's superstars score a goal in the same game. Crosby has scored five goals in the last three games.

Pittsburgh has accounted for just six goals over the club's past three road games. At the same time, the Penguins have given up at least four goals in five successive away contests, all of them losses. The Penguins are 29th in the NHL with a 3.71 goals against average.

Carolina is 7-2 straight up in the club's past nine meetings with Pittsburgh. That includes a 4-1 win at Pittsburgh on Oct. 18. The numbers add up even worse for the Penguins when facing the Hurricanes on the road. Pittsburgh hasn't won at the Lenovo Center since 2018. They are 0-3-3 in that span. Take the Hurricanes to cover the puck line in your Thursday NHL picks.

Carolina Hurricanes To cover -1.5 puck line on Thursday against Pittsburgh Penguins

-105

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