Skip to main content

NHL Odds & Best Bets Today: Schedule, Picks for Tuesday

Scott Cullen

Last Updated: February 28, 2023 2:53 PM EST • 4 min 11 sec read.

NHL best bets
NHL best bets

We have a competitive 10-game slate Tuesday, including a pair of games involving two playoff teams. Read on for our top NHL best bets for Tuesday based on the best NHL odds.

Sitting in second place in the Pacific Division, the Los Angeles Kings finish a five-game road trip with a visit to Winnipeg and a date with a Winnipeg Jets team holding down the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference. 

The New York Islanders are also in the wild-card picture, but their grip on a postseason berth is far more tenuous. The Islanders hold the top Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, but they have played two to five more games than any of their closest challengers and would be outside the playoff picture based on points percentage.

Minnesota, meanwhile, sits third in the Central Division but is just one point clear of the Jets.

Here are our best NHL picks for Tuesday's schedule (odds via DraftKings, FanDuel, Caesars, BetMGM, and PointsBet; pick confidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale).

Check out our NHL picks.  

Tuesday’s NHL schedule and odds

(odds via DraftKings)

  • Detroit Red Wings (+110) vs. Ottawa Senators (-130)
  • Florida Panthers (+145) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (-170)
  • Columbus Blue Jackets (+160) vs. Buffalo Sabres (-190)
  • Pittsburgh Penguins (-135) vs. Nashville Predators (+115)
  • Seattle Kraken (-165) vs. St. Louis Blues (+140)
  • Los Angeles Kings (+115) vs. Winnipeg Jets (-135)
  • New York Islanders (+120) vs. Minnesota Wild (-140)
  • Boston Bruins (-130) vs. Calgary Flames (+110)
  • Chicago Blackhawks (+150) vs. Arizona Coyotes (-175)
  • Montreal Canadiens (+145) vs. San Jose Sharks (-170)

Tuesday’s NHL best bets

  • Moneyline: Bruins (-130 via DraftKings) vs. Flames ⭐⭐⭐⭐
  • Spread: Penguins -1.5 (+192 via Caesars) vs. Predators  ⭐⭐⭐⭐
  • Total: Panthers-Lightning Under 7 (-124 via FanDuel) ⭐⭐⭐
  • Prop: Matty Beniers anytime goal (+240 via DraftKings) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Tuesday’s NHL top picks

Moneyline: Bruins (-130 via DraftKings) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Don't overthink this. The Boston Bruins are a dominant team with the potential to be historically great – and yet, they're somehow still reasonably priced for Tuesday's game in Calgary.

Boston rolled to its seventh straight win with a 3-2 triumph at Edmonton on Monday. Playing on the second night of a back-to-back situation against a rested opponent is usually a terrible scenario for an NHL team, but the Bruins are not your usual club: they're 6-2 on zero days rest.

If the Bruins were taking on a high quality opponent, circumstances would be different. But the reeling Flames have just one regulation win in their past seven games overall and have won just one of their previous seven home games.

As you might expect, the Bruins have an enormous edge in goal, with starter (and Vezina Trophy odds favorite) Linus Ullmark expected to get the start against Calgary's Jacob Markstrom.

Ullmark leads the league with a .938 save percentage while Markstrom has struggled to an .888 SV%, a significant drop from his career mark of .910.

DraftKings, Caesars, and BetMGM all have the Bruins at -130 on the moneyline, barely ahead of PointsBet at -131. FanDuel is at -134, so there is not wide variance in the price, but there is still an edge to be found by shopping for the best price.

Spread: Penguins -1.5 (+192 via Caesars) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Penguins are coming off an impressive weekend sweep of St. Louis and Tampa Bay, and get to face a depleted Predators team Tuesday. 

Pittsburgh has gone just 10-12-5 over its past 27 games – but I'm still confident in the Pens as puck line favorites. For one thing, 11 of their 13 road wins have been by a margin of more than one goal – so when they do win away from the Steel City, they win by a lot.

More importantly, the Penguins are taking on a Nashville squad that is both hurt and selling before Friday's NHL trade deadline. Ryan Johansen, Juuso Parssinen, and Filip Forsberg are all hurt while wingers Nino Niederreiter and Tanner Jeannot were recently traded.

For a team that already ranks 24th with 2.88 goals per 60 minutes, taking five regular forwards off the roster is a significant problem. And that presents an ideal matchup for a Pittsburgh team that should not only win, but win big.

Caesars has the best price on the puck line for the Penguins at -1.5 (+192), which is slightly better than DraftKings and PointsBet (both at +190). FanDuel (+184) and BetMGM (+180) are lagging behind here.

Total: Panthers-Lightning Under 7 (-124 via FanDuel) ⭐⭐⭐

The Battle of Florida looks like a potential mismatch, with the Panthers missing their top two centers.

While the Panthers have been playing high scoring games, hitting a total of more than seven goals in 13 of 24 games in 2023, injuries to Aleksander Barkov and Sam Bennett leave them thin up front.

If Florida has trouble generating offense against the Lightning and star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, that should help steer this game under its lofty total.

The Lightning rank fifth in goals against average at home, and Vasilevskiy has a .922 save percentage and 2.43 goals against average in 23 games at Amalie Arena. 

FanDuel has the best Under price among our top-rated sportsbooks, at -124, just ahead of BetMGM at -125. DraftKings and Caesars are at -130 while PointsBet has the Under at -136.

Prop: Matty Beniers anytime goal (+240 via DraftKings) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Calder Trophy odds favorite Matty Beniers has done more of his damage on the road, and has a tasty matchup against another team in fire-sale mode.

Beniers has scored at least one goal in 12 of 29 home games, while Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington has a pedestrian .897 save percentage and 3.16 goals against average on home ice.

Binnington has stopped 83 of 89 shots in his past two starts, and that second number is cause for alarm. With the Blues dealing away established talent before the deadline, they are not icing a quality team in front of an already questionable goaltender.

Beniers can – and should – benefit from the struggles of Binnington and the Blues' defense.

As it goes with player props, there is some variance in pricing for a Beniers anytime goal. He is priced at +240 at DraftKings and BetMGM, +220 at FanDuel, and +205 at Caesars.

NHL best bets made 2/28/2023 at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Here are our best sportsbooks:

(21+. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER)
* Bonuses not applicable in Ontario.

Related pages

Written By:
Scott Cullen
Scott Cullen is SportsbookReview.com's Sports Betting Analyst and is one of the most well-known sports betting writers on the web. He wrote about fantasy sports for TSN for many years, and he has also written for The Athletic, NHL.com, The Hockey News, Monkey Knife Fight, and McKeen's Hockey. Born in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, Cullen was an Economics major at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario and played for the Laurier Golden Hawks hockey team.