The 10th-seeded Minnesota Wild and seventh-seeded Vancouver Canucks open their best-of-five qualification round series Sunday at 10:30 p.m. ET in the Edmonton bubble at Rogers Place. We analyze the Wild-Canucks NHL betting odds and lines, with picks and best bets.
Wild vs. Canucks: Projected starting goalies
Alex Stalock vs. Jacob Markstrom
Stalock, who started eight of the Wild’s last 10 games before the pause, seems the obvious choice over Devan Dubnyk in the NHL’s restart. Stalock went 20-11-4 with a 2.67 goals against average, .910 save percentage and 4 shutouts. He is 1-1 against the Canucks in his career. Stalock is 0-1 in the postseason for his career.
Markstrom went 23-16-4 with a 2.75 GAA, a .918 SV% and 2 shutouts in 43 starts. He’s 3-2-1 in his career vs. the Wild, but was on the wrong end of two February games this seasons. The 30-year Swede injured his knee Feb. 22 and missed the last eight games before the shutdown, but he’s rarin’ to go now. Saturday will mark his first postseason appearance.
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Wild vs. Canucks: Key injuries
Wild
- D Greg Pateryn (upper body) out
Canucks
- LW Josh Leivo (knee) out for season
Wild vs. Canucks: Odds, picks and betting tips
Odds courtesy of BetMGM; access them at USA TODAY Sports for a full list. Odds last updated at 8:45 a.m. ET.
Prediction
Canucks 3, Wild 1
Moneyline (ML)
The CANUCKS (-112) are my STRONGEST PLAY vs. the Wild (-106) in what is basically a pick ’em game. Due to rust, I expect more penalties than usual, giving the Canucks a slight advantage. They rank fourth in the NHL this season with a 24.2 power-play percentage, while the Wild are 25th on the penalty kill at 77.2%.
New to sports betting? A winning $10 bet on the Canucks returns a profit of $8.93 – every $1.12 bet on Vancouver profits $1 with a win.
Puck Line/Against the Spread (ATS)
The posted lines of Vancouver (-1, +165) and Minnesota (+1, -200) don’t interest me, but an alternate line caught my eye. I’ll roll the dice with a small-unit play on MINNESOTA (-1.5, +240) where a win by 2 or more goals will more than double my investment – every winning $1 bet will profit $2.40.
Over/Under (O/U)
UNDER 5.5 (+100) is also a small-unit play. The two clubs played three times this season with only one game finishing under 5.5 goals (Canucks 4-1, Jan. 12). The Wild took the other two, 4-2, Feb. 6, and 4-3 in a shootout Feb. 19.
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| Johnny’s 2019-20 NHL record | 24-16 |
| 2020 overall record | 44-31-1 |
| Strongest plays | 25-13 |
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