The Buffalo Sabres (10-25-7) visit the Washington Capitals (28-11-4) Thursday for a 7 p.m. ET puck drop at Capital One Arena. Below, we analyze the Sabres-Capitals odds and lines, with NHL picks and predictions.
The Capitals enter the day with a tenuous hold on first place in the ultra-competitive East Division. They’ve won three straight games and outscored the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers by a total of 14-2 in their last two outings.
Buffalo is a surprising 3-2-1 across its last six games but remains buried in last place in the East. The Sabres fell 3-2 in a shootout to the Boston Bruins Tuesday.
Sabres at Capitals: Odds, spread and lines
Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated at 10:11 a.m. ET.
- Money line: Sabres +270 (bet $100 to win $270) | Capitals -300 (bet $300 to win $100)
- Against the spread/ATS: Sabres +1.5 (+100) | Capitals -1.5 (-125)
- Over/Under: 5.5 (O: -120 | U: +105)
Sabres at Capitals: Projected starting goalies
Dustin Tokarski (0-4-2, .905 SV%, 3.54 GAA) at Ilya Samsonov (10-3-1, .899 SV%, 2.83 GAA)
A start by Tokarski would give him his most since the 2014-15 campaign. The 31-year-old stopped 29 of 31 shots in getting the Sabres to the shootout against the Bruins Tuesday. He allowed 4 goals on 33 shots in his previous outing, also against the Caps.
Samsonov allowed just one goal on 30 shots in the win over the Flyers. He had allowed 18 total goals over his previous four outings but managed to go 2-2 despite his .843 SV%.
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Sabres at Capitals: Odds, lines, predictions and picks
Prediction
Capitals 6, Sabres 1
Money line (ML)
There’s no case to be made for the Sabres to win this game and a bet on them is wasted money. Still, the -300 price for the Capitals is far too chalky of a bet on a regular-season NHL game.
Buffalo beat Washington 4-3 in a shootout Jan. 24 and has two other 1-goal losses in the season series but don’t go chasing ghosts.
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Against the spread (ATS)
The Caps have 18 more wins than the Sabres on the season and just throttled two teams much better than the Sabres following a 4-3 win in the last head-to-head meeting.
CAPITALS -1.5 (-125) is a fine bet, but the value is on CAPITALS -2.5 (+135) on the alternate line.
Over/Under (O/U)
Bet the OVER 5.5 (-125) or OVER 6.5 (+125).
The Sabres are without their top two netminders and the season series is already 4-2-1 against the number.
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