Best NHL player prop bets (March 11): Expect plenty of goals in Sharks-Predators
Join Daily Faceoff’s Nick Martin as he handicaps the best NHL player props available at Sports Interaction on Tuesday night.
Adam Fantilli Over 0.5 points: -110 Sports Interaction
The Columbus Blue Jackets will face-off against the New Jersey Devils Tuesday evening in a critical matchup with plenty of playoff implications.
The Blue Jackets have become a very lovable story this season, and plenty of neutral fans are rooting for them to pull off what would be a highly surprising playoff berth. Thanks to their strong recent play, they are well positioned to earn at least a wild-card berth, but could even pull to within two points of the Devils for the third seed in the Metropolitan Division with a win in this matchup.
One of the main reasons for the Blue Jackets’ surprisingly strong results this season has been the incredible play of their top offensive line, which continues to get the job done when featured in these articles.
Earlier in the season it was Sean Monahan centering the top unit, but since Monahan’s injury Fantilli has overtaken the role, and the 2023 third-overall pick has been thriving since being promoted to the top unit alongside Kirill Marchenko and Dmitri Voronkov.
The trio has outscored opponents 22-5. Their 73.1% actual goal share is the second-best mark in the league among any offensive trio to spend over 200 minutes together this season. The only unit with a higher actual goal percentage is the Blue Jackets’ former top trio of Monahan, Marchenko, and Voronkov.
Fantilli leads all Blue Jackets skaters with 18 points over the last 16 games, and has recorded at least one point in seven of his last eight games played.
Fantilli netted his second career hat trick on Sunday at Madison Square Garden, in another matchup with plenty of playoff implications.
Right now the Devils have little offensive upside, but are still capable defensively, and have a high-quality goaltender in Jacob Markstrom. While it does seem probable that Tuesday’s matchup could be somewhat low event and feature playoff-type gameplay, a price of -110 still looks quite appealing for a player in such dominant offensive form right now.
Filip Forsberg Anytime Goalscorer: +125 Sports Interaction
The Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks have been two of the NHL’s worst defensive sides this season, and that has certainly looked to be the case in their first two head-to-head matchups of the year. They played a home-and-home set in late January, and the Predators won two shootouts featuring 23 combined goals.
Forsberg recorded three goals and five points in those matchups, and had 14 shot attempts. Since that point, the Sharks roster has only gotten worse, as they traded away two of their best players in Mikael Granlund and Jake Walman prior the trade deadline.
It’s not only been matchups versus the Sharks in which Forsberg has thrived recently, as the ultra-talented winger has put up 15 goals in 25 games since January 1st. In the same span, the Sharks have allowed 3.96 goals against per game, which is the worst mark in the NHL.
Forsberg is priced at +125 to score on Sports Interaction, which makes him the third-most favored player to score on the slate, behind David Pastrnak and Alex Ovechkin. I’d argue Forsberg deserves to be priced at +105 and Sports Interaction’s price of +125 is worth betting.
You can follow all of Nick’s hockey bets on the Action Network app!