{"id":500127,"date":"2026-03-12T20:52:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/500127\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T20:52:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:52:37","slug":"march-12-nhl-expert-picks-best-bets-for-predators-penguins-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/500127\/","title":{"rendered":"March 12 NHL Expert Picks: Best Bets for Predators & Penguins Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

NHL Best Bets & Picks: Predators vs Canucks & Penguins vs Golden Knights \u2013 Expert Game Previews<\/p>\n

The National Hockey League (NHL<\/a>) has a total of 14 games on the schedule for Thursday night, with the Edmonton Oilers and Dallas Stars tangling at American Airlines Center at 8:00 p.m. ET on ESPN+ and Hulu.<\/p>\n

We’ll provide single plays and parlay opportunities you could potentially pair with Thursday’s NBA and\/or NCAA basketball action. Good luck with all of your plays! Let’s get started.<\/p>\n

Top up your bankroll thanks to sportsbook promos<\/a> like this BetMGM bonus code<\/a> offering $1,500 in bonus bets.<\/p>\n

For the latest\u00a0NHL Odds<\/a>, including\u00a0NHL Futures<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0NHL player props<\/a>, visit RotoWire’s\u00a0NHL Betting<\/a>\u00a0page. For up-to-date\u00a0NHL player news<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0NHL Injury Report<\/a>\u00a0info, head to RotoWire’s\u00a0NHL Lineups<\/a>\u00a0page. You can find more picks at Bookies.com\/picks<\/a>. Here are our NHL Best Bets today, featuring expert NHL picks for an action-packed slate of games.<\/p>\n

Nashville Predators \"NSH\"\/ at Vancouver Canucks \"VAN\"\/<\/p>\n

The Predators (29-27-8) meet the Canucks (18-37-8) at Rogers Place in Vancouver, British Columbia for the third meeting this season.<\/p>\n

Nashville is making its third stop on a five-game road trip. The Predators have played well so far on the sojourn, falling 3-2 to the first-place Buffalo Sabres on Saturday, while doubling up the Seattle Kraken 4-2 at Climate Pledge Arena on Tuesday as slight underdogs (-105) as the total (6) pushed at most sportsbooks.<\/p>\n

The Predators are in the hunt for the playoffs, sitting a point back of the Kraken for the final wild-card spot, which is why Tuesday’s win was so crucial. There are four teams with 66 or 67 points in a logjam for that final playoff spot.<\/p>\n

Juuse Saros<\/a> (23-19-6, 3.16 GAA, .893 SV%) has allowed three or fewer goals in five consecutive starts, and he is a respectable 2-2-0 with a 2.80 GAA and .910 SV% in four March starts, picking up the pace a bit.<\/p>\n

Saros did allow five goals on 36 shots in a 5-4 overtime loss to Vancouver way back on Nov. 3, but he was beaten by Thatcher Demko<\/a>, who is long gone after another lower-body injury ended his season prematurely. Saros also stopped 21 of 22 shots in a 2-1 win in the Music City on Oct. 23 against the Canucks.<\/p>\n

The Canucks’ goaltender for Thursday is Nikita Tolopilo<\/a> (4-5-2, 3.24 GAA, .899 SV%), so the goaltending scales are heavily tipped in favor of the visitors.<\/p>\n

Vancouver was blanked 2-0 by the visiting Ottawa Senators on Monday, and the Canucks have recorded two or fewer goals scored in 11 of the past 13 games. The Canucks are only 1-6-3 in the past 10 matchups, while going 3-18-5 in the previous 26 games, picking up just 11 out of a possible 52 points. That’s a big reason the Canucks are stuck in the basement of the NHL with just 46 points and a league-worst minus-73 goal differential.<\/p>\n

Let’s go rather aggressively on the Predators straight up, but we’ll also go with the Under based on the Canucks’ offensive struggles lately.<\/p>\n

Predators ML (-160 at BetMGM, Fanatics and FanDuel Sportsbooks)Under 6.5 (-130 at DraftKings and Fanatics Sportsbooks)<\/p>\n

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Pittsburgh Penguins \"PIT\"\/ at Vegas Golden Knights \"VGK\"\/<\/p>\n

The Penguins (32-17-15) and Golden Knights (29-22-14) meet at T-Mobile Arena at 10:00 p.m. ET on ESPN+, and Vegas will have revenge on its mind.<\/p>\n

These teams just met on March 1 in Pittsburgh, with the Penguins embarrassing the Golden Knights 5-0 behind 22 saves from Arturs Silovs<\/a> in a shutout. The Under (6.5) cashed in that one, and it is now 5-0 in the past five meetings in this series.<\/p>\n

Silovs (14-8-8, 2.84 GAA, .897 SV%, 2 SO) will go for the visiting Penguins, with Adin Hill<\/a> (6-6-3, 3.31 GAA, .859 SV%) confirmed for the home side.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh makes its second stop on a five-game road trip which, with a scheduling quirk, starts and ends in Raleigh against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Penguins lost 5-4 in a shootout Tuesday night to kick off the run. The Over has cashed in three consecutive matchups, but the Under is 5-3 in the Penguins’ past eight games.<\/p>\n

Vegas has had trouble lighting the lamp lately, going for just five total goals in the past three games (1.67 GPG), while the Under is 2-0-1 in that span, and the Golden Knights have managed 13 goals in the past seven outings. The Under is 5-1-1 in that span, including the shutout in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

With the Golden Knights going 1-6-0 in the past seven games, the Penguins are worth a look as a moderate underdog, while going low on the total based on the the Golden Knights’ struggles on offense lately.<\/p>\n

Penguins ML (+130 at DraftKings and Hard Rock Sportsbooks)Under 6.5 (-120 at BetMGM)<\/p>\n

Don’t make any bets on your favorite sports betting apps<\/a> without first consulting the latest NHL odds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Parlay Strategy and Super Parlay Picks for NHL Betting Slates4-Leg NHL Super Parlay (+970 at DraftKings Sportsbook)Penguins ML (+130) at Golden KnightsUnder 6.5 (-122) – Penguins at Golden KnightsUnder 6.5 (-130) – Predators at CanucksPredators ML (-162) at Canucks2-Leg NHL Sides Parlay (+271 at DraftKings Sportsbook)Penguins ML (+130) at Golden KnightsPredators ML (-162) at Canucks2-Leg NHL Totals Parlay (+221 at Caesars Sportsbook)Under 6.5 (-122) – Penguins at Golden KnightsUnder 6.5 (-130) – Predators at Canucks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHL Best Bets & Picks: Predators vs Canucks & Penguins vs Golden Knights \u2013 Expert Game Previews The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5128],"tags":[894,5,55615,4,893,27,5313],"class_list":{"0":"post-500127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vancouver-canucks","8":"tag-canucks","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-minor-league-stats","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-vancouver","13":"tag-vancouver-canucks","14":"tag-vancouvercanucks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116218196375239667","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}