NHL Tuesday best bets: Penguins to cool off streaking Ducks

We split our best bets to begin the week. The Panthers blew a 3-0 lead against the Blue Jackets and were unable to put them away in regulation. Thankfully, a low-event game played out in Dallas to cash the under.

Let's take a closer look at a couple of my favorite plays for Tuesday night's slate.

The Jets and Blues enter this contest with matching win totals, but I think there is a sizable gap between the two sides.

Although the Blues have won back-to-back games, those came against a mediocre Canadiens team resting Jake Allen - by far their best goaltender - and a Devils side playing without Jack Hughes (for all but three minutes of ice time) and Nico Hischier.

The Blues' putrid underlying numbers are showing no signs of improvement. They've controlled just 42.7% of the expected goals at five-on-five over the past five games, posting poor metrics in chance generation and prevention.

The Jets, meanwhile, controlled 58% of the expected goals share over the last five, headlined by their league-best numbers in terms of preventing expected goals.

Even without Gabriel Vilardi, the Jets remain a potent five-on-five offense. They should be able to generate plenty of chances against this Blues defense and keep limiting what they give up at the other end.

I see the Jets as a playoff-caliber team and the Blues as closer to the bottom grouping. That should shine through in this game.

Bet: Jets (-140)

Led by youngsters Mason McTavish, Trevor Zegras, Leo Carlsson, and Pavel Mintyukov, the Ducks are a very fun team to watch. They're still not a good team.

Their young core doesn't have a lot of support up front - the bottom six is terrible - and the Ducks' overall defensive play remains quite suspect. The 6-0 run they're on is a lot of smoke and mirrors. Of course, the Ducks deserve credit for scoring in bunches and finding ways to win games, but the way they're doing it isn't sustainable.

The Ducks have controlled only 40.85% of the expected goals share during this hot streak, which puts them very close to the bottom of the league. Getting outchanced consistently is not a recipe for success; nor is being forced to come from behind in the third period on a nightly basis.

Anaheim's level of play needs to rise several tiers for its success to continue and I don't see that happening against the Penguins.

Pittsburgh's start to the season has been a roller-coaster ride but there are a lot of encouraging signs beneath the hood. The Pens have generated chances at an absurd rate on the power play and, sooner or later, the puck will start to find the net in such situations.

They are also playing good hockey at five-on-five. They own a 57.84 xGF% over the past six games, which slots them just below teams like the Hurricanes and Avalanche.

The Penguins are poised to go on a bit of a run. Their 10-2 trouncing of the Sharks was a good place to start. I expect them to build on it versus the Ducks.

Bet: Penguins in regulation (-125)

Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @ToddCordell.

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