NHL Tuesday best bets: 2 plays for the restart

The NHL is back from its extended holiday break, which means our daily best bets are back as well.

Although we only have three games to comb through tonight, there's plenty of value on the board. Let's get into it.

The Golden Knights were playing their best hockey of the season heading into the break, winning eight of their final 10 games. At five-on-five, Vegas controlled a league-best 59% of the expected goals and outscored opponents 28-14.

The Knights consistently ran up the score while limiting what they gave up in the defensive zone.

It's no coincidence they're playing their best hockey now because they're finally getting healthy. Alex Pietrangelo and a couple of others are currently in COVID-19 protocol, but Vegas is closer to full strength than it's been since the season started.

William Karlsson, Mark Stone, and Max Pacioretty all returned to the lineup recently and are playing well. The latter two are listed as game-time decisions tonight, but even if only one of them plays, I'm very comfortable backing the Knights here.

They're firing on all cylinders and have proven to be more than capable of getting results while missing key players.

Not to mention, the mediocre Kings will be without a handful of regulars. Their forward depth is hurting with Dustin Brown and Phillip Danault in COVID-19 protocol, and Andreas Athanasiou banged up. Defensemen Olli Maatta, Sean Walker, and Alexander Edler are also out, so L.A. is shallow on the blue line as well.

Back the Golden Knights to pick up where they left off.

Bet: Golden Knights (-150)

The Sharks are rightfully heavy favorites, but it's the total that intrigues me here. I don't expect a lot of action in this game.

San Jose is a top-heavy side, with six or seven quality forwards creating the bulk of the team's offense. Unfortunately, the Sharks will be without two of those players - Tomas Hertl and Kevin Labanc - leaving them thin up front. They're expected to trot out Matt Nieto, Nick Bonino, and Noah Gregor on the second line. That doesn't exactly scream goal-fest, does it?

I don't see the Coyotes contributing much on the scoreboard either. They severely lack quality finishers and struggle mightily to generate chances with any regularity. Only the Kraken have averaged fewer expected goals per 60 over the last 10 games.

On the rare occasion that the Coyotes do get a good look at the net, they have to beat James Reimer, which has proven to be a surprisingly difficult task this season. Among all goaltenders to appear in 15 games or more, Reimer ranks sixth in Goals Saved Above Expected per start. He is sandwiched between Andrei Vasilevskiy and Sergei Bobrovsky; that's good company to keep.

Bet: Under 5.5 goals (-115)

Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ToddCordell.

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