NHL Best Bets Tonight: Picks, Predictions for Wednesday, April 3

The NHL odds board tonight has betting options for five games, including a TNT doubleheader, and hockey expert Nick Martin has made predictions for two matchups on the slate, including picks for Lightning vs. Maple Leafs and Oilers vs. Stars.

Let's dive into his top two NHL best bets tonight.

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NHL Best Bets Tonight

The team logos in the table below represent each of the matchups that our NHL betting staff is targeting from today's slate of games. Click on the team logos for any of the matchups below to navigate to a specific bet discussed in this article.

By Nicholas Martin

These two rivals have played a ton of hockey against each other in recent seasons. Neither team has proven to hold a very discernible edge, especially after they split their back-to-back playoff matchups with those series going six and seven games.

Including playoff games, Tampa Bay is 9-10-3 against the Leafs since the start of the 2021-22 season while the Leafs are 13-8-1. Home ice has not been an advantage in this rivalry: Road teams are 11-8-3 in those games.

The Leafs have been the sharper side for the majority of this season and have been in strong form of late. Their power play has been in rough form with Mitch Marner on the sidelines, though. And for the time, it looks like the Lightning have a considerable edge in special-teams play.

Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll still concern me in Toronto's goal relative to what Tampa has with Andrei Vasilevskiy too.

The Lightning have come on very strong since the trade deadline with an 8-1-1 record, and in that period, their even-strength play has been considerably improved. They've played to a 51.79% expected goal share in 10 games since the deadline.

With Mitch Marner on the sidelines, these rivals are currently closer than these current betting prices suggest. This looks like a good time to bet on the red-hot Lightning in a rivalry in which home ice has not been an advantage. It seems the shorthanded Leafs are getting more than enough credit for a surprisingly excellent run of results. Anything better than +105 is a play for me on the Lightning to win this game.

Pick: Lightning (+110)

By Nicholas Martin

Two Western Conference powerhouses will square off in this nationally broadcast matchup. These two sides rank third and fourth, respectively, in goals for per game this season, and I do view this as a good time to keep it square with a bet on the over.

The Stars have the deepest offensive core in the league, which is the greatest reason that they are one of the betting favorites to win it all. They should have their complete roster available for this matchup, which means the Oilers should have to deal with this handful up front.

In March the Stars led the league by a considerable margin with 4.03 expected goals for per 60. Their defensive play was also excellent, but it was masked to an extent by an .894 save percentage.

We should be confident the Stars can generate against an Oilers team whose greatest strengths still revolve around offensive upside. Whether or not it results in a win will likely come down to Jake Oettinger's play in goal. Oettinger has been better recently, but he's struggled to a -2.6 GSAx and .900 save % this season.

Many teams facing the Oilers will look to make games into a low-event slog, but that won't be the Stars M.O. here. I get that both of these teams have played well defensively lately, but there's more logic suggesting it will be their offensive strengths that shine through tonight.

Pick: Over 6.5 (-105)