Wild vs. Hurricanes Odds
| Wild Odds | +158 |
| Hurricanes Odds | -192 |
| Over / Under | 6.5 -104o / -118u |
Here's everything you need to know about the Minnesota Wild vs. Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday, Jan. 21 – our expert NHL prediction and pick.
The Wild will look to finish off their tough southeastern road swing with a victory as heavy underdogs on Sunday.
They upset the Panthers as +170 underdogs Friday on the strength of a team-record five power-play goals. With that win they move to 3-6-1 in their last 10 and 8-12-2 on the road overall.
The Hurricanes enter amid an excellent run of play with a mark of 8-1-1 over their last 10 games.
It could be said that nobody in the Eastern Conference is playing better team hockey than Carolina at this moment – aside from the team's highly concerning goaltending situation.
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Minnesota Wild
Whether or not the Wild are able to turn around their play over a larger sample of work with a now-healthy lineup is an interesting question in the Western wild-card race.
Aside from the absence of Captain Jared Spurgeon, who will miss the rest of the year, the Wild have been back at full health for essentially three games now.
Those games have included a 5-0 win over the Islanders, a 7-3 defeat in Tampa, and a 6-4 win in Florida. They have played to a 50.23% expected goals rating and generated 34.64 shots for per game.
While I was wrong about this take ahead of the Tampa Bay game, it is still worth considering that the recent sample of games before the returns of Kaprizov and Brodin, among many others, does not hold much handicapping merit. If top goaltender Filip Gustavsson continues to struggle like he has since returning from injury though, it's not going to matter how the rest of the team performs.
Gustavsson has allowed 15 goals from only 80 shots since returning on Jan. 13 for a save percentage of only .812. He was one of the league's best goaltenders last year, but he has posted uneven form this season en route to a -2.3 GSAx.
With Marc-Andre Fleury considered day-to-day, Gustavsson is considered probable to start Sunday.
Carolina Hurricanes
Rod Brind'Amour's Hurricanes side has looked true to form for the vast majority of this season, and he enters this matchup at 25-14-5 as a result – despite the fact that the team owns the league's third-lowest save % at .882.
Seeing a team sitting this far up the standings despite such a low save % is essentially unheard of, and the rest of the team certainly deserves a lot of credit.
The Hurricanes are not a team that has defended poorly enough that a low save % is a natural result at all, either. They continue to do a great job limiting high-danger breakdowns, and at a minimum, having some pressure on shooters the majority of the time.
In the last 15 games, they have allowed only 2.44 xGA/60, which is the best mark in the league, and it runs in line with what we have seen throughout the last several seasons.
The Hurricanes goaltending picture remains quite unclear, though. Carolina claimed Spencer Martin off of waivers from Columbus. He is expected to receive some actual game time given the current situation as Frederik Andersen remains sidelined and Pyotr Kochetkov is out due to a concussion.
(Hockey bettors: North Carolina sports betting will soon be online. Keep up with the latest developments here!)
Wild vs. Hurricanes
Betting Pick & Prediction
Carolina remains one of the best defensive teams in the league, yet the Hurricanes' suspect goaltending always leaves an avenue to make any game competitive.
With Kaprizov back in the mix, the Wild's power play has come alive, and the team features two even-strength units with legitimate scoring upside on top of that.
The Wild's recent defensive play has not been overly good, though, and even with Jonas Brodin, they will likely be a middle-of-the-pack side in terms of quality chances allowed. Puck movement out of the back end has been a struggle at times, and the Hurricanes can easily expose that flaw.
Filip Gustavsson has also struggled mightily since returning from injury, and he is likely to face several quality chances Sunday.
Betting the Over 6.5 at -105 would not be a bad look; I do believe this game will close to that high total fairly often. However, there is one specific skater who I believe is priced too low to record a point, which coincides well with the belief that this game gets close to its high total fairly often.
Brock Faber continues to play huge minutes for the Wild, and he quarterbacks a power-play unit that is running effectively. He will continue to get a ton of touches every night this season, and therefore his strong puck movement provides an avenue for a lot of assists.
Ten games from now, we might see Faber priced at around +110 to record a single point given the way he should continue to produce. We'll take the +135 offered by ESPN BET and DraftKings (FanDuel is also offering -132 at the time of this writing). Play it down to +125.
Pick: Brock Faber Over 0.5 Points (+135 at ESPN BET) | Play to +125
