Best NHL Bets Today: Expert Picks for Saturday, February 1

Written by

Published on February 1, 2025

The National Hockey League (NHL) has a total of nine games on the schedule for Saturday, with two afternoon games. We'll focus on the evening window, with seven games with a puck drop of 7:00 p.m. ET or later, including the Winnipeg Jets and Washington Capitals available on NHL Network. Let's build a couple of nice parlay combinations to build that bankroll. Let's get started.

Boost your bankroll today with sportsbook promos such as this BetMGM bonus code featuring a first-bet bonus of up to $1,500 plus $50 in Rewards Points.

Best NHL Bets Today: Expert NHL Picks for
Saturday, Feb. 1

For the latest NHL Odds, including NHL Futures and NHL player props, visit RotoWire's NHL Betting page. For up-to-date NHL player news and NHL Injury Report info, head to RotoWire's NHL Lineups page. You can find more picks at Bookies.com/picks. Here are our NHL Best Bets today, featuring expert NHL picks for an action-packed slate of games.

Winnipeg Jets at Washington Capitals

The Jets (36-14-3) and Capitals (34-11-6) meet at Capital One Arena in the only nationally televised game on the evening slate. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET. The game is available on the NHL Network.

This is the first meeting this season between these two teams. In the 2023-24 season, these teams exchanged 3-0 home victories, cashing the under in both outings. However, Washington is 5-1 in the past six in the series. The Caps are 7-2 in the past nine since March 10th, 2019. Of course, this Jets team is playing much better hockey than any of those past seasons.

Winnipeg is looking to wrap up this road trip 3-for-3, after topping Montreal 4-1 Tuesday, while beating Boston 6-2 on Thursday. Connor Hellebuyck has earned the victory in each of those games and enters this one with a ridiculous 32-7-2 record, 2.00 GAA, .927 save percentage and six shutouts.

On the other side, Logan Thompson puts his 23-2-3 record, 2.05 GAA, .927 save percentage and two shutouts on the line for the Caps. He earned himself a six-year contract extension with the white-hot start.

The way these two goaltenders are playing, it's hard to pick a winning side, so we'll chicken out and avoid that. But the under is a slam-dunk play.

Under 5.5 Goals (-120 at Caesars Sportsbook)

Don't place any bets on your go-to sports betting apps without researching the latest NHL odds first.

Los Angeles Kings at Carolina Hurricanes

The Kings (26-17-6) are coming off a disappointing pair of 3-0 losses against the two Florida teams. Truth be told, both Darcy Kuemper and David Rittich deserved better, as they played well. L.A. will search for goals in Raleigh against the new-look Hurricanes (32-16-4).

Carolina is going for the gusto, acquiring Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall from the Chicago Blackhawks and Colorado Avalanche in a three-way trade last Friday. Rantanen picked up his first goal in a Carolina sweater on Thursday against the Chicago Blackhawks. He has two points in the past two games, with a +1 rating in each of his three games to date.

The Kings are 0-3-1 on the five-game road trip while going 2-7-1 in the past 10. L.A. has struggled with just 1.5 goals per game (GPG) in the 10-game span, hitting the under in four of the past five.

The Hurricanes are 6-0-1 in the past seven games while cashing the under in 7-2-1 in the past 10 outings. Carolina is a little expensive on the Moneyline, but combined with the under in a same-game parlay, it isn't as risky.

Hurricanes ML (-170 at FanDuel Sportsbook)
Under 5.5 Goals (-105 at FanDuel Sportsbook)

Today's Best NHL Bet(s)

On Friday, we cashed each of the best bets, going low on the total for the Blue Jackets-Utah Hockey Club and Blues-Avalanche games. In addition, that helped us cash our four-leg strong parlay and three-leg conservative parlay, cashing +1107 on those parlays, and +200 on the two best bets. Let's keep it going on Saturday.

For Saturday, we'll play the under in the Los Angeles-Carolina game. The Kings are due to get on track. It's hard to imagine that Los Angeles is going to get blanked in a third straight game. But, this is also an offense that has managed 1.5 goals per game across the past 10 outings, while the goaltenders of Kuemper and Rittich are doing more than enough to keep their team in the game. It's a good recipe for the under.