In today’s SportSense Entertainment Newsletter…

There were plenty of model predictions to go around yesterday across the NHL, with our model focusing in on one of those predictions in our Featured Matchup. That prediction went 1-0 overall, and you can see how the rest of the model performed below.

Money Line Predictions: 7-3

Over/Under Predictions: 6-4

Puck Line Predictions: 7-3

Featured Matchup: 1-0

Eight NHL games are scheduled to take place today. Our model’s predictions for all eight matchups can be found below.

Vancouver Canucks @ Colorado Avalanche

Model Predicts- Avalanche ML, OVER 6.5, Canucks +1.5

The Vancouver Canucks will continue their three-game road trip on Tuesday night, with the next stop coming in Denver, Colorado to take on the Avalanche.

The Canucks enter tonight’s battle in the midst of a two-game losing streak, which includes a 10-7 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Monday. Meanwhile, the Avalanche have won two of their last three games following a 4-3 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday.

Vancouver’s third period collapse yesterday was historic, and our model doesn’t expect the Canucks to turn things around tonight. Let’s take a look at why that is.

Vancouver Canucks

• Enter tonight on two-game losing streak

  • Losses to Jets and Wild

  • Outscored 14-9 in that two-game stretch

• Third period collapse led to loss yesterday

  • Beating Wild 5-2 at end of second period. Outscored 7-2 in third period

  • Scored five goals in 5-on-5 situations, but xGF in those same situations was much lower at 1.79

• Expected goalie- Thatcher Demko

  • .926 Save % in 5-on-5 situations. Ranks 2nd in Goals Saved Above Expected (GSAx) with +22.1

Colorado Avalanche

• Have won two of last three games

  • Win over Capitals and Coyotes. Loss to Lightning

• Still have played poor hockey in February

  • 2-4-1 record through seven games

  • Own 3.12 GA/60 in 5-on-5 in that span- bottom 10 in NHL

• Expected goalie- Alexandar Georgiev

  • .908 Save % in 5-on-5. Ranks 24th in GSAx (+4.7)

What’s the Play?

Vancouver’s collapse on Monday is likely a one-off event, but the short turnaround makes it even harder to bounce back from. As a result, we’ll back the Avalanche on the money line.

Colorado has played poor hockey as of late, but several underlying metrics point to a turnaround coming. For example, the Avalanche own a poor 2.02 GF/60 in 5-on-5 situations in February, but their xGF/60 is much higher at 2.59, showing more goals are on the horizon. The same trend exists defensively, meaning that Colorado’s opponents have had some lucky breaks this month when it comes to scoring the puck.

Meanwhile, Vancouver is still due to see offensive regression, ranking 1st in GF/60 in 5-on-5 (3.19) but 18th in xGF/60 (2.57) in the same situations, per Natural Stat Trick. That combined with the back-to-back make the Avalanche a solid bet at -150.

The Play: Avalanche ML (-150)

Money Line Trends 💰

• New York Rangers- 36-16-3 overall this season, 19-7-0 as the home team

• Colorado Avalanche- 34-18-4 overall this season, 21-5-0 as the home team

Over/Under Trends ⬆️⬇️

• Florida Panthers- Under is 33-20-2 this season with average total of 5.82

• Dallas Stars- Over is 35-20-1 this season with average total of 6.82

Puck Line Trends ➕➖

• Vancouver Canucks- Puck line is 36-21 this season

• Minnesota Wild- Puck line is 29-26 this season

🏆 Canucks, Wild set multiple records in high-scoring game. The Wild and Canucks played an incredibly high-scoring game, with Minnesota winning 10-7. The Wild set several records, including scoring 10 goals in a game, with seven of them coming in the third period alone, which is a franchise best for a single frame. Wild forwards Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek both had six-point games, becoming the first teammates to achieve this since 1993.

💪 Matthews scores 49th goal of season in win over Blues. Auston Matthews scored his 49th goal of the season and assisted on another as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the St. Louis Blues 4-2. Matthews, who has been on a scoring spree, netted the go-ahead goal on a power play early in the third period. The win marked Toronto's fourth consecutive victory, while the Blues have lost three of their last four games.

Today’s trivia requires you to dig into multiple pockets of your brain, testing your knowledge of recent events as well as those that happened decades ago.

See how many of the below questions you can get correct. Answers are provided at the end of the newsletter.

Question #1- Who is the only undrafted quarterback to win the Super Bowl?

Question #2- Mookie Betts played for what MLB team from 2014-19 prior to his current stint with the Los Angeles Dodgers?

Question #3- Kyler Murray played for what university prior to transferring to the University of Oklahoma?

Anyone know what has happened on February 20th throughout history? We didn’t have a clue either, but it appears that it has been a busy day.

On February 20th…

1997- Barry Bonds signs a record two-year, $22.9 million contract with the San Francisco Giants. The contract came following a season in which Bonds hit .308 with 42 home runs and 129 RBIs. He would go on to hit .297 with 77 home runs and 223 RBIs over the following two seasons.

1999- The Toronto Maple Leafs play their first home game at the Air Canada Centre. The first match in front of the home crowd was a great one, with the Maple Leafs emerging victorious in overtime against the Montreal Canadiens. Toronto won the game 3-2, with Steve Thomas scoring the winning goal.

2022- The NBA All-Star Game is played in Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Team LeBron defeated Team Durant in the match, winning by a score of 163-160. Stephen Curry, who scored 50 points and set an All-Star game record by making 16 three-pointers, was named MVP.

1. Kurt Warner

2. Boston Red Sox

3. Texas A&M