Tonight is the final day of the regular season before the 2023 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs begin on Monday, April 17. There are just two games on the board, so obviously opportunities are limited. However, there's still one matchup in particular that is primed for the player prop market. The Buffalo Sabres and Columbus Blue Jackets don't have anything to play for, but they've been 2 of the worst goaltending teams this season. Therefore, we should be in for an exciting matchup, espec ially for one specific skater.
Along with our NHL player prop, be sure to check out all of our NHL picks for today's action.
Alex Tuch over 0.5 goals (+125)
When it comes to NHL player props when it gets to the end of the season, it's important to check which skaters are nearing milestones. Those could be 40-goal seasons, 100-point seasons or other similar coveted values. Buffalo's Tage Thompson was our original play as he pursues a 50-goal season and had a crazy 5-goal game against Columbus earlier this season. However, head Don Granato has already announced he'll be holding out Thompson from the season finale as he's been nursing an upper body injury. Despite that, we still want to take advantage of the Jackets' weak goaltending.
Therefore, we're going to focus on Thompson's linemate, Alex Tuch. It was between him and Jeff Skinner, but we're looking for Skinner to feed him the assist. In fact, Skinner has had at least 1 assist in 5 of his last 6 games against Columbus, so consider that as a play as well. With Thompson off the ice, Tuch will have even more shots available to him. He just had 5 last night, and that was with Thompson in the lineup. Tuch also has the 2nd-most goals on the team with 35, and has scored in 2 of his last 3 games against Columbus. He may not reach the 40-goal mark, but we've seen Thompson score 5 against the Jackets, so it may not be as out of the question as you think.