World Championship of Hockey - Thoughts on Thursdays games

[Hookos]

Canada - France 1.01 - 23.00 - 31.00

A game that is expected to be pretty one sided. Canada has been stuggling but still has managed to win 2 out of their 3 games. Canada won Slovakia 5-6 scoring the winner within last second. Before that, they beat Great Brittain 0-8 and lost to Finland 3-1. Detroit Red Wings star Anthony Mantha (3+4) leads Canada in points. France has lost all of their three games as they have faced Germany (4-1), USA (7-1) and Denmark (5-4 OT). Valentin Claireaux still leads France in points (1+2).

Canada has been able to score 5 goals on average in this tournament, while France has been giving away 5 goals on average. Probably one of the best picks in this game is Canada over 5,5 goals. Canada's top line Stone - Strome - Marchessault was in form previous game, so maybe try out Stone and Marchessault points aswell.

PICKS:
Canada over 5,5 goals 1.60
Jonathan Marchessault 2 points or more 1.75
Mark Stone 2 points or more 1.75

Sweden - Austria

Sweden comes in to this game after destroying both Norway (1-9) and Italy (0-8) in past two games. In their opener they lost to Czech Republic (5-2). Austria has lost all of their three games against Switzerland (4-0), Russia (5-0) and Latvia (5-2). Henrik Lundqvist has started two first matches for Sweden. Jacob Markström started against Norway. William Nylander (2+6) leads Sweden in points after having 5 points against Norway. Raphael Herburger leads Austria with his 2 points so far. Sweden gets to add Gabriel Landeskog to their line up for this game.

Scoring little over 6 goals on average Sweden should win this game easily against Austria, that has potential to survive relegation, but has not had to do anything for it. Austria is 6th in their group after 3 games with 0 points and yet they still leave Norway (7th) and Italy (8th) behind them by goal difference. Austria has better defense than Norway and Italy, but scoring over 5,5 goals should not be a problem for Sweden here. If you dare, you can pick Sweden to score over 6,5 which gives odds of 2.18 right now. Patric Hörnqvist has 5 goals and leads Sweden in goal scoring. He has also played on the top line with William Nylander. I can see Hörnqvist score again, and Nylander getting assist or two.

PICKS:
Sweden over 5,5 goals 1.58
Patric Hörnqvist will score 1.75
William Nylander 2 points or more 1.62

Finland - Denmark 1.28 - 6.25 - 8.00

Finland and Denmark have both won 2 games out of 3. Finland beat Slovakia (4-2) and Canada (3-1) while Denmark took the win over both Great Brittain (0-9) and France (5-4OT). Finland lost their latest game against USA after overtime 3-2. Denmarks only loss came against Germany (1-2).

I'm waiting for a low scoring game. In the past Denmark has been successfully teasing Finland by keeping them to 3 goals or less in past 5 meetings. Denmark has won two of those meetings aswell. All of those past 5 meetings have seen less than 5,5 goals in them. Kevin Lankinen will start for Team Finland. Kaapo Kakko (5+0) leads Finland in points with Sakari Manninen (0+5). Denmarks best point scorer is Lars Eller (2+3).

PICKS:
Under 5,5 goals 1.63
Goals in first period under 1,5 1.76
Denmark +2,5
Kaapo Kakko will score 1.95

Czech Republic - Latvia 1.28 - 6.25 - 8.00

Once again, two teams with two wins each face in this match. Czech Republic lost their latest game against Russia (3-0) but won both of their first games against Norway (2-7) and Sweden (5-2). Latvia has beaten Italy (0-3) and Austria (5-2) but lost to Switzerland (1-3). Latvia is still fighting for a place in quarterfinals, but there is still plenty of games left. Winner of this match could have a slight advantage. Latvias NHL star Rudolfs Balcers (1+5) leads Latvia in points. Czech's Filip Hronek and Dominik Kubalik both have 5 points (2+3). Latvia is not scoring many goals, but doesn't allow much goals either. Of course the teams they have faced other than Switzerland have not been the best. Czech Republic was left without a goal against Russia. They have also given away atleast 2 goals in each game.

PICKS:
Over 4,5 goals 1.52
Rudolfs Balcers 1 point or more 2.10
Dominik Kubalik 1 point or more 1.60

Other lower odd picks you could combine for doubling etc.

France under 1,5 goals 1.42
CAN-FRA 1st period under 2,5 goals 1.55
Austria will score 1.72
SWE-AUT 1st period under 2,5 goals 1.48
Scores atleast 2 points (Harri Pesonen, FIN) - No 1.57

Like always, it would be nice to hear your thoughts aswell