Bryan Power Sports: Free Picks & A Handicapper Review

8* Denver (10:35 ET): With Kyrie Irving's status in limbo (questionable w/ shoulder injury), this is a good time to play against the already struggling Nets. They'll definitely be w/o Caris LeVert, who has a right thumb sprain. Tonight's game in Denver comes on the heels of Brooklyn blowing a double digit lead in Utah two nights ago, a game they ended up losing 119-114. This has simply not been a good team thus far and they're playing their 4th consecutive game out West in a seven-day span. Lay the points. 

Denver is also in off a loss, although theirs was less concerning to me. Now the numbers do indicate a poor defensive effort took place against Atlanta on Tuesday. The Hawks scored 125 points w/ 42 of them coming from Trae Young (his season-high) and shot 53% overall, including 15 of 34 (44.1%) from 3-pt range. It was the most points allowed by the Nuggets this season and it came in a game they initially led 12-0. With one of the stronger home court advantages in the league, I expect nothing short of a full bounce back effort by Michael Malone's club. 

Brooklyn has just one road win all year and it came at the start of this trip, in Portland. Since then, they've been blitzed by Phoenix (allowed 138 pts) and blew the DD lead in Utah. The Nets have been just terrible defensively as they allow 121.4 PPG, second most in the league. This does not seem like the spot where they will fix that issue. Then to make matters worse, the offense is set to suffer w/o LeVert and possibly Irving. Prior to the Atlanta game, the Nuggets had held four straight opponents under 100 points. They are 6th in the league in defensive efficiency while Brooklyn is 26th. 8* Denver 

8* Vancouver (10:05 ET): Dallas comes in on an 8-1-1 hot streak, but is also playing the second night of a back to back. They won 3-1 last night in Calgary, a game in which they never trailed and only allowed 25 shots on goal. But the task is tougher tonight in British Columbia and not just because of the schedule. The Canucks are off to a solid start this year and despite losing four of their last five games, they still own the West's 2nd best goal differential. I'm backing the home team in this one. 

After scoring just five goals total in four straight defeats, Vancouver busted loose for five goals in a win over Nashville Tuesday. That was a nice rebound following a loss to the lowly Devils on Sunday. The Canucks have played quite well at home this year, losing just one time in regulation and outscoring their visitors by an impressive 1.9 goals per game. No team in the league can match the Canucks' scoring average here at home, which is 4.25 goals per game. 

Before this 8-1-1 hot streak, Dallas had started the year 1-7-1. So it's been a total reversal of fortune for them. A true representation of where the team is at probably is somewhere "in the middle" of those two disparate streaks. They've got a goal differential of 0 on the year. This is already the 4th B2B for the Stars this year and it's also the third road game in five nights. The schedule should finally start catching up w/ them tonight as Vancouver looks to flash the form that had them off to a 9-3-2 start to the season. 8* Vancouver

9* Under Coyotes/Wild (8:05 ET): Arizona will look to make it a clean sweep on this three-game road trip w/ the final stop taking place tonight in Minnesota. Considering they've already won in Washington (league's best team?) and St. Louis (defending Stanley Cup Champs), beating a Wild club that is dead last in the Central seems like an easy task for the Coyotes. But I expect the 'Yotes to struggle to score a little bit this evening. That doesn't mean they won't win, but it does mean you should look for this game to stay Under. 

Minnesota is not having a good year as their 13 points are tied with Los Angeles for fewest in the Western Conference. They just lost to the Kings Tuesday night, 3-1, making it five losses in the past seven games. Perhaps the Wild can blame a lack of home games on this slow start to the season. Of their 18 games played so far, only five have been here at the XCel Center. That's a little odd. This 2-4-1 slide that they're currently on saw them play just once here on home ice. They lost 4-3 in overtime to the Blues. While you may notice the Wild are averaging 3.8 gpg here at home, keep in mind that's a small sample size. 

These teams just met on Saturday and it was a 4-3 win for Minnesota out in the desert. The game went to OT after the Wild battled back from an early 3-1 deficit. Shocking is that they were the team to snap Coyotes' goalie Darcy Kuemper's streak of 23 straight games w/o allowing more than three goals and they did so w/ only 24 shots. The last time Kuemper allowed 4 goals in a game was March 11th. Kuemper has since bounced back w/ a 33-save effort against the Blues Tuesday night, which gave the Coyotes the first ever B2B road sweep of the previous year's Stanley Cup Finalists in league history. Keumper has a .931 save percentage and the Under is 9-3 in his 12 starts. He'll be much better tonight than he was on Saturday. 9* Under Coyotes/Wild

9* Carolina (7:05 ET): Buffalo started the season like a house of fire, but has cooled off considerably, which was to be expected. After all, this is a franchise that hasn't finished a season w/ more than 89 points since 2010-11, which (not coincidentally) was also the last time they made the playoffs. They've lost five in a row entering tonight's home date w/ Carolina, a team that the Sabres are 0-6 against the previous two seasons. The losing streak continues in upstate NY. 

Carolina was dealing w/ its own four-game slide entering play on Monday. But they got to face a sorry Ottawa team for a second straight time and won 8-2, thereby avenging a loss to the Senators that took place just two days prior. Now it's back on the road. As they usually do, the Hurricanes are getting the puck on net. They average 34.1 shots per game, which is top five in the league. For awhile, they couldn't find the back of the net, but that all changed on Monday w/ their highest scoring game of the season. There was also a game earlier in the year where they finished w/ 7 goals. So this team definitely can score. 

Buffalo has not been able to score much recently. They've been outscored 18-8 during the five-game losing streak and the last four losses have all come in regulation. The last two took place over in Stockholm, Sweden against Tampa Bay. We've seen teams struggle after returning from Europe this year, even though they get ample time off. The Sabres last played Saturday when they lost a wild 5-3 game that saw 83 total shots on goal. So far this year, the team is 0-2 when taking the ice w/ three or more days rest. 9* Carolina 

10* Kent State (7:00 ET): Kent State has only been bowling twice in program history w/ the last time being 2012 (other was 1972!). In order to snap that drought, this year's Golden Flashes (3-6 SU) are going to need to win out. That may seem like a tall mountain to climb, but looking at the schedule, it's actually doable. Up first is this Thursday night home game w/ Buffalo. At 5-4, the Bulls need just one more win to gain bowl eligibility and they've got the home finale vs. lowly Bowling Green in their back pocket. I'm not entirely sure why the line has shot up so much for this matchup and will take the points! 

You'll probably hear that Buffalo has "momentum" coming into this game, but regular readers know my feeling that "momentum" is a dirty word. The Bulls have won three straight and are off B2B 43-point efforts, but they benefited from five Central Michigan turnovers in one of them and had a gigantic quarter against Eastern Michigan in their last game. The other win came again 0-10 Akron. This will somewhat shockingly be the 4th time in MAC play that the Bulls are road favorites. But the Akron game was the only time laying more than 1.5. While they were able to get the job vs. Eastern Michigan 12 days ago, Buffalo lost outright at Miami. 

Kent State has only played three of its nine games here at home. They are averaging 34.7 PPG at Dix Stadium, which is well above their season average on the road (just 20.0 PPG!) The offense is led by dual threat QB Dustin Crum. Not only does Crum's 67.9 completion percentage rank among the top 15 in the country, he also leads the team in rushing. Leading receiver Isaiah McKoy missed the Toledo game, but is expected back here. While the Golden Flashes have lost three in a row, every loss was by 7 pts or less and those were to three of the top teams in the conference. With their bowl eligibility hanging in the balance, the Flashes won't go down quietly. 10* Kent State

10* Pittsburgh (8:20 ET): The Browns' 19-16 win over the Bills last week, ugly as it was, has some convinced that this team has a viable path to the playoffs. Such a line of thinking goes back to just how overrated this team was at the start of the season. Take it from someone who cashed a winning ticket on the Browns (-2.5) last week. This team is NOT going to the playoffs. Not unless something serious changes as this team makes far too many mistakes, bogs down in the red zone at an incredible rate and is just plain poorly coached. I'm taking the points in the Thursday night AFC North matchup.

Now Pittsburgh is a team that I believe has a viable track to getting a Wild Card in the depth-shy AFC. Left for dead because of the Ben Roethlisberger injury, the Steelers have all of a sudden won four straight. Before the season, this was my pick to win the division. That's likely out the window now, but at 5-4, making the playoffs is not. Other than New England, no team has been able to beat the Steelers by more than four points this year. Their four losses are to the Patriots, Seahawks, 49ers and Ravens. Those teams are a combined 31-6 SU right now! With Big Ben out, the "Steel Curtain" is back as the defense has given up just 67 pts during the 4-game win streak. 

The Browns have topped 23 points in just two games all year. Baker Mayfield has regressed badly and actually sports a negative TD-INT ratio. Let's not forget how Pittsburgh has dominated this AFC North rivalry like maybe no other division rivalry in the sport. Since Cleveland returned to the league in 1999, they have gone just 6-34-1 SU against the Black & Gold. During that time, the Browns have been favored only THREE times and lost two of them outright. I'm not going to say Steelers QB Mason Rudolph has been great, but the defense certainly has been. Last week against the Rams, they didn't allow an offensive TD. The better team is getting points here and has a sizable coaching edge here to boot. Under Mike Tomlin, the Steelers have excelled as underdogs, including a 9-2 ATS record the L3 seasons. 10* Pittsburgh