By: Joe Berra

 

There’s only a couple days left until we will be treated to some great football. Personally, I think NFL Divisional Weekend is the best weekend of the NFL football season. The games are usually very entertaining and the fact we have two on Saturday and two on Sunday is enough to keep any football fans whistle wet. It does give a better appreciation for how many commercials run during a football game though when you don’t have a bunch of games to flip through.

I’m going to look at today’s NHL games in relationship to the Grand Salami. For those of you bettors that don’t know what the Grand Salami is, it’s essentially a bet on the “OVER/UNDER” or “total” of goals in all games on a given day/night. America’s Bookie also has an option to bet on away or home team’s totals.

Let’s take tonight’s action. We have four games and the Grand Salami total is 21½. If you think the total number of goals scored in all the four games combined (all games must go official time) will be 21 or less, you take the UNDER. If you think the total number of goals scored in the four games will be 22 or higher, you take the OVER…it’s that simple.

If you look at the schedule one day, and you really like ALL the teams that are playing at home, you’d be wise to take the HOME GOALS total, and vice versa for the AWAY GOALS. Today at the best offshore sportsbook the AWAY GOALS are paying +125 with the HOME GOALS at -145.

Placing a bet on the Grand Salami is a great way to make every game on a given day more exciting. You can find the Grand Salami betting option for most sports, but it does take some careful consideration before you place your bet.

Tonight’s action includes the Columbus Blue Jackets at Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins at Philadelphia Flyers, Florida Panthers at Calgary Flames and Ottawa Senators at Anaheim Ducks. These games feature five teams that are currently in the bottom 8 of the league standings. The question is, is this good or bad for scoring goals? Are they near the bottom because they are allowing lots of goals or because they can’t find the twine?

The Blue Jackets are giving up the most goals at 3.25/game, while the Flames and Senators are giving up the 2nd and 5th most respectively. On the other end, the Panthers are giving up a league low 2.12 goals/game with Anaheim the only other team playing tonight in the bottom ten of goals allowed per game at 2.37. That leaves the other three, the Maple Laughs, Bruins and Flyers middle of the pack.

Now let’s turn to goals for. This group of eight on the schedule boasts only one team in the top ten in goals for, the Bruins scoring an average of 2.98 goals/game, while two teams are in the bottom 10 in scoring; Ducks (30) and Flyers (28). The remaining five teams are mid-range in goals for.

Just like all sports, anything can happen on a given day. We could see a 6-3 game in Philly or a 1-0 shoot-out win in Anaheim to throw everything out of whack. But tonight, my NHL Grand Salami money is going on the UNDER (21½).