Stephen Nover is having another strong NBA season going 23-8 on his last 31 NBA premium/free plays, including 8-1 on his last nine premium/free plays. Picking his spots carefully, Stephen goes inside the numbers to find a Thursday winner.
Member Notes
Today’s Free Picks
| Sport | Game Selection | Game Time |
|---|---|---|
| NHL | (41) Vancouver Canucks at (42) Minnesota Wild | 8:07pm EDT - Apr 2/2026 |
The PLAY: Over +6.5 (-115)
My first two looks whenever the Canucks are playing is to go against them and go Over the total. The price is way too large here to fade Vancouver, but the Over is in play.
Vancouver is last defensively giving up an average of 3.8 goals a game and also is the league's worst at killing power plays. The Canucks are giving up an average of five goals per game in their last seven games.
Minnesota has scored three goals in each of its last three games going against much better defenses than Vancouver.
This is a big game for Minnesota defenseman Quinn Hughes against his former team who he toiled for 7 1/2 seasons. Hughes should be in full attack mode.
The Canucks are likely to start third-stringer Nikita Tolopilo in goal. Vancouver is off an improbable, 8-6, upset road win against the Avalanche last night. That may have been the upset of the season as the Canucks were plus $3.60.
Minnesota has proven vulnerable defensively in its last three games surrendering 14 goals. The Canucks realize the only way they can win is to go all out offensively. It worked last night against Colorado, which has the No. 1 defense in the NHL.
Consultant Bio
Stephen Nover is unique among professional handicappers. A multiple award-winning sportswriter for numerous newspapers, including the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nover has one the best combinations of gambling and media sources in the world.
The author of two sports gambling books, "Las Vegas Sports Beat" and "Sports Gaming Beat", along with a book on fantasy football titled, "Winning Fantasy Football", Nover is a former professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas having taught a football handicapping class there. He also was the co-host of the Sunday night sports betting radio show "The Stardust Line" during the 1990's.
Parlaying nearly 50 years worth of professional gambling experience with tremendous knowledge of the players through elite deep-roster Rotisserie leagues and building on copious gaming and media sources - having worked for newspapers in the Midwest, South and West and also for legendary Hall of Fame oddsmaker Roxy Roxborough - Nover is a true Las Vegas wise guy. He helped learn his craft from such masters as Roxborough, Dave Malinsky, Lem Banker and Russ Culver.
Part of what makes Nover so special is the pride he takes in writing his deep-dive analysis, which always is unique, well-researched and sometimes entails out-of-the-box thinking.