Late August is projection season for the NHL. Oddsmakers and chart guys crunch the numbers to guess, I mean, project how many points each team will finish with at the end of the 2018-19 season.
We got our first glimpse of what Vegas thinks about point total odds for each NHL team on Tuesday from the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook. Yesterday Bovada released their over/under odds. Both gave the Sabres the same over/under.
Here are the over/under odds for every NHL team via Westgate:
#NHL Over/Under 2018-19 Point Totals from Westgate Las Vegas Superbook: pic.twitter.com/N3h3ixWgVR
— Spinorama 🔄 Hockey (@spinohockey) August 22, 2018
Here are the odds via Bovada:
Over/Under NHL Point Totals from @BovadaOfficial: pic.twitter.com/QQFFoIICve
— Mark Stepneski (@StarsInsideEdge) August 24, 2018
The Sabres came in at 79.5 points, which honestly isn’t that bad of a number. They had the biggest projected jump of any team in the league (17.5 points) going from 62 points last to an over/under projection of 79.5 points next season.
Instinctually you want to jump on the over here for the Sabres. They added Jeff Skinner, Conor Sheary, Rasmus Dahlin, Patrik Berglund, Vladimir Sobotka and Carter Hutton this summer. There’s no reason we shouldn’t expect at least 80 points from the team as they’re currently constructed. Especially if you can keep Jack Eichel healthy all season and get a solid rookie season from Casey Mittelstadt.
On the flip side, you’d have to consider if you can trust the Sabres to make the jump. We’ve had this conversation about ‘thing’s being different’ a few times now over the last two to three years. They have an unproven coach. As well as relying on a few rookies to step in right away and make an impact.
So, what do you think? 79.5 points in the 2018-19 season, over or under?
Sabres 2018-19 season point total, over/under 79.5 points?
| Over | 795 |
| Under | 160 |