NHL March 1, 2026

Utah is the heaviest favorite on Sunday's board at -298, and that number makes perfect sense when you look at where these two teams are right now. The Mammoth at 31-24-4 with 66 points have been one of the genuinely enjoyable stories of the 2025-26 season, holding down a playoff spot in the Central Division while building something real in their first season in Salt Lake City. Delta Center has been rocking all year, and Utah's 18-9-2 home record tells you that visiting teams have struggled to handle the atmosphere this fan base has created. The energy in that building is legitimate, and on a Sunday afternoon against a rebuilding opponent, the Mammoth should be in full control from the opening faceoff.

Chicago at 22-28-9 with 53 points is exactly where everyone expected them to be, firmly in the basement of the Western Conference with a 10-13-4 road record that tells you traveling has been a miserable experience. Connor Bedard continues to be the bright spot in an otherwise bleak season, giving Chicago fans something to dream about for the future even as the present remains painful. But here's the thing about rebuilding teams in the NHL: they can absolutely steal games from better opponents when the stars align. The Blackhawks already proved they can compete in this building when they beat Utah 3-1 back on October 13 in their first meeting. That said, the Mammoth are a fundamentally different team now than they were in October, and the gap between these rosters has only widened as the season has progressed.

Clayton Keller has been the offensive engine for Utah all season, and Barrett Hayton's contributions have given this team a depth that opponents can't just game-plan around. The Mammoth are fighting for every point in a tight Central Division race where falling even a game or two back could mean the difference between a playoff berth and a long summer. Chicago, on the other hand, is playing for pride and development, which means their intensity level on a random Sunday afternoon in March is a legitimate question mark. The 6.5 total is interesting given that these teams combine for 5.8 goals per game, suggesting the market expects a slightly higher-scoring affair than the averages would indicate. Utah's defensive structure at home has been solid, but the Blackhawks' lack of offensive punch on the road makes this feel more like a 4-1 or 3-1 type of game than a shootout. The -1.5 puck line at -115 for Utah is the value play here, because when the Mammoth are locked in at Delta Center against a weaker opponent, they tend to win by multiple goals.

Strip away the records for a second and focus on the two individual stories that make this game must-watch hockey on a Sunday afternoon. Connor Hellebuyck, the man who backstopped Team USA to an Olympic gold medal with a performance for the ages in Milano Cortina, returns to regular-season duty for a Winnipeg team at 23-26-9 that has given him precious little to work with all season long. On the other side of the ice is Macklin Celebrini, San Jose's rookie sensation who has put together one of the most remarkable first-year campaigns in recent memory. This isn't just Jets versus Sharks on the scoreboard. This is two of the most compelling individual narratives in the sport colliding on the same sheet of ice.

Winnipeg's problems run deep, and they go well beyond what any single goaltender can fix. The Jets are sitting at 55 points, essentially playing out the string in the Western Conference, and the frustrating part for the fan base is that the high-end talent is there. Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor are both having outstanding individual seasons, putting up numbers that belong on a contender rather than a team languishing below the playoff line. But the supporting cast hasn't held up, the defensive structure has been leaky all year, and Hellebuyck's regular-season numbers of 2.79 GAA and .900 save percentage stand in stark contrast to his Olympic heroics. The question coming out of the break is whether Hellebuyck can channel that gold-medal energy into a regular-season game that objectively means very little for Winnipeg's playoff picture, or whether the reality of this Jets roster drags him back to earth quickly.

San Jose at 18-34-7 is in a full rebuild, but nobody told Celebrini that. This kid has been electric all season, playing with the kind of effortless skating, vision, and finishing ability that scouts projected when he went first overall. William Eklund has developed nicely alongside him, and while the Sharks' depth is thin, their top-end talent gives them a puncher's chance in any game. The +105 moneyline as a home underdog against a demoralized Winnipeg squad feels almost disrespectful given what Celebrini and this group have shown they're capable of on their best nights.

The 6.5 total tells you the market expects goals, and that tracks with what both of these teams have produced recently. Winnipeg's defensive issues create opportunities for Celebrini and the Sharks' attack, while San Jose's own defensive inconsistencies mean Scheifele and Connor should find room to operate in transition. The individual goaltending battle between Hellebuyck and whoever the Sharks throw out there is the most fascinating subplot of the afternoon. Hellebuyck was the best goalie at the Olympics by a country mile, and now he has to shift back into the grind of a regular season that's been nothing but frustration for his team. That mental shift is harder than people realize, and it could be the swing factor in a game that has all the ingredients for an entertaining, wide-open affair.

This is about as lopsided a Central Division matchup as you'll find anywhere in the NHL this weekend, and the numbers don't require much spin. Minnesota at 35-15-10 with 80 points owns the best record in the league, and they've built this season on elite two-way play, exceptional goaltending depth, and the brilliance of Kirill Kaprizov. St. Louis at 21-29-9 with 51 points is a team that's completely fallen apart, particularly on the road where their record is one of the worst in the entire league. The Blues walk into Xcel Energy Center as +200 underdogs, and given how dreadful they've been away from Enterprise Center, you could argue that price is still generous.

Everything about the Wild's operation this season has been impressive, starting with Kaprizov, who continues to make a case as one of the three or four best players in the entire sport. He's been on a 40-goal pace all season, and the combination of skill, creativity, and relentless competitiveness he brings to every shift has turned Minnesota into a team that nobody in the Western Conference wants to face in a seven-game series. Matt Boldy has been equally sensational alongside him, giving the Wild a devastating one-two punch that can beat you in a dozen different ways. Joel Eriksson Ek anchors the middle of the ice while providing responsible two-way center play, and the goaltending tandem of Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt has been a luxury that most NHL teams would kill for. Minnesota's home record has been dominant, with Xcel Energy Center establishing itself as one of the toughest buildings to play in across the Western Conference.

St. Louis' road struggles paint a picture of a team that simply checks out when they leave home. Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou have shown flashes of their talent, but the overall structure around them has crumbled, and the Blues simply don't have the roster depth or defensive identity to compete with a team of Minnesota's caliber. The loss of Jonas Brodin to a lower-body injury does weaken the Wild's blue line, but this organization has shown the depth to absorb significant personnel losses without missing a beat. Minnesota's penalty kill has been elite all season, and against a Blues power play that hasn't exactly been lighting up the scoreboard, that special teams advantage becomes a strangling factor.

The 5.5 total reflects Minnesota's disciplined defensive approach and the expectation that this game won't become a track meet. The Wild control pace, limit transition opportunities, and make opponents earn every inch of ice. St. Louis just doesn't have the offensive firepower to force the Wild out of their structure, and when Minnesota is locked in at home against a weaker opponent, the result tends to be a methodical, professional two or three-goal victory. The -1.5 puck line at -122 for the Wild is one of the more appealing numbers on Sunday's board, because this talent gap is real and the Blues haven't shown any indication that they can hang with the top teams in the conference on the road.

The defending back-to-back Stanley Cup champions are still listed as favorites in most matchups, but the reality of Florida's season tells a far more complicated story than the nameplate suggests. The Panthers at 30-26-3 with 63 points are fighting for their postseason lives, and the shadow that looms over everything is Aleksander Barkov's season-ending ACL and MCL injury. Barkov was the engine that drove Florida's two championship runs, the two-way force who shut down opposing top lines while producing at an elite offensive rate. Without him, the Panthers have been a fundamentally different team, one that still has enough talent to win on any given night but lacks the consistency and defensive identity that championships are built on.

Sam Reinhart and Matthew Tkachuk have carried the offensive load admirably, but even their combined brilliance hasn't been enough to fill the void Barkov leaves. Sergei Bobrovsky, the goaltender who backstopped both titles, has struggled with a workload that's become significantly harder without his franchise center suppressing high-danger chances in front of him. Florida's playoff probability has cratered, and every game from here until the end of the regular season is essentially a must-win for a team that has no margin for error. The Panthers won the first meeting 4-1 back on December 7, but that feels like a different era for this team given the injuries and inconsistency that have followed.

The Islanders at 34-21-5 with 73 points are quietly putting together one of the better seasons in the Eastern Conference, and UBS Arena has become a genuinely difficult place to play. New York plays a structured, physical, defensive-minded game that strangles opponents' transition attacks and forces you to earn every inch of ice. Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat anchor an offense that's efficient if not spectacular, and the Islanders' defensive commitment is tailor-made to frustrate a Florida team that relies on speed and skill to generate its chances. The +114 moneyline as a home underdog against a struggling champion is a line that reveals how much residual respect the market still has for Florida's pedigree.

The 5.5 total is the lowest on the board alongside the Blues-Wild game, and that number makes perfect sense given both teams' defensive tendencies. New York wants this game played in the low-scoring mud, where their structure and discipline give them the best chance to win. Florida needs to generate enough offense to stay ahead of a team that won't give them many transition opportunities, and doing that without Barkov directing traffic is a challenge that's proven too difficult on too many nights this season. This is a game where we find out whether the Panthers still have championship DNA or whether the cumulative weight of injuries and frustration has finally caught up with them. On a Sunday evening in Long Island, with a loud crowd behind them and a desperate opponent in front of them, the Islanders look like a dangerous matchup for a Florida team that's running out of answers.

The nightcap on Sunday's slate features one of the most exciting young rosters in hockey hosting a Calgary squad that's been maddeningly inconsistent all season. Anaheim at 32-23-3 with 67 points has been one of the genuinely great stories of the 2025-26 campaign, a team that was supposed to be grinding through a rebuild but instead has a young core that decided the future starts now. This isn't the patient, defensive-first Anaheim of the old Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf era. This is a Ducks team that pushes the pace, creates chaos, and lets its skill players feast in open ice. And the results have spoken for themselves.

What a collection of young talent it is. Leo Carlsson has been a revelation, Troy Terry provides the veteran steadiness this group needs, and Beckett Sennecke has already shown flashes of the kind of game-breaking ability that turns prospects into stars. Remember, Sennecke completed the first hat trick of his NHL career against these very same Flames back on January 25, capping it with an overtime winner that sent Honda Center into a frenzy. That kind of confidence-boosting performance has a lasting effect on a young player, and Sennecke has been playing with swagger ever since. Cutter Gauthier rounds out an offensive core that has the depth and the talent to match up against anyone in the Western Conference when they're clicking.

Calgary at 24-28-6 with 54 points has the talent to be better than its record suggests, but the Flames have been plagued by the kind of inconsistency that drives coaches and fans crazy. Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau can be dangerous on any given night, and when Calgary is locked in defensively, they can make life difficult for more talented opponents. The problem is that the Flames rarely put together complete 60-minute performances on the road, and against Anaheim's speed and transition game, any lapses in defensive structure get punished immediately. Calgary needs to play a disciplined, low-event game and keep this contest tight heading into the third period, but the Ducks simply don't allow opponents to play that way at Honda Center.

The 6.5 total is the joint-highest on Sunday's board, and that number tells you the market expects an entertaining, up-and-down affair with plenty of goals. Anaheim's aggressive style creates scoring chances at both ends of the ice, and the Ducks have shown all season that they're perfectly comfortable in high-scoring affairs where the quality of their offensive talent is the deciding factor. The -173 moneyline makes Anaheim a solid favorite at home, and with every game in March carrying playoff implications, the Ducks should be playing with urgency and purpose that Calgary, sitting further down the standings with fading postseason hopes, might struggle to match. This projects as a fun way to close out the Sunday slate, with Anaheim's electric young core providing the kind of highlight-reel hockey that keeps fans coming back for more.