We have a battle of southpaws in Game 1 in Houston between Chris Sale and Framber Valdez. Valdez was actually hit hard in the playoffs for the first time in his career against the White Sox, but the White Sox are one of the best lefty hitting teams in the league. Chris Sale has actually been very bad in his career in the playoffs, including his only start this postseason where he allowed 5 ER in the first inning before being removed. The Astros were ranked 4th in the league in wOBA against lefties this season but the Red Sox weren’t too far behind at 8th. I am guessing the Red Sox will go with Tanner Houck or Nick Pivetta out of the bullpen to piggyback Sale if they are up, but I think the Astros will take an early lead and hopefully keep either of those guys from coming in the game.

When these same two teams met last season, Clemson was gaining 531 YPG and allowing 264 YPG, while Syracuse was averaging 264 yards of offense and giving up 486 yards per game. That was a net of +491 YPG in the Tigers favor. This year, it’s a net edge of +98 YPG in favor of the Orange. Clemson has also burned piles of money in 2021, going 0-5 ATS versus all opponents, while Syracuse checks in with a 4-1 ATS success. Things don’t look much better for Dabo and company as Clemson is 1-4 ATS as road chalk of 14 or less points, and 1-3 ATS off a SU win / ATS loss. By comparison, the ‘Cuse has cashed a ticket in three of the last four series meetings, and head coach Dino Babers stands 10-5 ATS as a dog the past two seasons.

This will be the Flyers season and home opener while the Canucks lost in a shootout in their first game. One of the Canucks best players in Brock Boeser should still be out of the lineup, and the Canucks seriously struggled on the road last season at 10-17-1. The Flyers started well last season but crashed to the finish and missed the playoffs. I expect a reenergized Flyers group tonight to feed off their home crowd. The Canucks are coming from Edmonton so that is quite the road trip to start the season. Take the Flyers at home.

I was going to pass on this one but then came word the Hawks were starting backup netminder Kevin Lankinen instead of Marc-Andre Fleury, who will start Saturday. That Chicago defense remains incredibly weak even with some offseason additions and Lankinen is a huge downgrade from the Flower. It's Jonathan Bernier for New Jersey, and he was quite respectable on a very bad Detroit team last year. The Devils, in their season opener, should be better this year with offseason additions Dougie Hamilton and Ryan Graves on the blueline. There's plenty of young forward talent there too. Chicago is 6-21 its past 27 games as a road underdog.