Scott Rickenbach

NHL Monday Free Pick UNDER 5.5 in Dallas Stars vs Vegas Golden Knights @ 8:05 ET - Tough hard-fought battle here and a lot of value with the under in this one. The under trend in this series as well as how each team was trending into this series should help us with the under in this one. Looking for a tight game throughout without a multi-goal lead and just hard to see this one getting past 3-2 at the most with a 2-1 being the most likely outcome the way I see it. Free Pick UNDER 5.5 in Dallas

MLB Monday OVER 8.5 in Oakland Athletics vs Atlanta Braves @ 8:05 ET - The Athletics are starting Paul Blackburn and the Braves are starting Mike Soroka. Neither one of these guys have pitched in quite some time. No matter the starters here I do like the over as the Athletics continue to give up a lot of runs and are allowing 7 per game on the season. The Braves are coming of an 11-4 slugfest win over the Phillies last night. So the set up is a good one as Atlanta will pile up runs but their pitching is a question mark here. Soroka struggled some in his AAA rehab starts and this is his first start at the MLB level since the 2020 season due to multiple injury issues. Blackburn will be making his 2023 season debut as he has dealt with injuries and he did have some shaky rehab starts in the minors and now faces a dangerous Braves lineup.  Atlanta is off that 11-4 home win and also their last 4 road games have all totaled 11 or more runs. The Braves averaged 7 runs scored per game in those 4 away games. Oakland has lost 19 of 21 games and continues to give up piles of runs. OVER 8.5 in Oakland

NHL Monday Dallas Stars Money Line -120 vs Vegas Golden Knights @ 8:05 ET - As I wrote in my write-up for Saturday's Game 5, the whole world was lining up on Vegas to close the series out at home. The line had moved the direction of the Golden Knights but that gave us exceptional value on the Stars as a sizable underdog in that one. Note that Vegas has only two wins by more than a 1-goal margin in their last 8 games. The point is that one can give Vegas credit for gutting out tight wins (including a couple in OT) but, as I stated here before Game 5, I feel we could see a major shift in momentum in this series after the Stars finally got a tight home win in Game 4 after losing the first 3 games of the series. That was an OT win and the key was Dallas finally seemed to figure out how to get inside a bit more on the Golden Knights and create more higher-percentage scoring opportunities. We took that knowledge of how the game played out and expected that the Stars would continue to build off the things they did well in Game 4 and, sure enough, Dallas did just that in Game 5. The Stars were rock solid in that 4-2 win and now can really continue the roll with captain Jamie Benn coming back for Game 6 plus this game being back on home ice. The way I see it, the momentum and the key situational value here all lies with the home team. DALLAS -120

NBA Monday Miami Heat Money Line +250 @ Boston Celtics @ 8:30 ET - For those of you that prefer taking the points of course you can do that instead if you wish (currently some +7.5 is out there) but I am going with the +250 on the money line here. First off, Boston is trying to do something that has never been done in terms of coming all the way back from down 3-0 in an NBA series to win 4 straight and take the series. Secondly, the Heat are so well-coached and have a huge experience edge with Spoelstra over Mazzulla as I have mentioned in my prior write-ups. Thirdly and, for me, a huge key here is a look inside that Game 6 boxscore in the thriller that Boston won by just a single point on a late tap-in. Note that the Big 3 of Boston - Brown, Smart, Tatum - totaled 78 points and shot a respectable 24 of 53 from the field. Conversely, the Big 3 of Miami - Butler, Adebayo, Vincent - totaled only 50 on disastrous 15 of 55 shooting from the field. Look at those numbers again. Look at the final score again. I am telling you straight up that I will actually be SHOCKED, given all of the above, if the Heat do NOT pull off what the public would perceive as a SHOCKER and win this game OUTRIGHT! Seriously, I am not exaggerating here. Given the number above the Heat should have lost by at least 20 points in that last game and they did not as they were 0.1 seconds from an outright win. That says a lot. I am confident in Spoelstra and in Butler and the fact they will bounce back here after the horrible shooting in Game 6. Grab the points if you want but my play is on the outright money line winner. MIAMI +250

English League One Playoff Final Monday Sheffield Wednesday Money Line +135 vs Barnsley at Wembley Stadium in London @ 10 AM ET - If you want to get to the Premier League you have to get to the Championship League first. The winner of this match takes that step and gets to the Championship League. I can't see this determined Sheffield Wednesday club falling short of that. They have the goal-scoring prowess and the way they got here gives them some of the strongest momentum you will ever see. Sheffield Wednesday lost the first leg of their two-match sequence with Peterborough United by a 4-0 count but then miraculous managed to take the 2nd match 5-1 and win the tie-breaker on penalty kicks. Sheffield Wednesday has won 5 of 6 matches. Conversely, though Barnsley snuck by the Bolton Wanderers to get there, they had gone winless in 4 straight matches before that and allowed an average of 2.5 goals in those 4 matches. SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY +135