KHL Odds and Picks (Oct. 16): Can SKA St. Petersburg Upset CSKA Moscow?

• SKA St. Petersburg is listed as a +128 underdog against CSKA Moscow on Friday, Oct. 16
• Amur Khabarovsk and Sochi faceoff in a battle of two struggling clubs
• Find odds and best bets for the KHL’s six-game slate on October 16th in the article below

A six-game KHL slate on Friday, October 16th is highlighted by a major rivalry game between SKA St. Petersburg and CSKA Moscow. SKA is being listed as a +128 underdog despite performing well in this rivalry historically.

Elsewhere, Amur Khabarovsk and Sochi faceoff in a battle of two slumping squads.

Here are my two favorite bets for the six KHL games on tap for Friday, October 16th.

KHL Odds: Friday, October 16th

Odds as of  Oct. 15th at DraftKings.

SKA Will Deliver Upset Over CSKA

It’s a clash of two of the best teams in the KHL when SKA St. Petersburg  and CSKA Moscow faceoff for the first time this season. St. Petersburg owns a 10-4-2 record on the season, while Moscow owns a 12-3-1 record. CKSA will get home ice advantage for this clash, but this is one rivalry that historically has been tilted in favor of SKA.

SKA no longer has the talents of Nikita Gusev and Ilya Kovalchuk, which helped them capture the Gagarin Cup in 2016-17, but they do have KHL veteran Vladimir Tkachev. The highly skilled offensive forward is leading the team with six goals and 13 points through his first 14 games of the season. He’s just one of many reasons SKA comes into this game with the second-highest scoring offense in the league.

SKA has won two of the last four meetings in this rivalry and holds a 43-34 head-to-head edge overall. CKSA has some of their own offensive weapons in Maxim Mamin, Okulov Konstantin and Anton Slepyshev, but neither team has been getting overly great goaltending recently.

This could be a high-scoring affair that is won by the depth of SKA’s offense. They’ve been getting contributions from all over their lineup, including bottom-six production from Joonas Kemppainen and Canucks’ prospect Vasily Podkolzin. Look for them to overpower a struggling CKSA defense that has been burned for 11 goals in their last two games.

Pick: SKA St. Petersburg (+128)

Sochi’s Offense Leads Them Past Amur

While the SKA St. Petersburg vs CSKA Moscow game pits two of the best KHL teams against each other, the clash between Sochi and Amur Khabarovsk sees two of the worst teams faceoff. Sochi ranks last in the Bobrov division with a 4-9-1 record, while Amur ranks second-last in the Chernyshev division with a 4-11-2 record.

Sochi made a coaching change ahead of this game, hiring Evgeny Stavrovsky as its new head coach after parting ways with Alexander Andrievsky. They’ll be motivated to perform for their new coach after getting outscored 11-3 in consecutive losses. The coaching change should provide a spark, as they showed their potential by playing SKA well earlier in the month and beating a solid Dinamo MN squad.

Amur’s defense has been a disaster this season, with two of their biggest minute-munchers in Valeri Vasilyev and Maxim Ignatovich sporting ugly minus-15 ratings. Neither team is loaded on offense, but Sochi has the better offensive weapons to take advantage of a weak defense. Look for a big outing from Sergei Shmelyov, who has scored in three of his last five game and set a career-high with 14 tallies in 2019-20.

Pick: Sochi -1.5 (+125)