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​It’s a New Year, filled with new opportunities.

For the hardcore football fan looking to turn their resolutions into actions, tonight would be a good time to get started.

For the first time in four months, there is no Thursday Night Football to watch.

There is no NFL FanDuel Best Bet to lock in.

While there is still plenty to be decided in the final week of the NFL regular season, we’ll have to wait a couple more days before Week 18 kicks off.

Fortunately for those of us that haven’t had much time to watch hockey in recent months, tonight’s NHL schedule is absolutely loaded.

With 13 games across the league, I’ve circled one trend to consider before puck drop.

This is the Morning Coffee for Thursday January 4th, 2024.

The NHL Betting Trend That Is Perfect This Season

The Ottawa Senators have played 13 road games this season.

A Goal In The First Ten Minutes cashed in all 13 games.

 

For anybody who is new to this space, FanDuel allows its members to bet on whether or not there will be a goal in the first 10 minutes of every NHL game, which is also referred to as the “GIFT”.

For perspective, the YES option has cashed in just under 60 per cent of all NHL games this season.

The YES option has cashed in 100 per cent of Ottawa’s road games.

The Senators opened a five-game road trip with a 6-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night.

Anybody who bet the GIFT didn’t have to wait long, as Ian Cole opened the scoring for Vancouver just 2:14 into the first period.

 

Next up, Ottawa will visit the Seattle Kraken tonight.

 

A Goal In First Ten Minutes is currently -154 at FanDuel.

Nobody expects the GIFT to go 41-for-41 in their road games this season.

However, the fact that this NHL betting trend is still perfect heading into the second of a five-game road trip for the Senators certainly seems worth a mention.

After all, with no Thursday Night Football match-ups to highlight, what else am I supposed to write about this morning?

Josh Allen Left Off The AFC Pro Bowl Roster

The Buffalo Bills could be found as high as +1400 to win the AFC East and +360 to make the playoffs at FanDuel this season.

Both of those bets could cash with a win over Miami in Week 18.

 

There’s also a scenario where the Dolphins beat the Bills in Week 18 and Buffalo misses the playoffs entirely.

Buffalo is currently a three-point favourite for the AFC East title game on Sunday Night Football.

 

While Josh Allen has a chance to lead his team to a division title with the most touchdowns in the entire NFL, he was not named to the AFC Pro Bowl roster.

 

Tua Tagovailoa, Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes are the quarterbacks for the AFC roster.

I’m not interested in debating the case for Allen to get the Pro Bowl nod over Tua, Lamar or Mahomes.

 

However, I do believe that this is more evidence that Allen gets overlooked as one of the elite QBs in the NFL.

Allen has more touchdowns, fourth-quarterback comebacks, game-winning drives and a better QBR than Mahomes.

He’s also 2-0 versus Mahomes and Tua this season.

If I had a vote, Allen would be my second choice to win NFL regular season MVP behind Jackson.

It’s just one more storyline to talk about ahead of Sunday night’s highly anticipated AFC East showdown in Miami.