NHL Hockey Best Bets For December 17, 2015
Busy night in the NHL with 12 games on the board. Here are our best bets:
ANAHEIM DUCKS AT BUFFALO SABRES:
Now let’s get this straight. The Anaheim Ducks are the only team in the NHL averaging fewer than two goals per game. They’re 3-8-1 on the road for a grand total of 7 points. They’ve got the worst record in the Western Conference and third worst in the entire league. They lost at home to Carolina last Friday and now they’re getting on a plane to fly 2500+ miles to Buffalo. This six day layoff might help a team that is riddled with injuries but Anaheim is relatively healthy. What is does instead is cause them to lose momentum, timing, continuity, etc. Buffalo lost to New Jersey at home on Tuesday night and they’re just waiting for the rink rusty Ducks to visit the First Niagara Center.
So here’s the sum total–a team that can’t score, can’t win on the road and that’s rusty and jet lagged faces a team with roughly the same statistical profile but a vastly different mentality. The Sabres are a team heading in the right direction with exciting young players like Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhardt. So why is *Anaheim* a -140 favorite here? Before losing to New Jersey, the Sabres had beaten Detroit and Los Angeles in back to back games. The Ducks are in the hunt for a playoff spot due to the parity in the Pacific Division–meaning that everyone except Los Angeles has been mediocre this year. The Orange County media views this as ‘controlling their destiny’. The reality–there are five teams within 4 points of each othe vying for two spots. Realistically, it’s hard to see how the Central Division doesn’t send five teams to the playoffs–their last place team has 30 points. The Pacific Division’s second place team has 30 points. The Ducks admittedly have a better shot than you’d expect for a team that lost 9 of their first ten games but with a good chance of only three teams making the playoffs from their division (and assuming that Los Angeles doesn’t falter) they have to deal with San Jose, Arizona, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. Calgary is finally playing up to their ability and has won six in a row. Edmonton has won 7 of 10 going 7-2-1 and will be getting some kid named ‘McDavid’ back after the first of the year.
Sports betting is a discipline of finding value. There’s no value betting on the Ducks here. There’s a lot of value betting on the Sabres in a ‘coin flip’ at plus money.
BET BUFFALO SABRES +130 OVER ANAHEIM DUCKS
EDMONTON OILERS AT CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS:
The Chicago Blackhawks have had trouble scoring goals this year. The porous defense of the Edmonton Oilers should help them here. On the other hand, the Oilers have a ridiculous array of talented snipers on offense–with Taylor Hall and Leon Drisaitl playing like madmen. This one should go over. Seven of the last eight head to head including 3 of 4 in Chicago have exceeded the total.
BET EDMONTON/CHICAGO OVER 5.5 -110