NHL Hockey Best Bets for January 10, 2016
Five games in nighttime NHL action. Here are our best bets:
OTTAWA SENATORS AT WASHINGTON CAPITALS:
The biggest storyline surrounding the Washington Capitals at the moment is Alex Ovechkin’s quest to become the first Russian born player to score 500 career goals. That, and the fact that the team doesn’t seem to lose any more. Since November 22, all the Capitals have done is gone 19-2-2 and turned the Eastern Conference into the proverbial ‘boat race’. Washington leads the top team in the Atlantic Division–the Florida Panthers who by the way have won eleven straight games–by 11 points. The New York Rangers and New York Islanders are tied for second in the Metropolitan Division but they’re 16 points back of the Caps. The do have some competition for the Presidents’ trophy with the West leading Dallas Stars just three points back.
Making Washington all the more scary–they’ve run roughshod over the Eastern Conference seemingly without much effort. They appear to be loose, having fun and not feeling any pressure at all. Their statistical profile shows that they pretty much do everything well: #2 in goals scored (3.2) and goals against (2.1) along with the #2 power play and #5 penalty kill. Their top goalie and Vezina Trophy frontrunner Braden Holtby is a workhorse and in great form. He’s on a 21 game decision streak making him the fourth goalie in the last 20 seasons to earn at least one point for his team in twenty one or more decisions joining Chris Osgood, Jose Theodore and Roberto Luongo. That’s a 19-0-2 run if you’re scoring at home.
Ottawa isn’t a bad team but they’re just woefully overclassed here. They’re 2-5 playing on back to back days and 10-2 playing opponents with winning records. The Caps are 15-5 when playing an opponent with a losing record. Senators may catch a break tonight as they’ll likely face backup goalie Philipp Grubauer as Holtby takes a rare night off. It won’t matter.
BET WASHINGTON CAPITALS -190 OVER OTTAWA SENATORS
COLORADO AVALANCHE AT CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS:
Interesting matchup between two hot teams. The Blackhawks have won six straight and 9 of 11 and are starting to generate talk of a Stanley Cup repeat. The erratic, up and down Avalanche have won three straight and 7 of 11. Teuvo Teravainen has become a dangerous scorer on the third line and when your first two lines are chock full of guys like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa that’s scary. Marian Hossa is in a career worst scoring slump–he hasn’t scored a goal since early December–but when he breaks out of that he’s deadly.
So we’re going to play Chicago at home right? Wrong. For whatever reason, the Avalanche just dominate the Blackhawks. They’ve won 8 of the last 12 meetings head to head and even more shockingly five of six in Chicago. You can’t pass up the big underdog price on a team with that kind of confidence on the United Center ice.
BET COLORADO AVALANCHE +170 OVER CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS