NHL Hockey Best Bets for March 31, 2016
Busy day of hockey for the last day of the month. We’ve got three ‘best bets’ in West Coast action:
ARIZONA COYOTES AT DALLAS STARS:
I’ve had my doubts about the Dallas Stars all season long but they’re still here. On paper, they aren’t a team that should be in a pitched battle to win the rugged Central Division and the Western Conference. Teams out West are known for strong defense and physical play–teams like the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks. The Stars have the best offense in the NHL and are one of only two teams (Washington is the other) averaging more than three goals per game. They don’t seem to have an issue with going into the playoffs with a ‘goalie tandem’–most coaches think this is a kiss of death for a team’s postseason chances. Instead, Dallas has two capable though not overly dominant goaltenders in Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen. Some critics have even suggested that Dallas has ‘two backup goalies’. That’s a bit unfair even though the Stars do have a bottom ten team defense allowing 2.83 goals per game. That put’s them just fractions ahead of Toronto and Vancouver, two teams battling for the worst record in hockey.
But here they are, tied with the St. Louis Blues–who do play a ‘classic’ Central Division brand of hockey–atop both the Central Division and Western Conference standings. The Blues have been in torrid form during the month of March and enter this game on a five game winning streak and having won 8 of their last 10. They gave up just one goal against Colorado last time out but that was considered a slight disappointment since St. Louis had previously shut out their opponents in four straight contests. Dallas might not be quite that hot but are 6-2-2 in their last ten games and would own the tiebreaker if the season ended tonight.
I’m still not sold on the Stars as a playoff team even if Tyler Seguin is able to recover quickly from his nasty Achilles Tendon injury. This is a tough scheduling spot for Dallas who have almost had it too easy of late winning five of their last six. The only loss in that stretch? At Arizona where the Coyotes beat them 3-1. Arizona is coming off an ugly home loss to Calgary but before that had won six of their last eight. The Coyotes have put up a nice effort late in the season but have a brutal schedule down the stretch--their only home game is Saturday against Washington after which they finish the season playing St. Louis, Chicago, Nashville and San Jose on the road. But Dallas doesn’t have it much better and could be in a ‘lookahead spot’ for a crucial pair of games this weekend playing at Los Angeles and Anaheim. Dallas has won the last three games on home ice but that’s somewhat misleading as the teams haven’t played in the Stars’ rink since December 31, 2014. The Coyotes have won both games this year and should give the Stars a battle at a nice price.
BET ARIZONA COYOTES +180 OVER DALLAS STARS
CALGARY FLAMES AT LOS ANGELES KINGS
VANCOUVER CANUCKS AT SAN JOSE SHARKS
We’ll combine the write up for these two games since they’re essentially the same. This has been a historically bad season for Canadian NHL teams. The Stanley Cup playoffs will be an all-US affair for only the second time in history and the first time in over 40 years (1970). The Canadian media isn’t especially happy about this fact but it’s been a long time coming–it didn’t exactly sneak up on the good people North of the Border. And it’s not exactly unprecedented–just two years ago the Canadian press was lamenting the fact that only one of the country’s teams were in the playoffs (and that hadn’t happened in 40+ years either).
The good news is that there’s plenty of hope for the future. Calgary and Winnipeg are playoff teams from a year ago that underachieved badly this season and suffered from key injuries. Montreal was running roughshod over the entire league when Cary Price went out with what will ultimately be a season ending injury. Just having him in the lineup will make the Habs a playoff team. Toronto has been a pleasant surprise late in the season winning six of their last ten. The Leafs apparently no longer want to finish last and as they’re currently died with the Edmonton Oilers and a flatlining Vancouver team there’s a good chance they won’t. Since Mike Babcock’s first season was *supposed* to be devoted to clearing the books and freeing cap space the fact that the team is putting up a nice effort now has to be viewed as ‘exceeding expectations’. Even if they don’t land the first draft pick and Auston Matthews the team is rebuilding from the ground up and that will pay huge dividends in the future. And then there’s Edmonton–still a work in progress in desperate need of defense and goaltending. But despite missing two months due to injury Connor McDavid has not only lived up to all of the massive hype but is actually better than advertised. Of the two dozen or so most spectacular plays of the 2015-2016 season I’d say that McDavid is responsible for roughly half. At times he made NHL defenders look as silly as the snuff film quality footage we saw last year when he was with the Erie Otters. He needs to become more of a two way player but his puck sense, team leadership and creativity on offense is insane. His first step speed even more so. Plus he’s just 19 years old.
That’s the good news–the bad news is that two of the most underachieving Canadian teams are in deep tonight. Heading into the season, the word among hockey ‘wise guys’ was that Vancouver desperately needed to rebuild and ‘get younger’ but probably wouldn’t until circumstances forced their hand. Consider it forced–the Canucks are a grease fire right now. The Flames have at least a tenuous excuse–they had some major injuries early and the goaltending has been awful all season. When 24 year old Joni Ortio is your best option after Kari Ramo–who was waived earlier this season–gave at least some semblance of stability to the position you’re in trouble. The injury situation–particularly in goal–could allow the current regime to survive for at least another season but objectively speaking the way this team ‘responded’ to adversity is pitiful. They’ve called up a lot of fresh faces from Stockton of the AHL to at least give fans some enthusiastic prospects to root for.
Look for both the Canucks and Flames to lose ugly….
BET SAN JOSE SHARKS -260 OVER VANCOUVER CANUCKS
BET LOS ANGELES KINGS -270 OVER CALGARY FLAMES