NHL Hockey Betting: Anaheim Ducks at Ottawa Senators

An excellent Eastern vs. Western matchup on tap for Thursday night as the Anaheim Ducks head ‘North of the Border’ to take on the Ottawa Senators. The Senators are having a solid season with a 19-11-3 record and 41 points which puts them in second place in the Atlantic Division five points back of the Montreal Canadiens. Montreal has a tough game against Minnesota tonight so this would be a great opportunity to pick up some ground on the division leaders. Anaheim is in third place in the Pacific Division and are 17-12-5 on the year for 39 points. They’re 2 points back of the Pacific Division co-leaders Edmonton and San Jose. Anaheim enters this contest with a 5-4-1 record in their last 10 games while Ottawa is 5-3-2 in their last ten.

Anaheim will start John Gibson in net tonight against Ottawa’s Mike Condon. Gibson is 11-9-4 on the season with a 2.66 goals against average, a 0.908 save percentage and 1 shutout. Mike Condon–you’ll remember him from his stint as Montreal’s starting goalie last year after Carey Price went out–has a 7-3-2 record with a 2.31 goals against average. Starter Craig Anderson is out indefinitely as he is with his wife who is undergoing treatment for cancer. They’re also without Andrew Hammond who is out ‘indefinitely’ with an ankle injury. That means that it’ll likely be Condon’s show at least for the time being–Chris Driedger will be more of an ’emergency’ option than anything else.

The Ducks have won the last three games head to head including the only meeting this year, a 5-1 win on 12/11 at the Honda Center. The Ducks are coming off a 5-1 loss to Montreal at the Bell Centre and they’ve been excellent this season coming off a bad loss. After allowing 4 or more goals in their previous games they’re 7-1 +6.2 units, off a loss by 2 goals they’re 6-1 +5.1 units and after scoring 1 goal or fewer in their previous game they’re 5-0 +5.2 units. That’s the sign of a resilient team but at the price you have to think that Ottawa is undervalued. They’re 10-5-3 at home this year and while Condon might not be their first option in net he did a decent job replacing one of the best goalies in hockey in Montreal last year until he started to fade due to the workload. We’ll take a shot on the home team.

BET OTTAWA SENATORS +120 OVER ANAHEIM DUCKS