NHL Hockey Betting: Anaheim Ducks at Nashville Predators

The Anaheim Ducks can tie their best of seven series with the Nashville Predators as the teams play Game Four at the Bridgestone Arena in the ‘Music City’ tonight. Nashville shocked the Ducks by winning the first two games at the Honda Center but came home and laid an egg in Game Three as Frederik Andersen shut out the Preds 3-0. In some years, Nashville has been a dominating home team but that isn’t the case this season. That’s clearly reflected in the price on this game.

By now, everyone knows the Ducks story and it’s actually better than the inspiration for the team’s original name (the Disney film ‘The Mighty Ducks’). Anaheim started the season in miserable form, posting a record of 1-9-1 through eleven games. The collective zeitgeist started to pour dirt on the team and head coach Bruce Boudreau was on ‘death watch’ for his job. Things have changed dramatically since then–as in the Ducks became one of the best teams in the NHL during the second half of the season and went on to win the Pacific Division. The team was just #17 in goals scored this year but the fact they were #1 defensively (goals per game), #1 on the power play and #1 on the penalty kill goes a long way to mitigating that. The last team to finish #1 on the power play *and* the penalty kill were the Mike Bossy/Dennis Potvin New York Islanders back in the 1980s. That’s really good.

Nashville is a strange team. On any given night, they can look like Stanley Cup champions. Or on any given night they can look like an AHL team. There’s very little middle ground. Either they’re dominating the Los Angeles Kings or being routed by the Dallas Stars. One thing noticeable about the Predators–they’re not playing the ‘havoc’ style of hockey they did last year when they contested everything, went after every loose puck and generally made life miserable for opponents. The Predators are capable of winning this game and winning this series. They play a very similar style to the Ducks and have more offensive weapons. Unfortunately, for them I don’t think they *will* win the series due to their tendency to beat themselves.

BET ANAHEIM DUCKS -110 OVER NASHVILLE PREDATORS