NHL Hockey Betting: Chicago Blackhawks at Vancouver Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks are the most disappointing of the generally underachieving class of Canadian NHL teams this year and they’ll face another tough challenge on Sunday night as they host the Chicago Blackhawks. The Blackhawks can clinch a playoff spot with a win and increase their two point lead over the idle Nashville Predators in the process. Nashville plays on Monday night at home against Colorado so the Preds can get those points right back and put the pressure back on the Hawks. Nashville has had the best record in the NHL since the first of February so Chicago needs to get all of the points they can where they can. Tonight, those points are available in Vancouver. The Blackhawks haven’t been playing particularly well of late either with a 3-5-2 record in their last ten games. They’re coming off a 4-1 win in Calgary on Saturday night and play at Minnesota on Tuesday night.
The Canucks have been awful of late with a 2-7-1 record in their last ten games and coming off a 4-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Friday. They’ve got only three regulation wins in 13 games during the month of March and have been shutout in four of their last five games. They’ve scored a total of five goals in their last eight games for a pitiful 0.625 goals per game average during that stretch. They’ll have their hands full with Chicago who is top ten in scoring offense and defense (#9 goals per game, #8 goals against) and has the #5 power play in the league hitting on 21.8% of changes. The penalty kill is substandard at #24 but the Blackhawks do enough things right that they’re a headache for any opponent. The Canucks have the #10 penalty kill in the NHL but are bottom ten in every other statistical category including #29 in goals scored per game, #21 in goals against per game and #23 on the power play.
The Blackhawks aren’t great in the second of back to back (6-6) but that won’t matter against a miserable Vancouver team. Canucks are 10-25 against opponents with winning records including 5-10 in the second half of the season. Don’t see them putting up much of a fight in this one.
BET CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS -170 OVER VANCOUVER CANUCKS
