NHL Hockey Betting: Colorado Avalanche at Vancouver Canucks

The only Canadian team in action on Monday is the suddenly resurgent Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks struggled in the early part of the season but have bounced back nicely over the past few weeks and are almost back in contention in the Pacific Division. Vancouver has won three straight and are 5-4-1 in their last 10 games but have opened up a 120 point separation between themselves and the last place Arizona Coyotes. The Canucks are still in sixth place but are just 3 points back of the fifth place Kings, five points back of the fifth place Flames and eight points back of the third place Oilers.

Colorado is going nowhere. They’ve got the worst record in the National Hockey League (12-23-1) and are 12 points back of the #6 team in the Central Division (Winnipeg). They’ve been horrible at home (4-13-1) and not particularly good on the road (8-10-0). They’ve lost 3 straight and 8 of 10 and have only 3 wins in their last 12 games. Statistically, they’re awful. The Avs are dead last in goals scored per game (2.1) and goals against per game (3.4). They’re just marginally better on special teams ranking #29 on the power play (13.1%) and #25 on the penalty kill (#79%).

The Avalanche is a dysfunctional team that can get ‘up’ against good teams but typically embarrass themselves against other teams with losing records. Colorado is 4-12 -9.8 units in their games against losing teams this year. They’ve also not bounced back strong after bad losses–after allowing four or more goals they’re 6-9 and after a loss by 2 or more in their previous game they’re 6-11 -4.3 units. After three or more consecutive losses they’re 2-5. The Canucks have won 5 of 8 and 3 of 4 against the Avalanche. Colorado’s biggest issue (well, one of them) is goaltending with starting netminder Semyon Varlamov sidelined due to a groin injury. Calvin Pickard is the backup and has been completely overwhelmed. Pickard has a 6-9-1 record with a 3.14 goals against average and a 0.899 save percentage.

Just don’t see many reasons to back the Avalanche here. Vancouver is starting to play better while there have been no such signs coming from the Avalanche. Hard to see any type of turnaround until Varlamov comes back.

BET VANCOUVER CANUCKS -150 OVER COLORADO AVALANCHE