NHL Hockey Betting: Nashville Predators at Anaheim Ducks

The Canada-less Stanley Cup playoffs continue but even without a national ‘rooting interest’ its been a very entertaining process thus far. The fact that there are so many compelling storylines and intense rivalries and it’s just the first round underscores the reality that the Stanley Cup playoffs are by far the best in any sport. This is one of them–nobody gave the Nashville Predators much of a chance in their series against the Anaheim Ducks. That was until the Predators went out and won Game One. Now it’s a new series but nothing is ever easy with Nashville–at their best, they can compete with any team in the league. At their worst, they look like an AHL team. At his best, goaltender Pekka Rinne is spectacular. At his worse, he looks like an AHL goaltender. The problem with the Predators–not surprisingly–has been consistency. They played well for a long stretch late in the season then lost four games against playoff level competition that could have possibly allowed them to catch Chicago for third place in the Central. Just hard to figure this team out.

Anaheim did their inconsistency a bit differently. They were awful early on, starting the season 1-9-1. They found some traction near the end of the year and became one of the best teams in hockey in the second half of the season. Even in the Pacific Division which never had a dominating team this season the fact a team can start the year 1-9-1 and go on to win the divisional title is somewhat astounding. Nothing different for the Ducks here–John Gibson is back in net for the Ducks to be opposed by Nashville’s Pekka Rinne. Nashville is as healthy as they’ve been all year while the Ducks have a few nagging injury issues–Kevin Bieksa is ‘probable’ but Josh Manson, Clayton Stoner and Brandon Pirri are all listed as ‘questionable’. One interesting tidbit about this matchup–even though these teams are considered ‘defense first’ sides they’ve gone Over in eight straight head to head (last game was a push). We’ll take the price with the Predators and play this one ‘Over’ the total.

BET NASHVILLE PREDATORS +150 OVER ANAHEIM DUCKS
BET NASHVILLE/ANAHEIM OVER 5