NHL Hockey Betting: Ottawa Senators at Calgary Flames

It’ll be East against West on Friday night as the 4-2-0 Ottawa Senators head to the Scotiabank Saddledome to take on the 3-4-1 Calgary Flames. Ottawa last played on Tuesday earning a 3-0 win at Vancouver. The Flames opened the season losing three straight and five of their first six but took a pair of impressive road wins on Monday and Tuesday winning over the Blackhawks at Chicago and over the Blues in St. Louis. They’ll host the Washington Capitals on Sunday before embarking on a tough road trip with stops in Chicago, San Jose, Los Angeles and Anaheim.

The Flames are #12 in scoring offense putting up 3.00 goals per game but have struggled on defense while the Senators are #9 putting up 3.33 goals per game. Calgary is currently ranked #25 in goals against per game giving up 3.63 per contest. Ottawa hasn’t been much better–they’re tied for #21 and will be without starter Craig Anderson ‘indefinitely’ due to a leave of absence for personal reasons. Andrew Hammond will start in net tonight and he could use a little bit of that ‘Hamburgler’ magic from a couple of years back–he’s 0-1-0 on the year with a 5.00 GAA and a 0.800 save percentage. He’ll be opposed by Brian Elliott who is 2-3-0 with a 3.37 GAA and a 0.882 save percentage. Both goalies will likely have to work–Ottawa ranks #3 in the NHL in shots on goal per game (33.0) while Calgary is #8 (31.1).

Special teams have been an issue for both teams. Calgary is #25 on the power play hitting on 12.1% of their chances but Ottawa is dead last in the NHL with a woeful 6.7% hit rate (1 goal on 15 chances). They’re not especially good on the penalty kill either with Calgary at #21 (75.7%) and Ottawa tied for #23 (72.7%). Obviously, the team did the right thing giving Anderson his leave of absence but that could be a distraction for the team. Ultimately, just have more confidence in the Flames than the Senators. This has been a very evenly contested series in recent years and particularly at the Saddledome where the teams have split the last two meetings. Ottawa won both games last year 6-4 and 5-4 so we’ll back the Flames and play the ‘Over’.

BET CALGARY FLAMES -130 OVER OTTAWA SENATORS
BET CALGARY/OTTAWA OVER 5.5 -120