NHL Hockey Betting: Ottawa Senators at Carolina Hurricanes
It’s been a tough year for Canadian NHL teams. The bottom four teams in the NHL are based in Canada (Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg). Seven of the bottom ten teams in the league are Canadian including tonight’s principal, the Ottawa Senators. And, sadly, the Senators are the best chance for Canada to have a team in the postseason. Ottawa is still very much alive for a playoff spot but they have plenty of work to do. They’re currently 6 points out of the final wild card spot but that’s not the problem–the bigger issue is that there are two teams that are tied with the Senators and also six points out of a wild card spot (New Jersey, Carolina) and one other team between them and the wild card qualifiers (Philadelphia). The Sens have a couple of things working for them–they’re in decent form (6-3-1 L10) while the teams they’re tied with aren’t. Carolian is 4-5-1 in their last 10 games and New Jersey is imploding, having lost 8 of 10.
The Carolina Hurricanes have had a strange season. They were awful early on but as they started to go with youth in their lineup they became a decent hockey team. They still have a lot of work to do but they’re so confident in their young nucleus that sent longtime foundation of the franchise Eric Staal packing. The Hurricanes aren’t the type of team to roll over and still play hard every night but there’s a sense that they’re still a year or two away and that they’re not ready to compete for a playoff spot.
The Senators might not be either but they’re going to give it a shot. The goaltending situation is a mess once again and Craig Anderson is day to day with a knee injury. That will put Andrew Hammond back in net tonight and everyone remembers what happened when the Senators did that last year. Hammond might not have that kind of magic in him this season but he’s been pretty solid in goal. Carolina is heading in the right direction but not sure they should be favored in this matchup. This looks like a coin flip and as such we’ll take the price and the Senators.
BET OTTAWA SENATORS +120 OVER CAROLINA HURRICANES
