NHL Hockey Betting: Vancouver Canucks at Anaheim Ducks

With a short (one game) hockey card for Sunday we’ll look ahead to Monday night action. In the most intriguing game of the night the Vancouver Canucks will try to get back in contention in the Pacific Division as they travel to Southern California to take on the improving Anaheim Ducks. The Canucks were one of the pacesetters in the early part of the season but have fallen behind Los Angeles and San Jose. They’ve also fallen behind a surging Arizona Coyotes team that has won 7 of their last 10 games. There’s still plenty of time to get back in the mix but they need to improve their play.

The Anaheim Ducks are one of the season’s more intriguing stories. They began the season in dreadful form unable to win a game and for that matter unable to score goals. They lost 9 of their first 10 games but have found some traction and have begun to play better. The key word there is ‘better’–not great. The Ducks are 3-4-3 in their last 10 games and are still struggling to put the puck in the net. They are #29 in goals per game averaging 1.93 per contest. That’s better than dead last Philadelphia but the Flyers and Ducks are the only two teams in the league averaging fewer than two goals per game. Their defense has been better than their offense but still not good enough to justify that horrific scoring average–they’re tied with Vancouver and Philadelphia for the #16 scoring defense in the league. The special teams are better–they’re #16 on the power play and have the best penalty kill in the NHL.

Vancouver is also 3-4-3 in their last ten games and they can at least score goals, ranked #9 in the league in goals per game. They have the #10 ranked power play in the league but the penalty kill is just #23 overall. Basically, these are two teams that have a hard time playing a solid 60 minutes in all phases of the game. The Ducks are still undervalued based on their early season swoon and they’ve had no trouble with the Canucks in recent years. They’ve won 8 of the last 11 meetings against Vancouver including 4 of the last 6 at the Honda Center.

BET ANAHEIM DUCKS -120 OVER VANCOUVER CANUCKS