NHL Hockey Betting: Winnipeg Jets at Anaheim Ducks

The Winnipeg Jets are neck and neck with the Vancouver Canucks for being the most disappointing Canadian team in the NHL. I guess the Calgary Flames are also in the mix. Edmonton has a bright future but it was inevitable they’d struggle in the first year of the Connor McDavid era. Ottawa was in the playoffs last year and isn’t this year but they really overachieved late last season. Montreal was decimated by injuries, Toronto is still in rebuilding mode. But the Western Conference is bleak for Canadian teams who occupy the bottom four spots in the conference and are a on a combined 13-22-5 run.

Anaheim, on the other hand, started the season in the toilet going 1-9-1 in their first eleven games. Head coach Bruce Boudreau was on the verge of being fired after leading the team to the Western Conference finals several months earlier. Spoiler alert–they turned things around. Since their 1-9-1 start they’ve gone 43-15-9 and now hold a one point lead atop the Pacific Division.

Winnipeg has a brutal schedule to end the season–on the road at Anaheim, San Jose and Los Angeles. The Sharks have been puzzlingly bad at home but even so this is a nasty gauntlet. They do catch the Ducks in a ‘sandwich situation’–Anaheim beat Dallas on Sunday and they play arch rival Los Angeles on Thursday. The Kings are one point back in the Pacific and play at Calgary tonight. That being said, it’s unlikely to matter since the Jets are just phoning it in at this point and the Ducks have been beating up on them for years dating back to the Atlanta Thrashers days. Since 1996 (and remember Anaheim has only been in the league since 1993) the Ducks are 18-8 against Winnipeg/Atlanta overall. In the last three years it’s just become all the more lopsided–Anaheim is 11-1 against the Jets including 5-1 at the Honda Center. And that’s just the regular season. Throw in last year’s four game playoff sweep and Anaheim has won 15 straight over the Jets. Ouch. Winnipeg is 12-23 against opponents with winning records YTD and 5-11 since the All Star Break. Ducks on a 16-4 run against teams under .500.

BET ANAHEIM DUCKS -230 OVER WINNIPEG JETS