Avalanche vs. Ducks NHL Preview and Best Bet (Archive)
Western Conference rivals, Colorado and Anaheim, will take center stage in a short NHL slate on Wednesday night.
Let’s analyze this matchup and keep cashing our NHL picks!
Colorado Avalanche vs. Anaheim Ducks
Wednesday, January 19, 2022 – 10:00 PM EST at Honda Center
Betting Preview
The Avalanche skate into Anaheim as one of the hottest teams in the league, having won eight of their last nine contests with the only blemish, a 5-4 overtime loss to the Predators. On Monday night it took the shootout round to decide a winner as Colorado notched a 4-3 victory over the Wild, courtesy of a Mikko Rantanen shootout tally.
Speaking of Rantanen, he also drew first blood in the game when scored on a power-play opportunity, his 20th goal of the season, followed by tallies from Alex Newhook and Nathan MacKinnon. But it was a wild and wooly affair as Colorado goalie, Darcy Kuemper, was knocked out of the game in the second period when Wild forward Jordan Greenway skated through the crease and clipped him.
“Our (defenseman’s) not riding him in there, so I see him coming across the front of the net and readjust his route to come into Kuemper,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “It looks like it’s intentional to me and he gets his head. I don’t know how it can only be a two-minute penalty. Our goalie’s out again. I’m sure the league will look at it.”
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Kuemper had allowed one goal on 13 shots before backup, Pavel Francouz, took his place and turned aside 25 of 27 shots, and stopped all three in the shootout. Minnesota outshot, outhit, and won more faceoffs than the Avalanche but came up short where it counted most, on the scoreboard.
Ducks Struggling
Anaheim has now dropped their last three and seven of their last nine contests with the latest being a 3-0 loss to the Blackhawks in Chicago on Saturday. The Ducks had no shortage of offense but the stellar play of Chicago goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury, proved to be too much as the veteran All-Star turned aside all 37 shots and notched his third shutout of the season.
Twenty-one-year-old Lukas Dostal played well in defeat for Anaheim, saving 33 of 35 shots, with the third goal being an empty netter by Chicago. It was an excellent effort by the young netminder and a tenacious offensive performance by the Anaheim offense but Fleury was immense for the Hawks.
“The chances, they were there,” Anaheim coach Dallas Eakins said. "They were in there behind the goalie. There's not much more we can do to score other than finish it in the net. ... (Fleury) is excellent. He's been that for a very long time. He still plays at a very high level and was excellent tonight when he needed to be.”
Wanna Make a Bet?
The NHL odds at all of the best online sportsbooks are making the Avalanche heavy road favorites in this one. And while it would be easy to reflexively lay the lumber and assume they would continue their winning ways, it should be noted that the Ducks have been putting a tremendous amount of rubber on the opposing goalie recently with very little to show for it.
It appears as though Dostal will be in the net again for Anaheim and thus far the Czech native has been even better than the regular tandem of John Gibson and Anthony Stolarz both out due to COVID-19 protocols.
The Ducks have had since Saturday to rest and prepare for this date with the Avs while Colorado played in a grueling affair on Monday night and will have to be in Los Angeles tomorrow night to face the Kings.
The odds on the home underdog are too tempting to resist which is why I say bet the Ducks and get a healthy return from your bookmaker.
NHL Pick: Ducks ML (+221) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.