NHL Picks: Anaheim Ducks over Montreal Canadiens

It's a bad time to be a Duck and not an overly impressive time to be a Canadien either, so when the two teams meet at the Honda Centre on Wednesday night things have to get better for one and worse for the other.

Two teams in the weeds (one deeper than the other) will look on Wednesday night's match as a chance to turn a corner, and get back on winning street. Montréal have lost three of their last four and are 5-3-2 in their last 10 but the Ducks look to be drowning (not dabbling), they've on a seven-game losing streak and have lost 16 of their last 18 games, their last 10 reads 1-8-1.

Things can only get better (can’t they?)

I'm very tempted to back a home victory in this one simply because streaks have to come to an end and the Ducks’ bad run is long overdue, even if Anaheim have allowed 4.22 goals per game (over eight of nine) at home. The top NHL picks have a home win at +150 and away win also at +150 on the NHL Odds boards.

The Habs look shaky and they will be without their goal leader; Max Pacioretty who is starting a three match suspension. He’s sidelined for hitting Pittsburgh defenceman Kris Letang last Saturday, but while admitting his error, isn’t going quietly.

"The blame is still on me; I made a bad decision," Pacioretty said, “but in slow motion you see that his head was up and he saw me coming."

Do you remember the last time the Duck’s won? 

The Ducks will be very keen to see the back of this month, as November 2011 was one of the worst months in team history. In their 12 games played so far in November, they have seen just one victory, over the Vancouver Canucks way back on the 11th and that certainly wasn’t comfortable, in the end.

The Ducks had an impressive (and out of character) four goal second period (and were 4-0 up going into the third), but they nearly managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as they shipped three goals without reply in the final period and had to endure a 6-on-4 in the final minute to keep that all important fourth goal out.

Montréal are fifth in the Northwest and Anaheim are fifth and Pacific however Montréal have collected 24 points thus far and the Ducks have only 16 points on the board.

Anaheim will be looking to end November on a high and start winning games in December, and the Habs could be just the team to help them out. There is some good news for the Ducks as they have gone 4-0-1 over the last five meetings with the Habs. In their only matchup in 2010-11, Bobby Ryan's shootout goal was the difference in a 4-3 win back in January.

It's a pretty even split from Montréal on the road they are 6-5-0 while the Ducks at home are a sorry 4-8-0. You might, if you like your numbers, want to make a small NHL betting play on the game ending drawn and heading into overtime at +275. 

Expect goals in this game, as in the 12 games the Ducks have played so far this month we have never seen less than a three goal game, and in total there has been 76 goals, which averages out to 6.333 goals per November game. The sportsbooks have Over 5.5 goals at +115 while Under 5.5 goals is at -135.

Despite their depressing losing streak the Ducks seem to have had little difficulty finding the back of the net and in their horrible November they have only been shut out once (a 0-5 loss to Detroit). The Canadiens have scored 32 goals in their 13 games this month and were only shutout once themselves.

The bookmakers seem to think that the second period will be the busiest at +150 they also have the third period been the busiest at +160. However if you want to make any real money from betting on the highest scoring period, bet on the first at +225.

My gut tells me that the Ducks need a win more, so they will work harder (and are due a break from the Gods of hockey). “Winning makes everybody feel a little bit better,” Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. I think a win will make the Ducks feel a LOT better.