In three NHL contests out West on Friday, look for the Blues to stay hot when they visit Colorado, for the Blue Jackets and Oilers to score often and for Bruce Boudreau to win in his Ducks' coaching debut.
There are six games on the NHL schedule for Friday night, December 2, and we are taking a look at the three last games out West.
In our first game, the St. Louis Blues look for remain hot since the coaching change to Ken Hitchcock when they visit a Colorado Avalanche team that has struggled at home. Then, the Columbus Blue Jackets, fresh off a 4-3 shootout win in Calgary last night, look to light the lamp often again vs. the Edmonton Oilers.
Our nightcap is the most intriguing game of all as Bruce Boudreau, who was fired on Monday as coach of a Washington Capitals team that many people feel could compete for the Stanley Cup and was hired as the new coach of the Anaheim Ducks two short days later Wednesday, makes his Anaheim coaching debut vs. the Philadelphia Flyers, the only Eastern Conference team to crash our late night party from the Atlantic Division.
Here are our NHL Picks for all three face-offs, which include one road team, one home team and one total on the NHL odds.
Blues stay on fire at Avalanche
The Blues wrap up a three-game road trip when they visit the Avalanche at the Pepsi Center in Denver, CO at 9:00 ET. The current odds on this contest have St. Louis as a -115 road favorite at Pinnacle Sports.
The Blues have probably been the hottest team in the NHL since firing Head Coach Davis Payne and replacing him with Ken Hitchcock just 13 games into this season, as in the 11 games under Hitchcock’s guidance, they have gone a blistering 8-1-2.
The largest improvement under Hitchcock has come on the defensive end, as the Blues have allowed three goals or less in all 11 games since the switch, in fact allowing three goals just three times and two goals or less in the other eight contests including three shutouts. The first two games of this road trip have been typical, as St. Louis beat the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Washington Capitals by identical 2-1 scores.
Granted, the Blues have not had much success in Colorado over the years, going 6-20-4 in their last 30 trips into the altitude, but than again, St. Louis has never been this tight defensively over that time either while a lot of those losses came to much better Avalanche teams.
The Avs are 11-13-1 this season, which is actually better than some expected, but that record would be even better if Colorado can figure out its problems here at home! The Avalanche actually have a winning road record of 6-4-1, but they are just 5-9-0 here in their own building, and going back to last season, Colorado is a dismal 7-21-0 in its last 28 home games.
The Avalanche have had trouble scoring goals at home, finding the back o the bet only 2.14 time per game, and they do not figure to improve tonight vs. the suffocating St. Louis defense. The Blues are allowing only 2.00 goals per game over the entire season, and that already great figure drops to a microscopic 1.36 under Hitchcock!
Now, Jaroslav Halak gets the start in goal for the Blues tonight instead of the red-hot Brian Elliott, but Halak was fine in net while allowing only one goal vs. Washington on Tuesday, leaving him with a 2.44 GAA for the year. Colorado is expected to have Semyon Varlamov in net, and he has cooled off considerably after looking so great early in the year and is now just 7-10-1 with a 2.95 GAA.
Blue Jackets, Oilers go ‘over’ total
The Blue Jackets continue their tour of Canada when they take on the Oilers at Rexall Place in Edmonton, AB at 9:30 ET. The
posted total at
The Greek Sports Book for this contest is 5 with the odds on the ‘over’ set at -140.
This is the third straight game in Western Canada for Columbus, who opened up the trip with a 4-1 loss to the Canucks in Vancouver before the win in Calgary over the Flames last night. This four-game trip concludes with a trip to the Eastern past of the country in Montreal on Tuesday.
The Jackets and Oilers went ‘over’ on their last three meetings last season, and the four-goal outburst in Calgary last night marked the fourth time in the last seven games that Columbus has scored at least four goals.
The Blue Jackets have had defensive issues all year, allowing 3.16 goals per game overall and a disgusting 3.92 goals per game on the road, and that bad defense was a key reason why Columbus
began this season 0-7-1. Thus, when the Jackets are actually scoring goals like they have lately, they become prime candidates to go ‘over’ the total.
Yes, Columbus total are split 12-12 over the whole season, but the offense has gotten better as the season has gone on while the Blue Jackets are still having goaltending issues. Thus, look for more shootouts in the near future similar to the last three meetings between these teams last season, which averaged a combined 7.33 goals. The last two meetings here in Edmonton produced nine and six goals respectively.
If you are wondering why this total is posted at only 5, consider that the ‘under’ has gone 14-10 in all Edmonton games this season and that the Oilers are surrendering only 1.92 goals per game here at home. Still, they have now lost three straight games while watching
their goals against climb to 2.60 goals per game over the last five contests, and their hot defensive start was probably an anomaly anyway as this was not expected to be that good of a defensive team.
Look for a fourth straight high-scoring game between these two teams here tonight.
Ducks win Boudreau debut over Flyers
The Boudreau Era in Anaheim begins at home as he tries to turn the Ducks around vs. the Flyers at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA at 10:00 ET. Anaheim is currently listed as a
small home underdog of +105 in this contest at
5 Dimes.
At least former Head Coach Randy Carlyle went out on a winning note, as the Ducks
beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 in his final game Wednesday night. That win snapped a seven-game Anaheim losing streak though at it still leaves the underachieving Ducks at 7-13-4, and Carlyle was fired shortly after the game.
Carlyle has been the Ducks’ coach for six full seasons prior to this year, and he guided the team to five playoff appearances including the ultimate glory when Anaheim won the Stanley Cup in following the 2006-07 season, he second year at the helm.
A change was probably necessary though with the Ducks currently 14th overall in the Western Conference and dead last in the Pacific Division with just 18 points. This team simply has too much firepower on its team such as reining MVP Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf and Teemu Selanne to be averaging the lowly 2.21 goals pr game that it is averaging.
We look for this team improve under Boudreau, or at least live up to its potential, and the new coach said as much when he said he was not have accepted the job if he did not expect to guide this team back in the playoffs.
The Flyers are one of the better teams in the East and they have been an excellent road team, going 7-3-1 away from home. That said, the Ducks have won the last three head-to-head meetings including sweeping both games last year, winning soundly 5-2 here at “The Pond” and also winning 3-2 in Philadelphia.
The Flyers are probably also walking into an emotional whirlwind here giving the Anaheim coaching situation, so look for the Ducks to ride that emotion to a victory in their first game under the new leadership.