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We are getting closer to the midpoint of the NHL season, and it seems like things have never been more interesting. There is a thin line between the teams at the top of the conference and those in the middle, and only a handful of games can change everything.
Monday night will bring us some exciting games around the league, and we have our game breakdowns and NHL betting trends for four of those.
The Anaheim Ducks just ended the longest active losing streak in the league and will try to win another one when they visit Detroit. Pittsburgh needs some wind in the back at the moment, and if they beat the Minnesota Wild, that may be the turning point of their season. The Winnipeg Jets have climbed among the top four teams in the Western Conference and may get even higher after the game against the Montreal Canadians. The Panthers have moved from sunny Florida, and the next stop on the road trip is Calgary.
Let’s take a deeper look at the NHL betting trends for these four games.
Anaheim Ducks vs Detroit Red Wings
The Anaheim Ducks are one of the worst teams in the NHL at the moment. They are in 14th place in the Western Conference with an 11-19-0 record. Before beating the New Jersey Devils yesterday, their last win was on November 15th against the Colorado Avalanche in a shootout.
The Ducks are in the bottom six in both scoring goals with 2.63 per game and allowed goals with 3.40. Right winger Frank Vatrano is solid with 23 points in 30 appearances, while Trevor Zegras has been out with an injury for more than a month, which is one of the reasons for the Ducks’ terrible form.
The Detroit Red Wings are ninth in the Eastern Conference with a 15-11-4 record. They have lost five of the last six games and are coming off a 1-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. The Red Wings are third in the league, scoring 3.57 goals per game.
Right winger Alex DeBrincat is Detroit’s leading scorer, with 13 goals so far in the season. Moritz Seider will need to step up, as he has only 18 points in the first 30 games of the season.
Anaheim Ducks vs Detroit Red Wings: NHL betting trends
The Red Wings won 3 of the last 5 games against the Ducks, and four of those five ended in a tie in regulation. Anaheim has lost 7 of the last 8 games straight up on the road, and 2-13 straight up in their last 15 games.
Prediction and Conclusion
The Detroit Red Wings have made a huge leap this season, and it seems like they will be back in the playoffs for the first time since 2016. That race will not be easy at all, and the Red Wings know that they need to win games like this to reach their goals. The Ducks have only one win in the past few months, and the Red Wings will most likely hand them their seventh consecutive loss at -140.
Minnesota Wild vs Pittsburgh Penguins
The Minnesota Wild have climbed the standings last week with three consecutive wins, but being 11th in the Western Conference with a 12-12-4 record is completely unacceptable for head coach John Hynes.
The Wild are scoring under 3 goals per game, which is way lower than their average from last season.
They are coming off back-to-back shootout wins over the Calgary Flames and the Vancouver Canucks. They have won seven of the last 10 games, which sounds very promising before the short East Coast road trip with stops in Pittsburgh and Boston.
Mats Zuccarello leads the team with 28 points, while Joel Eriksson Ek is the best scorer with 14 goals.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are 13th in the Eastern Conference with a 13-13-3 record. They connected two wins after losing four straight games, but the 7-0 loss in Toronto destroyed their momentum.
The Penguins are fourth in the league with a 91.7 saving percentage and are second with four shutdowns, but consistency has been a real problem for them.
Sidney Crosby is still doing his thing, having 31 points so far in the season, one less than Jake Guentzel, who leads the team.
Minnesota Wild vs Pittsburgh Penguins: NHL betting trends
The Minnesota Wild have hit the game total under in 43 of their last 85 games, while the Pittsburgh Penguins are under in 45 of their last 81 games.
Prediction and Conclusion
Both teams are underachieving this season, and the Penguins are looking particularly bad. They still have a reason for optimism going into this game, as they have won 8 of the last 9 games against the Wild. However, they are coming off their toughest loss of the season, and the Wild have not allowed more than two goals in the last three games, so this will be a tight one, staying under 6 goals in total for -110.
Montreal Canadiens vs Winnipeg Jets
The Montreal Canadiens are 12th in the Eastern Conference with a 13-13-4 record. They are 4-4-2 in the last 10 games and are coming off a 5-3 win over the New York Islanders. They are one of only four teams in the league that have allowed more than 1,000 shots so far in the season.
Center Nick Suzuki leads the team with 25 points, followed by right winger Cole Caufield who has 21. None of the Canadiens players have scored double-digit goals in the first 30 games of the season.
The Winnipeg Jets are fifth in the Western Conference with an 18-9-2 record, and what is interesting is that they have almost the same home and road record. The Jets are 6-4-0 in the last 10 games and have won the last two, 6-2 against the Colorado Avalanche and 5-2 against the Los Angeles Kings.
The Jets are in the top 10 in the league in both goals per game and allowed goals per game. Center Mike Scheifele leads the team with a total of 33 points, which ranks him 21st in the league.
Montreal Canadiens vs Winnipeg Jets: NHL betting trends
The Montreal Canadiens have played under total goals in 22 of the last 38 games, while the Winnipeg Jets have done so in 50 of the last 87.
Prediction and Conclusion
The Jets have had a much better season than the Canadiens, but the team from Montreal has won 7 of the last 10 head-to-head games. This means that the Monday night game will be much closer than the current standings say. Both teams are defensively oriented and have played under total goals in two of their last three games against each other. Given that, going with under 6 goals at 100 seems like a safe bet.
Florida Panthers vs Calgary Flames
The Florida Panthers are fourth in the Eastern Conference with an 18-10-2 record. They are 9-6-2 on the road and 6-3-1 in the last 10 games. The Panthers are fifth in the league, allowing 2.57 goals per game, and are third in penalty minutes with 349.
Florida lost to the Seattle Kraken and the Vancouver Canucks by 4-0 before dominating the Oilers in a 5-1 win in Edmonton. Carter Verhaeghe scored twice in that game, and he is the second-best goal scorer for the Panthers with 15, two less than Sam Reinhart, who also leads the team with 38 points.
The Calgary Flames are 10th in the Western Conference with a 12-14-5 record and go in this game with a -16 goal differential. The Flames score exactly 3 goals per game and allow 3.38.
After losing all three games on a road trip in Colorado, Vegas, and Minnesota, the Flames defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 at home.
Nazem Kadri leads the team with 22 points, followed by Blake Coleman with 21 and Elias Lindholm with 20.
Florida Panthers vs Calgary Flames: NHL betting trends
The Calgary Flames are over total goals in 43 of the last 82 games. The last five games and 8 of the last 10 between these two teams have seen at least 6 goals.
Prediction and Conclusion
The Florida Panthers are finishing their five-game road trip with a stop in Calgary. After failing to score in two consecutive games, they were fired up in Edmonton, beating the Oilers by 5-1. The Flames were on a four-game losing streak before winning 4-2 against Tampa Bay. Traditionally, these two teams score against each other and this one will go over 6.5 goals in total at 100.
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