NHL Hockey Best Bets for January 23, 2016
Eleven games scheduled for Saturday with two daytime starts. In addition, Saturday’s game between the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders has been postponed due to snow. Here are the best bets among the remaining eight nighttime start contests:
ANAHEIM DUCKS AT DETROIT RED WINGS:
Don’t look now but the Anaheim Ducks are playing decent hockey. It still might not be where they want to be after last season’s strong showing where they made it to the Western Conference Finals before losing to eventual Stanley Cup Champion Chicago. The Ducks are even ‘buying’ hoping to make a run at the playoffs which is still very realistic. They’ve picked up noted ‘pest’ Ryan Garbutt in a trade with Chicago and even with the Los Angeles Kings running away with the Pacific Division and the Central Division likely to send five teams to the playoffs the Ducks are still just four points out of postseason qualification. The Ducks will also enter this game rested to the point of being ‘antsy’–they last played on Wednesday at home against Minnesota. A scheduled game for Friday night against the Capitals in Washington was postponed due to snow. Anaheim didn’t arrive in Detroit until early evening yesterday but that’s not a huge issue.
So the Ducks will be raring to go and catch the Red Wings playing in the second of back to back games. The Red Wings beat the Sabres 3-0 at Buffalo last night and will start Jimmy Howard tonight–he’s become the backup to Petr Mrazek this season and hasn’t played since January 11 when he faced the LA Kings in another back to back situation. The Ducks and Wings are both 6-3-1 in their last ten games but so far this season Anaheim has underachieved while Detroit has likely overachieved. We’ll take the road team.
BET ANAHEIM DUCKS -105 OVER DETROIT RED WINGS
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS AT BOSTON BRUINS:
“Win one for Torts!” It’s doubtful that the Blue Jackets are using this refrain as a rallying cry but they’ll play this game without head coach John Tortorella. The mercurial coach broke two ribs during a practice at an outdoor rink when forward Rene Bourque hit a rut in the ice and tumbled into Tortorella. Bourque’s take: “I was just coming off the board. I hit a rut, there’s big rut in the ice, a hole, and I went down. I fell into him and took his feet out. I didn’t even see him. It happened so fast. I knew I hit something, but I didn’t have time to turn around and see him fall. I didn’t know who I hit.” Recently acquired defenseman Seth Jones didn’t mince any words: “I saw it from the bench. It looked pretty nasty.” Tortorella will be alright–as Jackets’ captain Nick Foligno put it: “The funny thing about Torts, he’s tougher than all of us. If you see him down you know he’s hurt.” Ever the badass, Tortorella insisted on walking the half block back to the Jackets’ home ice at Nationwide Arena before being transported to the hospital in an ambulance.
Columbus still has the worst record in the NHL but they’ve also gone through a brutal amount of injuries. So where have we heard *that* song before? That’s right–it was last year when this talented but underachieving team went through another brutal amount of injuries. Could there be a problem with the Jackets’ conditioning program? The biggest absence at the moment is starting goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky who is back on IR with the same groin injury that has sidelined him twice before this season. Joonas Korpisalo will get the start tonight and he’s put up uneven numbers since taking over the starting job but to be fair that’s all that can be expected with Bobrovsky and backup Curtis McElhinney out of action. He should be starting for the AHL Lake Erie Monsters at this point. Korpisalo has had his moments which suggests that the future for the 21 year old Finnish goaltender is bright. Columbus will get Nick Foligno and Matt Calvert back off of injured reserve here.
Boston is a huge favorite but they’ve been much better on the road (14-5-3) than at home (17-5-2). Both teams are 4-5-1 in their last ten games. We’ll take a shot on the Jackets.
BET COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS +200 OVER BOSTON BRUINS