Saturday picks: Ducks to continue West surge
Welcome to the NHL Daily Picks where hockey writers Adam Gretz and Chris Peters make their picks for all of the day’s games.
Anaheim Ducks vs. Chicago Blackhawks, 8:30 p.m. ET
The Anaheim Ducks have been rewarded for sticking with coach Bruce Boudreau when the entire hockey world thought he was on the verge of being fired earlier in the season.
After starting the season with just one win in 10 games, scoring only 10 goals in the process, Boudreau’s job with the Ducks seemed to be hanging by a thread. The Ducks, however, chose not to overreact and stuck with one of the most successful coaches in the NHL. Ever since then they have started to play like the Stanley Cup contender they were expected to be when the season began. The Ducks are 25-12-6 since that 10th game (that’s a 107-point pace over 82 games). They have been even better over their past 20 games where they are currently in the middle of a 14-4-2 run.
Even though they enter play on Saturday 29th in the NHL in goals per game with just 2.26 per game (ahead of only the New Jersey Devils, who are at 2.22 goals per game) most of that damage was done during the first 10 games of the season. Since then they have started to score like you might expect a team with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf to score, averaging 2.83 goals per game over the 43 games that followed that season-opening slump.
When you combine that with a team that has one of the best defenses in the league (third in the NHL in shots on goal against, sixth in the NHL in goals against) and is getting top-level goaltending from the duo of John Gibson and Frederik Andersen, and it’s not hard to see how this team has completely turned its season around and climbed back into a playoff position. A win on Saturday, combined with a Sharks loss to Arizona would push Anaheim into second place in the Pacific Division.
On Saturday they visit a Blackhawks team that is once again a top Stanley Cup contender in a rematch of the Western Conference Final from a year ago.
The Blackhawks are still holding a narrow lead over the Dallas Stars for first place in the Central Division, but have hit a little bit of a slump offensively over the past couple of weeks. They’ve won just four of their past eight games and have managed to score more than two goals in a game just twice over that stretch. They enter Saturday having lost back-to-back games and have lost three in a row just one other time this season (during a stretch from Nov. 28 through Dec. 3). Given their recent cold streak offensively, and the fact the Ducks are are playing some fantastic hockey at the moment and have been one of the better defensive clubs in the NHL this season, they might have another three-game losing streak on their hands here. Pick: Anaheim Ducks 3, Chicago Blackhawks 2
The rest of Saturday’s picks
Philadelphia Flyers 3, New Jersey Devils 2
Boston Bruins 4, Minnesota Wild 2
Vancouver Canucks 5, Toronto Maple Leafs 1
Florida Panthers 3, Nashville Predators 1
New York Islanders 4, Carolina Hurricanes 2
Ottawa Senators 6, Columbus Blue Jakets 2
Washington Capitals 5, Dallas Stars 4
Edmonton Oilers 4, Winnipeg Jets 3
San Jose Sharks 3, Arizona Coyotes 1
The Anaheim Ducks are on a roll after a slow start to the season. (USATSI)
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