Anaheim Ducks (12-21-7) vs Colorado Avalanche (26-9-4)
Game Info: Friday, April 9, 2021 at 10:00 pm (Honda Center)
Betting Odds: Anaheim Ducks +274 / Colorado Avalanche -316 --- Over/Under: 6 Click Here for the Latest Odds
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The Colorado Avalanche and the Anaheim Ducks meet in NHL action from the Honda Center on Friday night.
The Colorado Avalanche will look to rebound from an 8-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild in their last matchup. Nathan MacKinnon leads the Avs in scoring with 47 points including 15 goals and a team-high 32 assists while Mikko Rantanen has 46 points with a team-high 22 goals this season. Gabriel Landeskog has 337 points with 15 goals and 22 assists while Sam Girard and Cale Makar each have 20+ assists this season. As a team, Colorado is averaging 3.6 goals per game on 35.3 shots with a 25% success rate on the PP while allowing 2.4 goals on 25.1 shots with an 82.8% success rate killing off penalties this season.
The Anaheim Ducks will be out to build on a 5-1 beating of San Jose in their last matchup. Max Comtois leads Anaheim in scoring with 23 points including a team-high 11 goals and 12 assists while Rakell has 22 points with a team-high 15 assists this season. Adam Henrique also has 11 goals and Cam Fowler has 13 assists for the Ducks this season. As a team, Anaheim is averaging 2.2 goals on 27 shots per game with a 10.5% success rate on the PP while allowing 3.3 goals on 30.1 shots with a 76.5% success rate on the PK this season.
Colorado is 13-3 in their last 16 games overall and 23-11 in their last 34 road games while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games as a road favorite. Anaheim is 7-20 in their last 27 games overall and 16-35 in their last 51 home games while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games following a win. Colorado is 9-20 in the last 29 meetings between these two teams in Anaheim.
I think a case could be made either way here, as the Avs are the better team and have won the last two meetings by a combined score of 13-6, while Anaheim’s battled Colorado hard in all of the other games before that. With that said, the Ducks have stepped up their game offensively lately, and while Colorado is the better team, I just think getting a goal head=start with Anaheim might be enough to get the job done here so I’ll take a shot with Anaheim +1.5 in this one.
Chris’s Pick Anaheim +1.5
AUTHOR: Chris Ruffolo
Follow Chris Ruffolo on Twitter @ruffthepickdawg