Detroit Red Wings at San Jose Sharks Betting Preview
Opening Moneyline: Detroit +160 / San Jose -180 O/U 5.5 goals
Time: 10:30 PM EST Tuesday February 2, 2010
San Jose currently has the most points in the NHL (81), are coming off a win, and are a solid 8-0-2 in their last 10 games. Detroit is tied with the Calgary Flames for the 8th position in the West and they are coming off a loss and are only 3-3-4 in their last 10 games.
This season San Jose is 19-4-7 at home and Detroit is 11-11-6 on the road.
In their last games Detroit lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 in OT on Sunday and San Jose crushed the Minnesota Wild 5-2 on Saturday.
These 2 teams have been the best teams in the West for the past few seasons, but while the Red Wings have been to the finals in the last 2 season, winning the Stanley Cup in 2008, the Sharks have been a major disappointment in the post-season not getting past the conference semifinals since 2004.
The strength of Detroit for the last few years has been their offense, but this season they have struggled only ranking 27th in the league in scoring (2.51 goals per game). In their recent loss to Pittsburgh the Penguins out-shot them 47-24.
Luckily, Detroit's defense has been decent allowing an average of 2.56 goals per game. Red Wings' G Jimmy Howard (19 wins 2.26 GAA save percentage 92.8%), who ranks 3rd in the league in save percentage and 7th in GAA, has saved them many times this season and may have to do again tonight if the offense can't score.
Howard and the Detroit D has a tall task tonight, as the Sharks are the 2nd highest scoring team in the league (3.31 goals per game) and has 2 players Patrick Marleau (37 goals) and Dany Heatley (30 goals) that rank in the top 6 in the league in goals scored.
Howard played great in Detroit's last game stopping 46 of 47 shots, but he gave up two in OT in the loss.
Detroit will be facing Sharks' G Evgeni Nabokov (31 wins 2.20 GAA save percentage 92.8%), who ranks second in the league in wins and third in both save percentage and GAA.
Detroit is 1-4 in their last 5 games, 1-5 in their last 6 road games, and has an Under record of 8-3-1 in their last 12 road games.
San Jose is 15-3 in their last 18 games against teams in the Western Conference, has an Over record of 6-1 in their last 7 games, and has an Over record of 5-1 in their last 6 home games.
In this match up Detroit has won 5 of their last 7 games in San Jose and in 4 of the last 5 games in San Jose the total has gone Over.
Our Selection : The Sharks have gone over the total in 6 of their last 7 games and 5 of their last 6 at home. also the total has gone over in 4 of 5 times these 2 teams faced off in San Jose. Take over 5.5 goals
Future Betting Odds
NHL Handicapping
Tampa Bay Lightning at Boston Bruins 5-17
The Boston Bruins need to play much better in game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Bruins lost the opener 5-2 at home and can ill-afford to fall behind 2-0 to Lightning. Tampa Bay are on quite a roll, winning their last eight in a row in the playoffs. The oddsmaker at Bodog have the Bruins as a -145 favorite to even-up the series.