Ottawa Senators at Washington Capitals Betting Odds
Opening Line: Senators +180 / Capitals -210 O/U 6 goals
Time: 7 PM EST Tuesday March 30, 2010 on RDS
Tonight in an Eastern Conference match up the Washington Capitals host the streaking Ottawa Senators. The Capitals have already wrapped up the top-seed in the East, but they have lost 2 in a row including their last game at home.
Ottawa is in the 5th position in the East trailing the New Jersey Devils by 6 points. They would like to move up to 4th so they could host a 1st round playoff series. That is important for the Senators, as they are under .500 on the road this season.
This season the Capitals are 27-5-4 at home and the Senators are 16-20-1 on the road.
In their last games the Capitals lost to the Calgary Flames 5-3 on Sunday while the Senators beat the Florida Panthers on Saturday.
Washington has the best home record in the NHL while Ottawa has the worst road record of any team in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
Ottawa only ranks 18th in the league in scoring (2.64 goals per game), but they have the stingiest defense in the league only giving up an average of 2.39 goals per game. Their defense has been stellar in their 4-game winning streak only giving up a total of 4 goals.
The solid Senators' defense will be tested tonight by a Washington offense that ranks 1st in the league in scoring (3.83 goals per game) led by Alex Ovechkin, who ranks 2nd in the league in both goals (46) and points (100).
Senators' G Brian Elliott (27 wins 2.50 GAA save percentage 91.1%) has to play well tonight and he is 17-6-0 with a GAA of 2.09 in his last 25 starts. Even though he has a GAA of 4.13 in his last 4 starts against the Capitals he does have a 3-0-0 record.
Ottawa is 2-1-0 against the Washington this season and have held the Capitals' league-leading power play without a goal in 8 chances.
If the Senators can play good defense against the Capitals and their dynamic offense they have a good chance to win this game, as they will be facing Washington G Jose Theodore, who is 17-0-2 in his last 20 appearances, but only has a GAA of 2.82, a save percentage of 91%, and was pulled in his last game after giving up 3 goals in his first 10 shots he faced.
Alex Kovalev is tied for the lead in goals for the Senators at 22, but he has not scored a single point since the Olympic break.
Washington has to stay out of the penalty box tonight, as they have given up 62 power play goals this season.
Betting Trends
Ottawa is 8-1 in their last 9 games against teams with a winning record, has an Under record of 16-7-3 in their last 26 games, and has an Over record of 4-1 in their last 5 road games.
Washington is 7-1 in their last 8 against teams with a winning record, 11-3 in their last 14 home games against teams with a losing road record, and has an Over record of 4-1 in their last 5 home games.
In the last 4 games between these 2 teams the total has gone Over 4 times.
Our Selection : Take Over 6 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.