The slumping Ottawa Senators face a hot team in Buffalo tonight. The Sabres are an impressive 6-0-2 while the Sens are a disappointing 2-5-1. After dropping 3 straight home games, Ottawa slide continued with a loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto in their last game.
Buffalo is coming from a 2 game road trip. Goalie Patrick Lalime is expected to go tonight. Lalime is a reliable backup but it's tough to match Ryan Miller amazing start this year.
Ottawa will start Alex Auld once again with Martin Gerber (injury) unable to go again tonight.
The Senators players, specially the talented players had a lot of trouble in the last few games against hard working teams with grinders hitting and dumping the puck deep. Florida, Anaheim and Toronto all performed well against the Senators. On the other hand, Buffalo is not playing this way. The Sabres are a skill team with good skating abilities. They are not really known for toughness like they used to be in the Ray-May era. Ottawa have done better against good skating teams not known for toughness. They won against Pittsburgh, Phoenix and played Detroit to a one goal game. When Ottawa get some momentum going they should be able to win against any kind of opposition but until then they will be better playing open ice hockey fitting their style better.
This game from a betting perspective is looking like the Bills-Dolphins game yesterday... where you had a hard time finding any logic to play a slumping Miami team against a hot Bills team. The other Buffalo area team drove 75 % of the betting public but the heavy money thrown by the 25 % of the Dolphins bettors moved the line Miami way... By the way, Sabres line dropped 10 cents at almost every Books.
Well, the betting public is all over Buffalo due the Sabres hot start while Ottawa is searching for solutions. Almost 75 % of the action is on Buffalo and guess what the line is holding or dropping at most places. I like the Senators chances and the value. I think Spezza, Heathley and Alfreddsson will have some open ice tonight. Ottawa is not in a good mood, they need a win and should be hungry.
Anaheim is finally starting to get some pucks going into the net after struggling to score early on. Anaheim is striking at opportunities with 10 goals scored in their last two games while giving up 7. Columbus has just played two of the best defensive teams in the NHL back to back in NY Rangers and Minnesota. Jackets should have more chances to put some puck in the net against the Ducks current defensive play.
Both teams playing a third game in four nights. We may see some scoring opportunities due to lack of defensive coverage. Ducks are at the end of East Coast trip and they allowed 51 shots to Montreal in their last game, fatigue may be a factor. Jackets on the other hand will not be able to count on the heroic goalie Pascal Leclaire (injured). Frederick Norrena is getting the call. It's no secret that Norrena is not in the same class of Leclaire, but this year Norrena play has been terrible increasing the gap between the two goalies. Norrena carry a below average .900 career save %.
I think we have some ingredients for some goals tonight. Ducks no 1 line is starting to click. A total of 5 goals with anyone else than Leclaire in goal for Columbus looks a bit low. I like the over.
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