NHL Betting Free Picks: Edmonton @ Anaheim
Added on Apr 11, 2010 by Jack Thurman in
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Final day of regular season NHL betting at sportsbooks worldwide, and we’ll take a look at a Western Conference contest between two teams that won’t be involved in the playoffs. The Edmonton Oilers travel to the Honda Center in Anaheim for a 5:05 PM Pacific game that has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the postseason.
Edmonton Oilers at Anaheim Ducks
April 11, 5:05 PM Pacific
Ducks aren’t a bad team–they’ll finish with a winning record regardless of the outcome of this game. If they played in the East they’d almost certainly be playoff bound. All of that is of little consolation, of course, and the fact that they’re a fairly decent team that fell short of the postseason in a deep and talented Western Conference may actually work against them in this spot. When handicapping late season games among non playoff teams it often become a simple question of which side is more motivated. Edmonton will finish with the league’s worst record but has shown some life down the stretch winning 3 straight and 6 of their last 11 in the sports betting stretch. Even when they haven’t won they’ve been competitive–only one loss in this 11 game stretch has been by more than one goal. So what has gotten into the Oilers? Probably the best motivation that we could ask for–while the Ducks are a decent team that will make a few adjustments in the off season the Oilers need help up and down the lineup. In other words, there are guys on the team who could be making a case for future employment as a professional hockey player. There’s likely players on every team in the league in a situation where they’re ‘playing for a job’, but none have as many as Edmonton. The Ducks have played very listless hockey since they were eliminated from playoff consideration, and on a warm Sunday night in Southern California we don’t see them coming out with a lot of intensity to close out the season against the worst team in the league. We’ll gladly take the Oilers as a hefty underdog in this spot.
Bet Edmonton +175 over Anaheim
