Detroit Red Wings vs. Ottawa Senators: NHL Odds, Prediction

Ricky Rothstein
Last Updated: November 6, 2017

The Detroit Red Wings, one of the marquee franchises in the NHL and an Original Six team, make their second and final visit of the season to Ottawa on Thursday night. The Senators are favoured to end a two-game losing streak on the NHL odds.

Detroit Red Wings vs. Ottawa Senators

When: Thursday, 7:30 p.m. ET

Where: Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa

Moneylines: Senators -150

NHL Odds and Betting Analysis

Ottawa opened the season with back-to-back shootout losses, and the second of those was 2-1 as a -135 betting favourite against the Red Wings on Oct. 7. Veteran center Frans Nielsen, from Denmark, scored the only goal in the shootout. Martin Frk had given Detroit a 1-0 lead at the 17:26 mark of the third, but the Senators’ Dion Phaneuf scored an unassisted goal less than a minute later. Ottawa hit the post four times in the game. Jimmy Howard had 37 saves for Detroit and Craig Anderson 29 for the Senators, who were without star defenceman Erik Karlsson.

The Senators have won just five of the past 15 in this series. The total has gone under in three of the previous four.

Detroit Red Wings

The Red Wings’ amazing streak of 25 straight playoff appearances came to an end last year, the third-longest streak in NHL history. Detroit finished with 79 points, better than only Buffalo in the Atlantic Division. The Wings (6-6-1) look a bit improved at least of late as they have followed a six-game losing streak with back-to-back victories.

It was 5-3 on Tuesday night at home vs. Arizona. Detroit was up 2-0 just 2:37 in thanks to goals from Gustav Nyquist (fourth of season) and Luke Glendening (third). Anthony Mantha (five), Dylan Larkin (two) and Darren Helm (two) also scored. Howard had 32 saves to improve to 5-4-0 with a 2.57 GAA and .927 save percentage. Larkin leads the team with 12 points. Detroit is 27^5thin the league in scoring (2.7 gpg) and 26^th on the power play. These aren’t your former dominant Red Wings full of big-name star players, although Henrik Zetterberg (10 points) is still around. This starts a four-game trip through Canada.

Ottawa Senators

The Senators (5-2-5) have been terrible defensively in their two-game skid in allowing 13 goals. They were crushed 8-3 at home by Montreal on Monday night. It was Ottawa’s most goals allowed to Montreal since rejoining the NHL. Anderson was pulled after allowing six goals on 15 shots. He dropped to 4-2-3 with a 3.14 goals-against average and .895 save percentage and has surrendered at least three goals in each of his last five outings.

Tom Pyatt (third goal of season), Ryan Dzingel (fourth) and Chris DiDomenico (second) had the Ottawa goals. One bright spot was the Senators going 2-for-5 on the power play. On the flip side, Karlsson was a ghastly minus-6. Defenceman Mark Borowiecki missed the game due to an illness. He has a goal and an assist and team-leading 25 penalty minutes in nine games.