San Jose Sharks vs. Ottawa Senators: Odds, Prediction
Last meeting of the season between the teams, as on Dec. 9 the Sharks were -155 home favourites and routed the Senators 5-0 – Ottawa could have been out of gas by that point as it was the sixth game of a seven-game road trip and third game in four nights in California (all losses).
Sharks vs Senators Betting Analysis
San Jose backup netminder Aaron Dell had 25 saves in the shutout. Logan Couture was the game’s No. 1 star with a goal and two assists. Tomas Hertl, Joe Pavelski, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Melker Karlsson had the other goals for the Sharks. They put a whopping 50 shots on Craig Anderson and were 2-for-7 on the power play. The Sens were 0-for-4 with the man advantage. There was a fight between Ryan Dzingel and Marcus Sorensen.
Ottawa won in San Jose last season but lost at home 4-3 in a shootout. Kevin Labanc scored the lone goal of the shootout. Martin Jones was in net for the Sharks. Bobby Ryan, Kyle Turris and Dion Phaneuf scored for the Senators. Mike Condon had 26 saves. The teams were a combined 1-for-13 on the power play.
The Senators are 5-2 in the past seven meetings overall. The total has gone over in seven of the past eight.
San Jose Sharks
Second of a back-to-back for San Jose (21-12-5). This writer projected the Sharks to lose Friday in Toronto by a score of 3-2 and that’s what happened, albeit in a shootout. Chris Tierney hit the goalpost in the Sharks’ final shootout attempt. Patrick Marleau had earlier hit the post in his attempt. Brenden Dillon (first goal of season) and Tierney (ninth) had the goals for San Jose, which had won 10 straight games vs. Toronto. Jones was in net, meaning it should be Dell here. He’s the best No. 2 in the NHL, rankings second in the league in goals-against average (1.98) and save percentage (.934). Not sure you can even call him a No. 2 any longer but a co-No. 1.
Ottawa Senators
This starts a home-heavy portion of the schedule for the Senators (12-17-9) as just four of their next 11 are on the road. The New Year started much like 2017 ended for Ottawa, though: With another disappointing effort as the team lost Wednesday in Detroit, 2-1 in overtime. It took the Wings’ Andreas Athanasiou just six seconds of OT to win it, tying the fastest overtime goal in NHL regular-season history. It was Detroit’s first win in seven overtime games this season (not counting shootouts). Dzingel had tied the game at 1-1 with his 10th goal of the season at 0:39 of the third. Anderson had 33 saves, and both teams were 0-for-1 on the power play. Senators centre Gabriel Dumont was activated off IR and was minus-1 in 6:09 of ice time in his first action since Dec. 16.
