Red Wings vs Blackhawks NHL Spread/Handicapping
With eight games remaining in the NHL’s regular season for the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks both teams find themselves in very different fights. For the Wings, they are scrapping just to make the playoffs on the heels of a 2-4-1 stretch while the Hawks are on top of the NHL standings, trying to hold off the Anaheim Ducks for the President’s Trophy. .
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Detroit Red Wings (19-15-6) at Chicago Blackhawks (30-5-4)
When: 8:30 PM ET, Friday, April 12, 2013
Where: United Center, Chicago, Illinois
Broadcast: NHL Network, RDS, FSN (Detroit), CSN (Chicago)
Wings vs. Hawks Betting Lines from JustBet
Detroit Red Wings +1½ -190 +167 Ov 5 -130
Chicago Blackhawks -1½ +165 -184 Un 5 +118
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Lots on the Line as Detroit Heads to Chicago Friday Night
Detroit enters Friday’s game with a two point lead on Phoenix for the eighth and final playoff spot while the Hawks enter with a five point lead over the Ducks with two games in hand. Chicago has won six straight in the series and earned at least one point in the last nine (7-0-2) including all three this year.
Desperation is a relatively new emotion for the Detroit Red Wings – we’ll see how it looks on them. They should be motivated on Friday night however to beat the best team in the NHL at least once this year and to avenge an embarrassing 7-1 loss to the Hawks in the last meeting – on Gordie Howe’s birthday – at Joe Lewis Arena.
The problem lately for the Wings has been goal scoring. Detroit has two goals or fewer in regulation in four straight and six of seven games – hardly believable. Names like Valtteri Filppula and Dan Cleary have gone cold – zero points in their last three games while others continue to do their jobs. Henrik Zetterberg has an assist in four games since missing two. He has three assists in his last three at the United Center and Pavel Datsyuk continues to look like the most dangerous man in the world. Scoring against Chicago has been a chore for Detroit all season long – they have three goals in three games so far!
Jimmy Howard will start in goal for Detroit Friday night. He has a 2.44 GAA while losing his last five to the Blackhawks, but was pulled after allowing four goals on 14 shots in the last meeting.
What can we say about the Chicago Blackhawks that hasn’t already been said? They average 3.18 goals for per game and allow 2.03 goals per game. No wonder they are top dogs in the NHL!
Although the offense steals a lot of the headlines in Chicago it has been the defense and goaltending that has allowed this team to remain elite. Ray Emery who is 3-0-0 in his last three games with a 1.00 GAA will give way to Corey Crawford who is 2-0-1 with a 1.89 GAA in his last 3 games. Crawford has a 1.15 goals-against average during his five-game winning streak versus Detroit, and stopped 94 of 97 shots in the three meetings this season while going 3-0-0 with a 0.96 GAA and .969 save % age over that span. [ad-4437448]
Patrick Sharp returned to the lineup for Chicago last time out to give a boost to an already stellar forward group. Now Dave Bolland is rumored to be close to return – possible Friday night. Chicago boasts one of the deepest lineups in hockey right now and there is no reason to think that they slow down on Friday. Chicago is as scary a team as there is in the West offensively and with the stellar goaltending, the Hawks are deserving future winners of the President’s trophy.
Betting Prediction
A few trends to consider:
• DET are 6-2 in their last 8 road games.
• DET are 7-20 in their last 27 vs. Central.
• DET are 19-7 in their last 26 Fri. games.
• CHI are 42-13 in their last 55 vs. Central.
• CHI are 12-4 in their last 16 home games.
• Over is 6-2-1 in CHI last 9 games following a win.
• Under is 17-5 in the last 22 meetings.
Friday’s matchup represents a preview of a possible first round playoff matchup in the Western Conference and you have to think that Detroit will bring their best in attempts to send a message to the mighty Hawks. But the fact remains that Detroit isn’t playing all that well at the moment and that Chicago hasn’t slowed down since puck drop in their first game this season. Chicago has not swept a season series from the Red Wings since winning all four in 1976-77 – I think they get it done Friday.
Pick: Chicago Blackhawks -184
