Premium NHL Pick : January 26 #2

Anaheim Ducks @ Atlanta Thrashers:

First time these clubs are meeting this season. Anaheim Ducks are 8-13-5 on road and the Thrashers are 11-9-4 on home ice this season. Anaheim is 6-3 SU in its last 9 games when playing Atlanta and Anaheim is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games when playing on the road against Atlanta.

Ducks had a poor start to the season but they have been getting better since December. Now they are on top of Dallas Stars in the Pacific division where they have lost all of their games. They went 0-7-1 in against their division rivals and it is why they have only 55 points in 52 games this season.

Ducks are coming off a very impressive come back victory against the St Louis Blues. Blues had a 3-0 lead after two periods but the Ducks managed to come back from behind to take the game into shoot outs and beat the Blues 4-3 in the end. They outshot the Blues 37-21 and it was worth all the hard work asd they won their 8th road game this season.

They have been very strong on home ice of late going 5-0-0 in their last 5 games but they still have work to do on road. They are improving but they can not let their opponents take 3-0 leads and expect to repeat the come back in St Louis. It just wouldn't work.

Thrashers are among inconsistent teams in this league and they have lost three of their last five games with disappointing loss against the Carolina Hurricanes last Thursday at the Philips Arena. It was the last time they played on home ice.

Thrashers are still without goaltender Kari Lehtonen and defender Christoph Schubert. Ducks have three injuries and all of them are forwards. Saku Koivu, Joffrey Lupul and Teemu Selanne are all out indefinitely. It wasn't long time ago they were happy to get Teemu back in the lineup but the experienced player had a very unlucky incident and he is now out with a broken jaw. Selanne's absence has been hurting Ducks powerplay. With him in the lineup, their powerplay becomes one of the best in the league. Without him, it is below league average. In their last match in St Louis they were blanked on three powerplay opportunities. They actually couldn't score a powerplay goal in last two games. They went 2 for 20 in their last 5 games. That's only 10% and they obviously have to work on that.

Thrashers are not so good on powerplays either. Especially in their last 5 games. Thrashers went 1 for 25 on the man advantage in their last 5 games. That's only 4% and no other team in the NHL has been that poor on powerplays as of late.

Thrashers will certainly attack as usual. That's how they play hockey game. Ducks have been good in outscoring their opponents.(5-4 victories over the Sabres and the Flames) Let's see if they can outscore a hungry Thrashers team. I believe they can.

PREMIUM NHL PICK: ANAHEIM DUCKS TO WIN [Moneyline]

1.95 @ Bodog.com

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