Florida Panthers at Anaheim Ducks Betting Preview
Sunday night’s Florida Panthers at Anaheim Ducks contest is an interesting one. On the one hand, the Panthers (6-5-1) have been pretty dominant in the head-to-head series, winning four straight, but they are also playing on the back-to-back after a tough 5-4 loss in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Another wrench in this game is the fact that Anaheim (4-7-1) is playing better over the past week with OT wins at home against Toronto and at San Jose. They’ve also been off since an 8-5 loss to Vancouver on Thursday. Despite all of that, Florida is still priced as a -205 favorite for this meeting.
Panthers Running Themselves Ragged
You can only play what the schedule tells you, but Florida is all over the map so far in the 2022/23 season, playing eight of their 12 games on the road. They’ve dropped five of their last six away from Sunrise, which includes defeats at Chicago as a -233 favorite while also losing in Philadelphia (-209) and Arizona (-303).
Aside from being kind of bad on the road this season, the Panthers are also playing their first back-to-back of the season on Sunday night. Their meeting with the Kings was kind of exhausting, too, giving up two leads and fighting back to tie things up before L.A. pulled away late.
Sergei Bobrovsky started in net vs. the Kings on Saturday, so Florida will turn to Spencer Knight between the pipes in Anaheim. He’s won three of his four starts this season and has a decent 2.5 GAA on the year.
Nice Opportunity for Ducks
Could Anaheim be turning things around? After a 5-4 OT win over the Kraken to start the year, the Ducks went on a brutal seven-game losing streak where they were held to two goals or less in six of those.
Since then, Anaheim has won two of their last three, scoring ten goals in the process and even their 8-5 loss to the Canucks most recently was a solid offensive showing.
Troy Terry has been very productive during Anaheim’s mini-offensive resurgence, scoring two goals and adding eight assists over the past two weeks to put him in the top 10 in the NHL over that span. Trevor Zegras has been hot lately, too, with five goals and four assists in his last seven games.
John Gibson should be back in net for Anaheim on Sunday night, having had a few days off to reflect on allowing seven goals – albeit while facing 46 shots – to Vancouver on Thursday. Gibson has an atrocious 4.1 GAA this season.
Panthers at Ducks Pick and Prediction
Oddsmakers can’t really favor Anaheim here – they haven’t been favorites since the season opener against Seattle – but catching a +168 underdog price tag seems kind of hefty.
Florida has been struggling on the road and is playing their backup goaltender (who has been solid, though), and they’re on the back-to-back while the Ducks have had two nights off.
There’s absolutely no value in Florida at -205, and Anaheim is worth a play in this one for a nice ROI.
Pick: Ducks +168