The Nashville Predators really look dead in the water at this point. After opening up with a 2-0 series lead with a pair of road wins, they've been incredibly flat and have given up a slew of goals to the Anaheim Ducks.
If their defense doesn't improve, they'll finish up their season on Monday night with a loss in Game 6.
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ODDS ANALYSIS
There's no doubt that Anaheim is going to be the public team. Most of the John Smith's out there will realize that the Ducks have won three in a row by a total of nine goals and just assume that this will be another romp.
Still, Anaheim wasn't fantastic on the road this year at 21-15-3-2, and every game really is up for grabs this time of year no matter the situation. The Ducks will be favorites, the first time a road team will be a decisive favorite in this series, but the margin won't be overwhelmingly high and might look like a trap.
GOALIE REPORT
Head coaches get paid big bucks to make big time decisions, and Bruce Boudreau's decision to pull John Gibson and put in Frederik Andersen in the pipes has paid off big time. Andersen is 3-0 with a 1.00 GAA since entering this series, and he's really been phenomenal, albeit against a team which hasn't generated a ton of great offensive looks.
Pekka Rinne hasn't been so lucky. Seemingly all of the lines for Anaheim have been rolling over the course of the last several days, and that's why he's surrendered so many darn goals. His GAA has ballooned above 3.00 for the series, and his save percentage has dropped to just .889. He's a vet, and he knows what it takes to win games in the playoffs, but this is a tough recovery for him for sure.
LIVE BETTING
We mentioned the way the Ducks are rolling their lines right now, and that begs to be analyzed a little deeper. They've got 11 different players with at least one goal in this series and a total of 16 players with at least one point, 13 of which have at least two points.
Had you told us at the outset of this series that Corey Perry wouldn't have a goal in five games and Ryan Kesler wouldn't have an assist, we would've told you the Ducks are dead. Instead, they're thriving because of the play of the rest of their role players.
QUICK PICK
Sure, Ryan Getzlaf has five points in five games, but for the most part, the stars have been really quiet as we see it. Anaheim's depth has been playing quite well, and you need that for a Stanley Cup run, but we're still really concerned about the way the superstars are playing, too.
The play of Shea Weber and Roman Josi at the back has been abysmal for the Predators, but this defensive pairing isn't going -3 as it did on Saturday night on the road.
We suspect Andersen is ready to have a bit of an off day, as he's been playing out of his mind as well. With this series shifting back to Nashville, it almost feels like there should be a big of regression here to the mean. It might be shocking to some to see this series go seven, but just as Minnesota and Philadelphia have pulled out improbable wins in really tough spots against better foes in their respective series, the Predators could do the same here to Anaheim.
NHL Odds: Predators 2, Ducks 1
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