Two of the top teams in the Western Conference meet on Wednesday night as the Chicago Blackhawks visit the San Jose Sharks on NBCSN. The Blackhawks are leading the Central Division while the Sharks are battling for first in the Pacific Division. The Blackhawks are in the midst of their annual circus road trip where they leave Chicago while the Circus takes over the United Center for two weeks. This will be the fifth game of the seven-game road trip.
Don't miss the ice action from the SAP Center at 10:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, November 23, 2016. Catch every moment of the game live on NBCSN.
We'll have NHL odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NHL Wednesday schedule.
Odds Analysis
Chicago played on Monday night in Edmonton so they will at least have had a day off to get ready for this game in San Jose. The Blackhawks went 2-1 in the first three games of this trip. Chicago was 5-3 in their first 8 road games this season with only one game going over, four going under with three pushes.
San Jose is playing the second game of a five-game homestand as they hosted New Jersey on Monday. The Sharks were 4-2 in their first six home games with five going under with one push. The Sharks could be a team to bet on in the next couple of weeks. Keep in mind that San Jose has played fewer home games than any other team in the league.
Special Teams
Chicago is fourth in the league in goals scored but their power play hasn’t been anything special as they are 14th in the league at 18.6%. The problem for Chicago is penalty killing as they are last in the league at 69.5%. The Blackhawks have a great goaltender in Corey Crawford so the poor penalty killing hasn’t hurt them too much as Chicago is allowing just 2.5 goals per game.
San Jose hasn’t been that great on the power play as they are just 16th in the league at 16.1%. The Sharks are simply not scoring many goals of any kind as they are just 26th in the league at 2.3 goals per game.
San Jose has gotten very little from Joe Thornton who had just two goals in his first 17 games. It was thought that San Jose would be better on offense this season with the addition of Mikkel Boedker but no one is really doing anything other than captain Joe Pavelski who had five goals.
San Jose has done well in penalty killing as they are 4th in the league at 87%. The Sharks are giving up just 2.3 goals per game.
Goalie Report
San Jose has an excellent starting goaltender in Martin Jones who is 8-8 on the season with a 2.31 goals against average. The backup is Aaron Dell who has played only three games and has a 1-1 record but a nice goals against average of 1.90.
Crawford has been excellent again this season as he is 9-6 with a 2.17 goals against average. The Blackhawks also have a good backup as Scott Darling is 4-0 with a 2.94 goals against average this season.
Free NHL Picks
The Blackhawks have won three of the last four meetings with three of those games going over the total. The teams have split their last six games in Chicago with the last two going over the total.
When you think of Chicago and San Jose you think of two teams that can score goals but so far this season each team has been much better on defense. Each team has an excellent starting goaltender so this could be a low scoring game with Crawford and Jones playing well. I will take this contest under the total.
NHL Odds: Sharks 2, Blackhawks 1
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