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Posted at 11:00 AM EST 

5:05 PM EST. The Hurricanes are coming off a 2-1 loss to the Blues on Friday, which was just the second this season that they lost the shots on net battle. However, the ‘Canes truly are one of the least flawed teams in the NHL. They are second behind Edmonton in puck possession time and rank first or second in several defensive categories, which includes scoring chances against and time in their own end. Carolina hasn’t even warmed up yet. Once the ‘Canes hit their stride, they are going to be hell to deal with, as the Maple Leafs found out last week in a 6-3 loss to this team.

As much as we like the ‘Canes, this one lines up nicely to fade the Ducks, another team that looks completely out of sorts. In another misleading score last night, Anaheim fired away a lousy 20 shots on net in a 4-1 victory in Tampa Bay. Tampa’s Peter Budaj’s save percentage in that game was .810 while John Gibson’s was .969. The Ducks will now play their fourth road game in a row, their third game in four days and the tail end of back to backs. Anaheim has won three of its last four games by scores of 6-2, 6-2 and 4-1 but they were dominated in all three. The Ducks also took 16 minor penalties in those three wins and the opposition scored one time. The Anaheim Ducks have been the luckiest team in the NHL thus far. They’ve been chasing the puck all year but the results don’t reveal that. In between those three wins was an 8-3 loss in Florida. It looks like the Ducks will be forced to use their backup goaltender tonight since Gibson played last night. That backup will be either Reto Berra or Ryan Miller but more importantly, we can almost guarantee with absolute certainty that the Ducks will get badly outplayed here. Lastly, this game starts at 5:00 PM EST and the Ducks played in Tampa last night so it does not give them much time to regroup. Man, are the Ducks ripe to get beat here. 

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