Posted at 9:15 AM EST. Odds subject to change.

Pinnacle -1½ +143 BET365 -1½ +130 Sportsinteraction -1½ +135 888Sport -1½ +125

Washington -1½ +143 over Anaheim

7:07 PM EST. This is strictly a situational play, as the Ducks have to be running on fumes here while the Caps are not. Washington is coming off a weekend series split against the Rangers so they’ve been off since Sunday, which was a matinee game to begin with so give them an extra half day of rest. With just three wins in its past 11 games, the Caps cannot afford to overlook anyone and frankly, they couldn’t have hand-picked a more “ripe to get beat” opponent. 

Anaheim played last night in Florida and rallied from two goal deficits not once but twice. They also scored in OT to beat the Panthers 5-4 after being soundly outplayed and chasing the puck for most of the night. Anaheim also played on Saturday in Tampa so they go from two games in Florida to a game in Washington tonight but it gets even better. The Ducks will play their fifth straight road game tonight after games in Nashville, Carolina, Tampa and Florida. They also played at home on Sunday January 7th against the Red Wings. Thus, Anaheim played on January 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, 15th and they’ll play tonight on the 16th. This is their sixth game in nine days with travel required in all of them. It is also their third game in four nights and the tail end of back-to-backs after being badly outplayed in every game. The Ducks were outshot in Tampa on Saturday, 40-21 and rarely had the puck last night. Chasing the puck for 60 minutes  is tiring. Chasing the puck for 7 games in a row is exhausting. Traveling every other day is exhausting. Losing is exhausting and writing this up was exhausting. We can’t imagine the Ducks doing anything tonight but showing up in body only.

Sherwood

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