Back to the grind of the brutal NHL Western Conference schedule, and we’ve got a nice NHL betting position on the Phoenix Coyotes/San Jose Sharks game.  As we’ve discussed before, the Coyotes are one of the surprise teams of the season.  Despite their off ice ownership issues they’ve been able to be competitive and tied for 5th place in the West with Nashville at 57 points.  The Sharks are one point behind the Chicago Blackhawks for not only the Western Conference lead but the overall best record in the NHL.  These two teams will tangle tonight in Phoenix:

SAN JOSE SHARKS VS. PHOENIX COYOTES

The Phoenix Coyotes may play the ugliest brand of hockey in the league, but they need to in order to win games.  Lacking high powered offensive playmakers, the Coyotes have prospered with solid defense and goaltending.  Phoenix ranks 25th in goals scored per game, so they’re not going to beat anyone in a end to end wide open contest.  The linesmakers have started dealing 5 totals on virtually every Coyotes game but they’re still not playing ‘over’.  They’ve only gone ‘over’ the total twice in their last nine games (4 UN, 3 push).   Obviously they’re going to ‘push’ a lot more at 5, but the important thing is that they’re not going ‘over’ those totals.  And we all know their season to date stats by now:  the Coyotes have only gone ‘over’ in 12 of 46 games all year (29 UN, 5 push).  They’ve only gone ‘over’ six times in 24 games at home (15 UN, 3 push).

San Jose definitely has more offensive weapons, but they’ve also got a solid defense.  They’ve got a slight ‘under’ bias this season, but against their own division they’ve gone ‘under’ in 10 of 16 games with one push.  San Jose ranks #4 in goals scored per game and  #22 in goals against, which is why they’re fighting with Chicago for the best record in the NHL.

Head to head matchups have also trended strongly ‘under’ this season.  The two teams have met four times already this year, with all four games producing 5 combined goals or fewer (3 UN, 1 push).  We’ll go ‘under’ here and look for that form to continue, getting plus money with the low total.

PLAY PHOENIX/SAN JOSE UNDER 5 +125