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The Vancouver Canucks (30-26-5) head south to the Mile High City to face the Colorado Avalanche (45-13-4) Wednesday at Ball Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. ET (ESPN+). Below, we look at the Canucks vs. Avalanche odds and lines, and make our expert NHL picks, predictions and bets.
Vancouver enters on a three-game skid and losers of five of its last six, and it will be running out backup G Jaroslav Halak to tend the nets Wednesday.
Colorado, winners of its last four, should be licking its chops. LW Mikko Rantanen has 4 goals and 4 assists in the last four games to lead the red-hot Avs’ charge.
- Money line: Canucks +210 (bet $100 to win $210) | Avalanche -270 (bet $270 to win $100)
- Against the spread (ATS): Canucks +1.5 (-120) | Avalanche -1.5 (-105)
- Over/Under (O/U): 6.5 (O: -108 | U: -112)
Canucks at Avalanche projected goalies
Jaroslav Halak (2-6-2, 3.41 GAA, .886 SV%) vs. Darcy Kuemper (30-8-2, 2.40 GAA, .923 SV%, 5 SO)
There is quite a mismatch on paper as the 36-year-old Halak has the highest GAA and worst SV% of his 16-year career. He’s only played in one game this month, a 5-2 home loss to the Calgary Flames Saturday. He hasn’t won since Jan. 31.
Kuemper has been fantastic in his last four starts as he has allowed 3 goals on 130 shots and recorded 2 shutouts. He’s 2-0 with a 1.50 GAA and .946 SV% against the Canucks this season.
Canucks at Avalanche odds, lines, picks and predictions
Prediction
Avalanche 4, Canucks 1
Money line
PASS.
The Avs (-270) are huge favorites and not worth risking 2.7 times the potential profit with an ML wager. However, there’s no harm in packaging them in a parlay.
Against the spread
Take the AVALANCHE -1.5 (-105).
For such heavy favorites, that’s a pretty solid price on the puck line. Colorado is 16-15 on the puck line at home this season. During the Avalanche’s current four-games win streak, three victories were by 2 or more goals.
Over/Under
The UNDER 6.5 (-112) is the way to go – despite the extra juice.
The Avs have cooled on offense of late, which could be due to the absence of captain LW Gabriel Landeskog. Colorado has scored 3.1 goals per game over the last 10, which is way down from its season average of 3.8.
Vancouver has scored just 4 goals in its last three games. Plus, the Under is 4-1-2 in the last seven meetings of these two clubs in Colorado.