NHL Hockey Betting: San Jose Sharks at New Jersey Devils
The San Jose Sharks have lost four straight games and seen their lead in the Pacific Division dwindle to three points over Anaheim and five over Edmonton. They’ll try to get back on the winning track on Sunday as they take on the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center. The Devils have been playing well of late with a 6-3-1 record in their last ten games but that hasn’t really done much for their position in the standings. They’ve got 56 points which puts them ahead of only Carolina in the rugged Metropolitan Division and ahead of only the Hurricanes and Detroit in the entire Eastern Conference.
The Sharks are coming off a loss at Philadelphia on Saturday and could be without Logan Couture here–he’s listed as ‘questionable’ with an undisclosed injury. This is the final game of a four game road trip and no team wants to go winless on these making it all the more urgent for the Sharks to win here. After this they’ll have three days off before returning home to take on the Florida Panthers and another three days after that before they play again, facing Arizona in Phoenix. They can use the rest after a grueling stretch in late January/early February during which they performed really well.
Martin Jones has been ‘penciled in’ for the Sharks though this looks like a perfect spot to give backup Aaron Dell another start. Dell played on Thursday in Boston in relief of Jones and got the start yesterday in Philly. He put up a very solid effort in an overtime loss. Assuming that Jones is fatigued another Dell start would give him a nice break before the Sharks play again. He’ll be opposed by Cory Schneider who has been ‘confirmed’ for the Devils. Schneider has a 17-15-8 record this year with a 2.66 goals against average and a 0.912 save percentage.
Devils have been off since 2/6/17 and that means they could be rusty here. Their offense in particular isn’t exactly a ‘well oiled machine’ at their best. Sharks could be tired at the end of a draining and disappointing road trip but they need this win.
BET SAN JOSE SHARKS -120 OVER NEW JERSEY DEVILS
