Doc’s Sports

At 31-14 to the over, Anaheim is one of the best over teams on the total this season, and we don’t mind paying a little juice for the over here tonight. The Ducks defense has been atrocious, and it has allowed at least five goals in seven of the last eight games. There is a good chance that Dallas will capture most of the goals for this total. Dallas has the third best offense in the NHL for goals scored per game, so it’s not inconceivable for them to surpass this total as a team. But we have a very sneaky feeling that the Ducks will make a game of this. The Stars are on a back-to-back and playing their third game in four nights. Their defense might not have the energy, and Anaheim will be attacking for sure on offense. The Ducks have had two nights off, and that is ample time to regroup after nine straight losses, and we could see the Ducks come out strong on offense. We certainly think they will get their share of the total. The Ducks have gone over in eight straight. Dallas has gone over in four if six. Three straight meetings have gone over the posted number.

These teams played three times in December, and the Spurs won all three as underdogs and of course covered all three spreads. We said before those games that the Spurs are a potential threat to the OKC dynasty. They match up well against them, the Thunder have no answer for Webanyama (no team does), and they have great depth after stockpiling young talent in the draft for years. They always seem to raise their level of play against OKC. The Thunder do not have that killer instinct to just destroy teams like they have in the past. After being by far the best ATS team last season, they are 19-21 ATS this year. They are still being overvalued by the oddsmakers and have failed to cover in five straight. They just aren’t playing their best right now and still being overvalued on the lines.

5 Unit Play. Take Wisconsin over Minnesota (7p.m., Tuesday, January 13 BTN) Wisconsin is coming off an impressive victory at Michigan on Saturday. I do not see a letdown in this game since they are still outside the bubble and need to accumulate wins. This is a rivalry game that has been dominated by Wisconsin, as they have beaten Minnesota 9 straight games. Minnesota has some good wins this season, but they lost at home to USC last time out and I see them losing two games in a row at the Barn.