NHL Odds, Preview, Prediction Kraken vs Ducks (Friday, April 5)
Friday, April 510 p.m. ETESPN+
Kraken Odds-170Ducks Odds+145Over / Under5.5-115 / -105Odds via bet365. Get up-to-the-minute NHL odds here.
Here's everything you need to know about the Seattle Kraken vs. Anaheim Ducks on Friday, April 5 – our expert NHL prediction and pick.
Anaheim has lost its past six meetings with Seattle with its last victory over the Kraken being a 5-4 overtime win back in October of 2022.
Let's preview the latest NHL odds and see if Anaheim can reverse that trend in my Kraken vs. Ducks prediction.
Seattle KrakenWhile the Ducks can't be happy that they're set to miss the playoffs for a sixth consecutive campaign, they didn't enter this season with high expectations. The same isn't true of Seattle. The Kraken took Dallas to seven games in the second round of the 2023 playoffs, but they have a 31-31-13 record this year and won't be advancing to the postseason.
Seattle's offense has been simply terrible, and that's at the root of the squad's shortcomings this season. The Kraken rank 29th offensively with 2.61 goals per game, which is a complete reversal from 2022-23, when they averaged 3.52 and tied for fourth offensively.
The issue has been scoring depth. Last season, six different players reached the 20-goal milestone, but with 2023-24 drawing to a close, just two players have reached that mark, and the only others with even an outside chance of getting there are Jordan Eberle (17 goals) and Eeli Tolvanen (16 markers).
Meanwhile, Jared McCann leads the team with 28 tallies, which is well below his previous finish of 40 markers, which further compounds Seattle's decline.
At least the Kraken's scorers have shown up against Anaheim, outscoring the Ducks 11-4 over the three meetings this season. Matthew Beniers has been a standout in the series, recording at least a point in each game to total two goals and six points over those three outings.
There's also a decent chance that Joey Daccord will be in goal after getting the last two games off. Daccord is having a solid campaign with a 2.42 GAA and a .918 save percentage. He's also stopped 73 of 78 shots (.936 save percentage) over his last four appearances, including a shutout over Anaheim on March 26, though Anaheim managed an embarrassingly low 12 shots in that game.
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Anaheim DucksWhile it's bizarre for any team to finish a contest with just 12 shots, even Anaheim, poor offensive outings are nothing new for the Ducks. They're one of just three teams that are worse than Seattle in terms of scoring with Anaheim managing just 2.45 goals per game.
Rather than ending the campaign on a positive note, the Ducks seem to be crawling toward the finish line, scoring a mere 1.63 goals per contest over their past 16 outings, dating back to March 3.
Unsurprisingly, that puts Anaheim at the bottom of the league offensively in that span, though Seattle hasn't been that much better over the same timeframe – the Kraken rank 31st with 2.20 goals per game.
It is truly a sad gathering of scorers whenever these two teams share the ice, but as noted above, Seattle has managed to find the back of the net with regularity against the Ducks. That's because Anaheim's defense is just as bad as its attack.
John Gibson has been dreadful with a 13-26-2 record, 3.48 GAA and .890 save percentage across 45 games, and Lukas Dostal hasn't been much better, posting a 12-21-2 record, 3.44 GAA and .899 save percentage in 39 appearances.
To be fair to Anaheim's goaltenders, the Ducks xGA/60 is 3.43, which ranks 30th and suggests that the defense in front of those netminders has been terrible.
Gibson and Dostal are still in the negatives in terms of Goals Saved Above Expected, so a case can certainly be made that they've been part of the problem, but the Ducks' defensive issues clearly go far deeper than them.
Whoever is to blame, the result is Anaheim is capable of making even a lowly offense like Seattle's look passable.
The fact that the game's in Anaheim won't help much either. The Ducks are 11-24-2 at home, which is actually marginally worse than their 14-23-2 away record. They might also end up playing without Mason McTavish (19 goals, 42 points), removing a scoring threat on a team that didn't have any to spare.
Kraken vs. DucksBetting Pick & Prediction
Seattle is being treated as a heavy favorite by oddsmakers, which is fair. These two teams have similarly poor offenses, but at least the Kraken are responsible in their own end.
The consequence of that is taking the Kraken on the moneyline doesn't offer a great payout, but given that this might be a low-scoring affair, I'm hesitant to take Seattle on the puck line, where the spread is 1.5 goals in favor of Anaheim.
Instead, I recommend splitting the difference by selecting Seattle on the 60-minute moneyline.
You lose that bet if it goes into overtime, but you'd win if the final score in regulation is 4-3, 3-2 or 2-1 in Seattle's favor, and the possible return is substantially better than the regular moneyline.
Pick: Kraken 60-Minute Moneyline (-110 | Play Down to -120)
