Calgary Flames vs. Minnesota Wild - 12/23/19 NHL Picks, Odds, and Prediction

Game: Calgary Flames vs Minnesota Wild

Date: Monday, December 23, 2019

Location: Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, MN

TV: RSNW/FSN

Odds/Point Spread: Flames (+100) Wild (-123)

Total/Over-Under: 6.5

David Rittich and the Calgary Flames (18-14-5, 4th in the Pacific Division) travel to Xcel Energy Center on Monday where they'll take on the Minnesota Wild (17-15-5, 6th in the Central Division). The Wild open this contest at -123 while the Flames are coming in at +100. The total opens at 6.5. The Flames cover 44.1% of the time, having gone 15-19 SU. Minnesota covers 44.4% of the time, going 16-20 straight up.

The Calgary Flames head into this game holding a record of 18 victories and 14 losses, which is good for 4th in the Pacific Division. Thus far in the season, they have scored a total of 96 goals which has them ranked at 14th in the conference and 27th in the NHL. Their goal differential is -16, which is good for 26th in the NHL. The Flames currently have a total of 41 pts, which has them ranked at 17th in the NHL and 8th in the conference. Regarding shots at the opposing goalie, they currently have a total of 1,148 which has them ranked at 5th in the conference and 14th in the NHL. As a group, Calgary has obtained a total of 579 hits which means they are averaging 15.6 per contest. They currently have a total of 415 blocks for the season. The man between the pipes for Calgary is David Rittich from Jihlava, Czechoslovakia. He is 27 years old and has totaled 1,692 minutes in goal for the season. Rittich is surrendering an average of 2.77 goals per game which ranks him 12th among West goaltenders and 25th among goalies in the NHL. For the season, he's allowed 78 goals. He holds a save % of .913 which ranks him 14th among West goaltenders.

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The Calgary Flames were on the losing side of the ice with a 4 - 3 defeat against the Montreal Canadiens in their last game. The Flames were neither impressive or disappointing offensively in this defeat. In this outing, they earned a goal on 3 out of the 27 shots they put on net. They also had 1 power play attempt and were able to notch 1 goal on that try. Calgary earned a total of 6 penalty minutes in this outing. The Corsi for the Flames sat at 54 and the Corsi against was 71 which tells us they had a Corsi percentage of 43.2%. Their Fenwick was 41 while the Fenwick against sat at 56, meaning they had a rate of 42.3%. They won 31 face-off wins and lost 28 attempts to control the puck. Their starts in the offensive zone came in at 46.4% and they had a PDO at even strength of 97.4 in this game. Concerning opponent stats, the Montreal Canadiens put up 43 shots. They had a total of 4 penalty minutes and they had 2 power play attempts.

The Wild are the team looking to add points to their total and for the season they have 17 wins and 15 losses. Regarding goal differential, they are sitting 10th in the conference and 23rd in the NHL with -11. They currently have a total of 114 goals for this year which puts them at 4th in the West. Minnesota has a team save percentage of .893 which currently has them ranked 26th in the NHL, meaning there could be plenty of chances to score if they are aggressive. They are shooting 10.8% ranking them 2nd in the conference. In net for Minnesota is Devan Dubnyk who is having a rough year by allowing 3.42 goals against average and that has him ranked 32nd in the West and 61st among goalies in the NHL. In the 823 minutes he's been on the ice this season, he's surrendered 47 goals. He has a save % of .892, which puts him at 30th in the West and 58th among goalies in the NHL.

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The Minnesota Wild faced off against the Winnipeg Jets in a matchup where the Wild took a loss by a score of 6 - 0. In this matchup, Minnesota had a 55.4% Corsi rating. They got to that percentage by earning a Corsi of 46 while their opponent earned a Corsi of 37. Their Fenwick percentage was 57.4% with a Fenwick of 35 and the Jets finishing with a 26 Fenwick. These Corsi stats speak to the kind of game that Minnesota had and you could say that they have had better days on the ice. Their PDO was 83.3 and they'll go home having earned an oZS percentage of 45.8%. The Wild notched 0 goals of the 31 shots on goal they pursued. They had 3 power play attempts in this one but weren't able to score a goal. Regarding their opponent, the Jets had 4 power play chances and went on to score 1 goal. Minnesota gave way to 31 shots on goal and the Jets ended up with a total of 13 penalty minutes.

So what is Tonights Parlay prediction?

Parlays Pundit's Pick: Take Minnesota (-123) and under the total goals

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