Colorado at Chicago

Connor Bedard has a point in five straight games, and in eight games since his belated season debut, he has four goals and nine points. Chicago is still 4-9-1. It ranks 31st in the league at 2.21 goals a game, 31st at 23.0 shots a game, and 31st on the power play at 11.6%, and it is 30th in goals allowed at 3.79. Colorado, 8-5-1, is in the league's top two in scoring at better than four goals a game. With Chicago this short on shots and power-play production, I expect the Avalanche to be largely on their own to supply the goals in this game. Chicago's penalty kill is 79.5%, 15th in the league, and Colorado's power play sits in the middle of the pack, so special teams add little to either side's scoring. At half a unit, we can absorb the nights Chicago loses, because it needs to win only a little less than one game in three to show a profit at its price. Bedard gives the Blackhawks a player who can decide a game that stays low-event, and that is where my interest in the price comes from. Take the UNDER, and take a flyer on Chicago's moneyline tonight.