Anaheim’s offense has come alive without solving its losing problem. The Ducks have scored 16 goals across their last three games and won only once, leaving Sunday’s visit from Ottawa with a clear question: can Anaheim turn another productive night into a result, or will the Senators’ own scoring threats keep exposing the goals it has been allowing?
The Ducks are scoring enough to compete
Anaheim beat Philadelphia 5-4 before losing 6-5 to Vancouver and 7-6 to Buffalo. The latest defeat came Thursday after the Ducks led 3-1, then allowed six consecutive goals. Anaheim scored its final two goals in the last 1:08 with an extra attacker. Cutter Gauthier scored twice and Leo Carlsson had three assists.
That is both an attacking response and a warning. The Ducks have allowed 17 goals across those same three games. Even scoring five or six has not been enough to win their latest two, and they have lost seven of their last eight overall.
Laurent Brossoit faces Ottawa’s Jonas Johansson on Sunday. That changes the individual matchup from Thursday, when Ville Husso made 23 saves for the Ducks. Anaheim needs a better result at that end to make its improved scoring count.
Ottawa brings several active scoring threats
The Senators beat San Jose 5-1 on Saturday, with Tim Stutzle and Dylan Cozens each contributing a goal and an assist. Stutzle finished October with nine goals and 12 assists, while Cozens scored his third goal in two games. Drake Batherson also scored to extend his point streak to seven games.
Ottawa has scored five goals in each of its last two games, although the first was a 6-5 overtime loss at Los Angeles. The Senators have split their last 10 games and lost the first two stops on this trip before winning in San Jose. Saturday was a welcome rebound, rather than proof that the road problems are behind them.
Batherson’s points line is 0.5, with the Over at -190 and the Under at +140. His seven-game point streak makes that market worth examining, but the price is a separate part of the decision. Ottawa’s recent production is encouraging; the return still has to justify the cost.
Johansson’s three most recent Ottawa starts have been difficult overall: 62 saves on 72 shots for an .861 save percentage. His latest ended with four goals allowed on 16 shots in just over 30 minutes against Los Angeles. Samuel Ersson made 21 saves in Saturday’s win, so Ottawa’s strong result against San Jose should be kept separate from Johansson’s own recent record.
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A close moneyline and a scoring-heavy recent picture
DraftKings has Ottawa at -118 and Anaheim at -102. The Senators’ recent scorers give the slight favorite a credible case against a team conceding heavily. Anaheim’s response is also clear: its attack has been producing, and Johansson’s recent results give the Ducks reason to keep pressing for goals.
The schedule adds context to that narrow price gap. Ottawa plays for the second consecutive day, while Anaheim has not played since Thursday. Our projections give the Ducks a small shooting-volume edge, at about 30 shots to Ottawa’s 28. That keeps Anaheim’s attacking case in the discussion despite its poor recent win-loss results.
The total is 6.5, with the Over at -130 and the Under at +110. Anaheim’s last three games all went Over their posted totals, and the combination of its recent goals allowed and Ottawa’s active scorers gives that direction a concrete case. Johansson’s three-start sample adds another scoring concern on the other side.
There is a broader counterweight: nine of Ottawa’s 15 games this season have gone Under. Saturday’s 5-1 win also shows that a strong Senators scoring night needn’t bring a high total, though Ersson’s work in that game cannot be carried straight into Johansson’s matchup. Anaheim’s recent scoring gives it a plausible way to challenge Ottawa; finding enough stops to benefit from those goals remains the harder part of the Ducks’ case.
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