Colorado Avalanche vs Chicago Blackhawks: Avalanche will win

Prediction for the NHL Colorado Avalanche vs Chicago Blackhawks match, which will take place on January 25. Check the team conditions and choose several betting options.

Colorado continues to lead the Western Conference standings, gradually increasing their lead over their rivals. The Avalanche had a bit of a performance problem at the start of the season, but they made a run of formidable progress. For 12 games in a row, Jared Bednar's team never left the ice without a point, winning 11 games during this stretch, with only one loss in overtime against Nashville (4:5). The Denver team started the home series with a hard-fought 3:2 win over Montreal, but they got their two points, the most important thing.

Chicago is having another very weak regular season. It seemed that they had already started to improve last season, and now they will even reach a new level. However, it turned out to be much worse. They had already lost nine straight games in the regular season. The Hawks have barely improved and have won four consecutive games in mid-January before losing to Seattle (2:3) and then suffering two straight losses to Minnesota (1:5) and (3:4). As a result, Chicago sits just 14th in the Western Conference standings.

Colorado and Chicago are on opposite sides of the Western Conference standings. While the Avalanche leads the way, the Hawks are at the bottom of the standings, gradually losing their playoff chances. This fact alone makes the Denver team the favourite. In addition, they've won both of their head-to-head meetings this season. Jared Bednar's team has now scored in 12 games in a row, so we suggest betting on Colorado's victory with a handicap (-1.5) for 1.76.

Colorado and Chicago have been very active on the goal-scoring. In their last six head-to-head encounters, the teams have combined to score 43 goals (7.17 average per game), which isn't bad by NHL standards. In the current regular season, the Avalanche are the highest-scoring team in the league, while their defence may not be considered the most reliable, with 283 pucks (7.26 average per game) scored in a total of 39 games. As a result, we suggest betting on a total over 6.5 for 1.90.

Valeri Nichushkin has missed many games during the regular season, but he's back in the lineup and continues to be very productive. In all 23 games played, the Russian has already scored 19 points (11 goals + 8 assists), which means he's averaging nearly one assist per game, the best mark in his career. The 26-year-old is in great form right now, so we suggest betting on Valeri Nichushkin total over 0.5 for 3.5.