Hey DuckDogs, welcome to hockey! Yeah 5.5 is the norm or league avg night to night. Most games sit at this total, with the minority at 5 and even rarer 6. I think with Chicago seeing a 5 is what stood out to me as they have a pretty explosive offense. They can get it on their own on a good night. That's why you see the juice because when you have a good offense and it's not 5.5 then usually there is a hefty juice. Minnesota I think will have to keep up with them and therefore I see 3-2 or a 4-2 game. It's gonna be tight. Not seeing a 5-5 or 4-4 game or anything like that.
That being said 5 is the lowest the total can go without buying pts. I have seen lots of juice on an o5 and the game end up 1-0 or 2-1. It's like a 35 in NFL, they can't really go lower than that.
NHL to me anything can happen, I cap with some research and some gut. That's just my style.