Montreal Canadiens at New York Rangers Betting Odds
Opening Moneyline: New York -145 / Montreal +125 O/U 5.5 goals
Time: 7:30 PM EST Tuesday March 16, 2010 on Versus
Tonight the New York Rangers host the Montreal Canadiens in a very important Eastern Conference match up. Montreal is tied with Philadelphia for the 6th spot in the East and they now have a 4-point lead over 8th place Boston. The Rangers are in the 9th spot in the East, but only trail Boston by a single point for the last playoff spot.
Montreal has won 5 straight, which is their longest winning streak in 4 years, but they have struggled in New York losing 6 of their last 7 games there being outscored 24-8.
The Rangers have won 2 in a row and are 5-3-2 in their last 10 games.
This season New York is 15-15-6 at home and Montreal is 17-16-2 on the road.
In their last games Montreal beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 on Saturday and New York beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1 on Sunday.
Montreal G Jaroslav Halak (22 wins 2.52 GAA save percentage 92.2%) has been solid in the 5-game winning streak starting every game with a 2.29 GAA. He has not had much success in the Big Apple recently only going 1-3-0 with a 4.11 GAA in his last 4 starts in New York.
The Rangers' offense is not a high scoring one, as they rank 23rd this season (2.59 goals per game). Luckily they will be facing a shaky Montreal defense that is giving up an average of 2.74 goals per game.
The Montreal D has to be wary of Marian Gaborik, who leads New York in goals (36), assists (37), and points (73).
Montreal also does not have a high scoring offense ranking 20th in the league (2.63 goals per game). They have to find a way to score on G Henrik Lundqvist (28 wins 2.45 GAA save percentage 91.9%), who has owned the Canadiens at home going 6-1 with a GAA of 1.89 in his last 7 games in New York.
New York has dominated Montreal at home lately, but for the season the Rangers are only .500 at Madison Square Garden.
Wagering Trends
New York is 9-19 in their last 28 home games and has an Under record of 15-5-2 in their last 22 games following a win.
Montreal is 5-0 in their last 5 games, has an Over record of 4-0-1 in their last 5 games, and an Under record of 6-2-2 in their last 10 road games.
In 8 of the last 9 games between these 2 teams the total has gone Over.
Our Selection : Pass
Future Betting Odds
NHL Handicapping
Tampa Bay Lightning at Boston Bruins 5-17
The Boston Bruins need to play much better in game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Bruins lost the opener 5-2 at home and can ill-afford to fall behind 2-0 to Lightning. Tampa Bay are on quite a roll, winning their last eight in a row in the playoffs. The oddsmaker at Bodog have the Bruins as a -145 favorite to even-up the series.