New York Rangers at New Jersey Devils Betting Odds
Opening Moneyline: Rangers + 170 / New Jersey -200 O/U 5 goals
Time: 7 PM EST Thursday March 25, 2010
Tonight in an Eastern Conference match up in the Garden State the New Jersey Devils host the desperate New York Rangers. The Devils are coming off a win, are 5-4-1 in their last 10 games, and are tied for the 3rd position in the East. The Rangers need to end the season well to make the post-season, as they trail Boston by 5 points for the 8th and final playoff spot. The Rangers are also coming off a win, but they are only 3-5-2 in their last 10 games.
The Devils would like to stay in the 3rd spot in the East, as that would mean they would avoid playing the high-scoring Washington Capitals in a possible 2nd round playoff match up.
This season the Devils are 25-10-1 at home and the Rangers are 16-15-3 on the road.
In their last games the Rangers looked solid in beating the New York Islanders 5-0 last night and the Devils beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 6-3 on Tuesday night.
Tonight the Rangers begin a 6-game road trip that will make or break their season. They have to win and it does not help that they do not face Boston or Atlanta, who are the 2 teams ahead of them battling it out for the last playoff spot.
Both of these teams win with their defense, as the Devils rank 17th in the league in scoring and the Rangers rank 20th.
Goalie play will be important tonight and the Rangers will be facing Martin Brodeur (40 wins 2.34 GAA save percentage 91.4%), who leads the league in wins, but is only 2-3-1 with a 2.45 GAA in his last 6 home games against the Rangers.
New York G Henrik Lundqvist (29 wins 2.42 GAA save percentage 91.9%) was stellar in the Rangers last game with a shutout and he will have to play well between the pipes tonight.
The Devils' defense, which is only allowing an average of 2.35 goals per game, has to key on Marian Gaborik, who leads the Rangers in goals (39), assists (40), and points (79).
The Rangers need to stay out of the penalty box tonight and for the season they have logged around 300 more minutes in the box than the Devils. After going 0/17 on the power play in 3 games in a row they were 3/6 in their win over Columbus on Tuesday.
Betting Trends
New York is 1-4 in their last 5 games against team with a winning record and has an Under record of 4-1 in their last 5 games.
New Jersey is 2-10 in their last 12 games following a win and has an Under record of is 13-3-1 in their last 17 after scoring 5 goals or more in their previous game.
In the last 7 games between these 2 teams the total has gone Under 5 times.
Our Selection : The Rangers start a 6 game road trip tonight against the Devils and if there going to have any chance of catching Boston, they need to win this game and probably 7 or 8 of their 9 remaining games to have any chance. 5Dimes have them at +175 a nice price and worth a shot on a team with their back against the wall in a must win spot. Take the Rangers +175.
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.