Rangers vs Capitals NHL Line/Handicapping
Rivalry Night – Disappointing Rangers Visit Equally Disappointing Capitals
Two early season favorites to challenge for the new Metropolitan Division crown this season meet in DC Wednesday night – both struggling and looking to right the ship – QUICK!
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NY Rangers (1-4-0-0) at Washington (2-4-0-0)
When: 8:00 PM ET, Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Where: Verizon Center, Washington, District Of Columbia
Broadcast: TSN2, RDS2, NBCSN
Rangers vs. Caps Betting Lines from betonline.com
New York Rangers +1½ -225 +134 Ov 5½ +100
Washington Capitals -1½ +195 -147 Un 5½ -110
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The New York Rangers and the Washington Capitals are certainly familiar with each other – the two teams have split four playoff series in the past five seasons with the Rangers taking the last two series. It marks the first meeting of the season between the two clubs and surprisingly, it a crucial one for morale and for a bump in the standings.
The New York Rangers have been bad this season – three straight losses by a combined 20-5 score ahead of their Wednesday night showdown with the Caps. New coach Alain Vigneault has been dealing with a few key injuries (Rick Nash (upper body) is on injured reserve and there is no timetable for him to return.
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Carl Hagelin (shoulder) has yet to play this season) but these two players don’t keep the puck out of the net.
The Rangers are giving up a staggering 5.00 goals per game so far this season – Henrik Lundqvist has a .887 save percentage and backup Martin Biron has been placed on waivers because of his early season woes. New York was once a defensive squad but this year all of the D has gone down the toilet so far.
Offensively the Rangers miss Nash – the team is averaging just 1.80 goals per game There isn’t one plus player on the roster heading into Wednesday night’s game and only four players have more than two points on the season in five games. I could go on and on!
The Washington Capitals haven’t been a whole lot better! Their two wins this year have come against bad Alberta teams and the defense has been abysmal – although not quite as bad as that of the rangers. [ad-4437448]
The Caps are allowing 3.67 goals per game and neither goaltender has above a .893 save percentage.
Offensively however, the Caps have been OK – 2.67 goals for per game. But a look at the roster shows that it is two guys doing all of the damage – Alex Ovechkin has six goals and was tied with Sidney Crosby for the League lead with nine points entering play Tuesday and Mikael Grabovsky had a hat trick last week. Together that’s 9 goals – the rest of the team has just seven combined!
Washington’s power play has been strong – 36.4 % and should be able to exploit New York’s weak penalty kill – that may be the difference in the game.
Betting Prediction:
A few trends to consider:
• NYR are 1-7 in their last 8 road games.
• Under is 59-29-27 in NYR last 115 road games.
• WAS are 12-4 in their last 16 home games.
• WAS are 2-6 in their last 8 overall.
• Under is 13-4-9 in the last 26 meetings
Both of these teams have had more than their share of issues keeping the puck out of the back of their net but at least Washington is scoring! Nothing is going right for the Rangers at all and until MSG is finally renovated, I see the extended road trip remaining painful for Rangers fans. New York just aint that good – blowouts in their last three games is proof. I like the Caps in this game – they have more going for them ahead of Wednesday night’s contest. I also like the Over – together these two teams are allowing 8.67 goals per game.
Pick: Washington Capitals -147 and the Over – 5 1/2 goals
