The New York Rangers are not under much pressure.
The Blueshirts are in first place in the Metropolitan Division with 54 points and are second in the NHL with a .711-point percentage.
You always have to add the caveat that anything can happen over the next 43 games and hockey is a wild sport, but it would be a pretty big surprise if the Rangers don’t finish atop the Metro.
That said, the Rangers have quietly begun to slip a little bit of late, and they’ve got their hands full with the Pacific Division-leading Vancouver Canucks on Monday night.
Vancouver is a +120 underdog at Madison Square Garden.
Rangers vs. Canucks prediction
This is a really interesting matchup on paper.
While the Canucks and Rangers both boast terrific records to this point, there are some skeptics that wonder if we’ve already seen these teams peak.
Neither team has elite 5-on-5 numbers, but that just doesn’t seem to matter because they both have fantastic power plays and elite goaltending.
If you can win on the margins with skill, goaltending and special teams then you don’t need to consistently tilt the ice in the right direction to get results. We’ve seen this approach work for the Rangers for a number of seasons and now the Canucks are cooking up a similar winning formula.
The difference right now is that Vancouver’s 5-on-5 numbers seem to be trending in the right direction, while the Blueshirts are seeing theirs dip.
Over their last 10 games the Canucks own a 52.9% expected goals rate and a 54% high-danger scoring chance percentage, both of which are improvements over their season-long numbers and make them even more of a threat considering they already have a top-10 power play and a Vezina-caliber goaltender.
Betting on the NHL?
There’s very little separating these two teams right now.
They both have tremendous skill at the top of their lineup, they both have splendid goaltenders and they’ve both been rolling throughout the first half of the season.
But with the Canucks showing more at 5-on-5 and the Rangers trading wins with losses lately, I’ll back the underdog at MSG on Monday night.
The Bet: Canucks (+120, DraftKings)
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