The New York Rangers and Henrik Lundqvist have had the Boston Bruins’ number for years, and they’re catching a banged-up Bruins club that has been sporadic to say the least early in the NHL season.
The Rangers are a -135 home-ice favorite with the Bruins coming back at +115 with a 5.5-goal total for their meeting on Wednesday at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
The Rangers, with Mika Zibanejad averaging a shade more than a point per game, come in on a four-win streak, while the OddsShark NHL Database shows that New York is 5-0 in its last five home games against Boston. The Original Six inter-division rivalry has been home-slanted, with the host going 7-2 in the last nine matchups.
Boston is 6-4-3 so far this season, but nine of its 13 games were on home ice and they have yet to win back-to-back games this season. The Bruins’ scoring depth is also compromised significantly with forwards such as Brad Marchand (upper body), David Krejci (back) and Ryan Spooner (groin) all certain not to play. That could lend itself to the Bruins trying to build a defensive shell around goalie Tuukka Rask and trying to frustrate the Rangers.
New York, 7-7-2 on the year, has been scoring in bunches through Zibanejad, J.T. Miller and Pavel Buchnevich, among others. Lundqvist has been off to a slow start and the total has been at least seven goals in five of the Rangers’ last six games, but the law of averages would suggest that trend could flip.
The total has gone over in four of the Bruins’ last six road games against the Metropolitan Division. The total has gone over in five of the Rangers’ last six home games.
Also on Wednesday, the San Jose Sharks are in a pick’em matchup on the betting lines against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The total is also set at 5.5 goals.
Tampa Bay, which is out of the starting gate rapidly with an 11-2-2 record, comes in with key scorers Steven Stamkos (eight goals in 11 career games against San Jose) and Ryan Callahan (seven in 11) carrying impressive track records against the Sharks. Right wing Nikita Kucherov also leads the NHL in goals.
The Lightning are playing the front end of back-to-back games and are 4-1 in their last five games when they were slated to play the next day. Tampa Bay also has a healthy lineup, including a standout first defense pairing of Victor Hedman and Jake Dotchin.
That said, the Sharks, who are 8-5-0, have been good at the HP Pavilion Arena against Eastern Conference teams that are making the three-time-zone trip to Northern California. Led by D Brent Burns, the Sharks are 6-1 in their last seven games against Eastern teams. San Jose is also coming in with a three-day break since its most recent game, so it will certainly have the energy to put up a fight against a Lightning side that is deeper offensively. Goalie Martin Jones will also be available to make the start.
The total has gone under in four of Tampa Bay’s last five road games against Pacific Division competition. The total has been 5.0 or fewer in San Jose’s last six games.