NHL Picks: Dallas @ NY Rangers

Added on Jan 06, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NHL

The Dallas Stars are off a loss on Tuesday night and will head to Madison Square Garden on Wednesday to face the New York Rangers. Both sides have been tough for sports betting enthusiasts to figure out, and their performance has been up and down all season long. The Rangers are currently tied for 7th place in the Eastern Conference while Dallas is in 10th place in the West.

Dallas Stars at New York Rangers
December 6, 4:05 PM Pacific

This game will have added intensity as it marks the first time that the Rangers’ Sean Avery has faced his old teammates in Dallas. The controversial Avery was run out of Dallas after his infamous ‘sloppy seconds’ comment, and picked up by the Rangers on waivers. While Avery hasn’t provided much in the way of an offensive spark, he’s shown moments of being a very valuable defender who generally makes opposing players miserable.

New York is off a 3-2 win at Boston, but has struggled to score goals with the exception of Marian Gaborik who has 27. Overall, the team is ranked 20th in goals per game and shots per game. They’ve only scored more than 3 goals twice in their last 12 games, and have gone Under 9 times in that stretch with 2 Overs and a push. Dallas has split over and unders this year (21 OV, 20 UN) but they’ve proven to be a team that has a hard time dictating tempo. They end up playing their opponent’s preferred style and that’ll likely be the case here.

In a very emotionally intense game fueled by the Sean Avery on ice ‘reunion’ with his former team, we look for a low scoring contest here. The Rangers haven’t shown the offensive productivity to outscore anyone and this fact combined with what should be a hard hitting, close checking game suggests that goals will be at a premium. 6 of the last 8 head to head meetings in New York between these teams have gone Under and we think this one will as well. Since we’re going Under a 5 total we’re getting some value on the moneyline.

Play NY Rangers/Dallas Stars Under 5 +125