BEST LINES: Pinnacle -1½ +267 Bet365 -1½ +265 SportsInteraction -1 +160 5DIMES -1½ +258

BEST LINES: Pinnacle +105 Bet365 +100 SportsInteraction -105 5DIMES +102

Posted at 12:05 PM EST 

Before we begin and until further notice, we’re going to be splitting up our NHL underdogs into two bets. We’re playing them straight up for 1 unit and we’ll be playing them on the reverse puck line (-1½) for 1 unit, thus making up our traditional 2 unit bet. The thinking is that if the dog loses, we lose our bet anyway. If the game goes into OT, which is a coin-toss anyway, we lose our -1½ bet but have a chance to profit a pork-chop if we happen to get lucky and win it in the extra time. If our team is winning by a goal, we know for sure we’ll get a crack at an empty netter and there is also a good chance that if our team is ahead, it might be by more than one goal anyway. Therefore, our bet for this game and every dog we play will be -1½ for 1 unit and straight up for one unit.

-------------------------------------------

7:05 PM EST. OT included. The Rangers are coming off a 4-2 win on Saturday against the Predators that broke a nasty five-game losing streak. That works in our favor because a win is a win is a win and it looks good on paper. Thing is, the Rags mustered a mere 15 shots on net against Nashville and played most of the game in their own end. New York has surrendered 220 scoring chances against and only one team, the Penguins have surrendered more (223). Incidentally, Pittsburgh has a 10-1 loss and a 7-1 loss this year, which is a strong indication of what can happen when you constantly give up a barrage of scoring chances. Analytically, the Rags are a wasteland and above the surface it’s much of the same. New York is 1-4 against top-10 teams. Its two wins this year were against Nashville and Montreal and they were badly outshot in both. The New York Rangers will not outplay the Sharks here and if they win, it’ll be all luck driven, based on in-game variance.

We played the Sharks on Saturday and they lost 5-3 in Brooklyn to the Islanders. They lost because Thomas Greiss was better than Aaron Dell. Goaltending decides many games in the NHL but tonight, we trust we have the edge with Martin Jones against Queen Henrik. The Sharks have outshot and outplayed every one of their opponents this year but one. San Jose is 3-2 over its last five games with both losses over that span occurring against the Islanders. However, San Jose outshot the Islanders by a ridiculous combined count of 72-46. That’s equivalent to what the Panthers did to the Bears yesterday under the hood. If you played San Jose along with us on Saturday, don’t be discouraged by the result. The Sharks are a top-3 possession team and coming off a loss only makes them hungrier. Wrong side favored.    

The bets are as follows:

San Jose -1½ +267 for 1 unit

San Jose +105 for 1 unit

Open an account today at Pinnacle Sports and take advantage of their -104 style pricing on sides and totals, which is 60% better than other sportsbooks.