N.Y. Rangers @ N.Y. ISLANDERS
N.Y. Rangers -½ +250 over N.Y. ISLANDERS

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Posted at 4:00 PM EST

N.Y. Rangers -½ +250 over N.Y. ISLANDERS

7:05 PM EST. Regulation only. When Queen Henrik is in net, the Rangers lose. When he’s not in net, the Rangers win and they win frequently. Over the Rangers last 22 games, Lundqvist has been in net nine times and the Rags are 2-7 in those games. In the other 13 games over that span, the Rags are 9-4. Tonight, Alexandar Georgiev will be between the pipes for the Rangers and that means they have an outstanding chance to beat the New York Fraudlanders.

When media folks and mostly everyone else discuss the Islanders, they refer to Barry Trotz’s sound defensive system as to the reason why the Islanders have been winning so frequently since Trotz arrived to begin the 2018/19 season. That’s such hogwash. What defensive system would that be exactly? The system that ranks the Islanders 24th in High Danger Scoring Chances Against? Or is is the system that has them ranked second last in the NHL in puck possession time in the offensive end? The Islanders give up a ton of scoring chances and they are usually playing without the puck. The reason they win is because their goalies have been great. It has nothing to do with Trotz’s defensive system because that “system” IS NOT working one bit! This is truly a remarkable case of the media and fans being deceived by results.

Last season, the Islanders enjoyed the best goaltending in the NHL, or at least enjoyed remarkably elite results from Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss. This year, they’ve once again been getting lights-out goaltending, this time from Greiss and Semyon Varlamov.

The Islanders came into this game as a bottom-five team in Corsi, Fenwick, and Scoring chance percentages at five-on-five, via Natural Stat Trick. They’re once again a team that ranks high in PDO (save percentage plus shooting percentage), a category that is referred to as “puck-luck”. It’s tough to imagine the Islanders’ goalies being this dominant all season long again… but who knows? Goaltending is part of the team so in that regard, the Islanders are good because their goaltending is great and not because they have mastered some made-up defensive system. It’s all goaltending. We’ll trust the hot shooting Rags to bury some pucks just like they did on Monday against these same Islanders in a 6-2 victory.

If you have a friend who believes results are everything, you’ve probably experienced him telling you how good the Islanders are. Sure, they can cite the two pieces of “evidence” they have. What you learn very quickly though is that arguing is useless and they’ll just resort to calling you a “stupid Globe-head” when you show them facts. Fact is, the Islanders are very beatable and we’ll continue to attack.

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Our Pick

N.Y. Rangers -½ +250 (Risking 2 units - To Win: 5.00)

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Chicago +167 over Ottawa