Take A Risk On A Juicy Payday With Rangers

Rangers vs. Sabers, 7:00 ET

Rangers vs. Sabers, 7:00 ET

It was a truly brutal night for me with sports betting. I lost literally every play that I had yesterday, something that doesn’t happen often, but is still very annoying, painful, and frustrating when it does. What do you do when you run into a wall? Well, you find a door, or another way around, but you continue to try. After a great streak on the ice, I hit a wall yesterday as the Flyers beat the Blue Jackets. I’m looking for a door today and trying to find a way around in the game with the Rangers and Sabres.

The Rangers are a team that actually helped us to a win this week and now we go back to a game with them tonight. The Rangers are 14-12-1 for the season, but they are fairly average on the road this season with a 7-5-0 record. Over the past five games, all of which have been at home, the Rangers are just 2-3, so they are not playing their most optimal hockey at the moment. The Rangers are playing a lot of hockey currently. This will be the fourth game in six nights for the Rangers which means they may have some very tired legs. For the year, the Rangers are allowing three goals per game to opponents and are scoring 3.19 goals per game, which explains the close to .500 record. Igor Shesterkin is likely to be back in the net for the Rangers tonight. He has been good in his past two games, allowing two goals in both, and three of the past four games. The Rangers haven’t given him much support over his past few games though. In his last seven starts, they’ve scored three goals just twice. 

Oct 19, 2024; Chicago, Illinois, USA;  Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (1) and center Jiri Kulich (20) hug after the third period against the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images

The Sabres are also more likely to be considered average than anything else this season. Up until Thanksgiving they alternated winning and losing streaks, but have now fallen into a bad streak. They’ve lost seven straight games. They have teetered on a win lately, having taken one game to overtime and another to a shootout. The problem is they dropped both of them. Their offense hasn’t looked great, but over the past seven games they’ve scored at least three goals three times. They were also shut out twice, so there is a bit of inconsistency lately. For the season, the Sabres are averaging three goals per game and allowing 3.25 goals to opponents. They are probably going to put Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in the net tonight. For the season he has a 8-7-3 record with a 2.82 goals against per game average and a .902 save percentage. He has looked a bit lately with five goals allowed in two of his past three games and at least three goals allowed in his past four games. 

In baseball, I feel like a lot of times it is better to just take the run line of who you think will win if it is as plus money. There just aren’t as many one-run games as you’d think. With hockey, I feel like there are a lot of games that end with one score, but those also typically offer an empty net opportunity. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the teams end this game 3-1 or 6-4. There really is a wide range of outcomes that are possible on this one. I do think the Sabres eventually have to snap out of this losing streak, but Luukkonen isn’t giving me much hope lately. Shesterkin is playing better. Back the Rangers to win this game and I think they cover the 1.5 puck line at +180. 

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