Maple Leafs vs Rangers | Betting Preview, Odds, Pick

NHL Pick: Suddenly Hot Leafs Float into Madison Square

The Toronto Maple Leafs will try to continue their best stretch of the season and to put a dent into the New York Rangers’ playoff hopes. The Leafs have become accomplished spoilers and would love to continue that role.

Toronto Maple Leafs (29-37-14) @ New York Rangers (36-33-13)
7:00 PM ET, Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Madison Square Garden, New York, New York
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• The New York Rangers rank 17th on offense, and average 2.7 goals per game. The Rangers are 18.4% on the power play and have 53 power play goals.
• The Toronto Maple Leafs rank 21^st on offense, and average 2.6 goals per game. The Maple Leafs are 14.4% on the power play and have 44 power play goals.
• The Rangers average 2.9 goals per game at home, and give up 2.7 goals against on defense.
• The Maple Leafs average 2.6 goals per game on the road, and give up 3.5 goals against on defense.

Toronto Maple Leafs: +165

The Toronto Maple Leafs will try to deal a death blow to the New York Rangers on Wednesday night. Toronto has been playing arguably their best hockey of the season thus far and could spoil a few teams’ playoff aspirations. For the most part the Leafs’ season has been a disaster, but a 5-3-2 stretch over their last 10 games have some believing that the rebuilding process might actually be gaining some steam. The Leafs are 29-37-14 on the year and are an awful 11-20-8 on the road.

Nobody on defense offense or in goal has been hot for the Leafs except for maybe Tyler Bozak who has thirteen points in his last thirteen games. Front line players like Phil Kessell and Dion Phaneuf have crawled into a hole and have already booked their spring vacation plans. The young players for Toronto will still play hard and give the Rangers all that they can handle though.

New York Rangers: -200

The teams that the Rangers are chasing for the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot certainly did them no favours on Tuesday night. Instead of two points back of two different teams, the Rangers enter Wednesday night’s game three points back of Boston and four points back of Philadelphia. The Rangers can hope that the lowly Leafs come up with another Dud performance – this time against them!

The Rangers haven’t exactly won their way into a possible playoff spot. Their chance to reach the post season is more a product of the teams around them playing terribly.  They are 5-4-1 in their last 10 games. There is really nobody that is hot on the team except for goaltender Henrik Lundqvist whose solid play may have come too late this season. He is 13-6-2 with a 2.02 goals against average in his last 21 games.

Wednesday night’s game will be broadcast on national television in a matchup of the “have nots” vs. the “have nots” The Rangers are 10-21 in their last 31 home games. They should be motivated to stay in the playoff race because after all, their final two games come against one of the two teams that they are chasing, the Philadelphia Flyers. I smell an upset here however – the Leafs have a tendency to get up for big games and for the pitiful Leafs, this is actually a big game

Pick: Toronto Maple Leafs +165

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Toronto Maple Leafs Betting Trends:

• Toronto is 1-4 SU in its last 5 games
• The total has gone UNDER in 10 of Toronto’s last 12 games
• The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Toronto’s last 8 games on the road
• Toronto is 5-19 SU in its last 24 games on the road

New York Rangers Betting Trends:

• NY Rangers are 5-2 SU in their last 7 games
• NY Rangers are 2-4 SU in their last 6 games at home
• The total has gone UNDER in 4 of the NY Rangers last 5 games at home
• The total has gone UNDER in 4 of the NY Rangers last 5 games when playing Toronto