NHL Betting Picks: Washington Capitals at New York Rangers

Added on Apr 20, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NHL

The New York Rangers will try to even up their best of seven series with the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night as the teams play game 4 at Madison Square Garden. The Caps won the first two games on home ice but the Rangers got a late goal from Brandon Dubinsky to earn a 3-2 victory in Game 3.

Washington Capitals at New York Rangers
April 20, 2011 4:05 PM Pacific

Since Brandon Dubinsky’s heroics gave the Rangers a Game 3 victory, most of the media attention has focused on Washington coach Bruce Boudreau. More specifically, the New York press is aghast over comments that Boudreau made about Madison Square Garden and the Rangers’ fans. Here’s what Boudreau had to say on a Washington sports radio station on Monday:

“Well, the one thing, its reputation is far better than the actual building. I mean, it’s nothing. The locker rooms are horrible. The benches are horrible. There’s no room for anything. But the reputation of being in Madison Square Garden is what makes it famous. Also, our building’s a lot louder, too. So I mean, they can say what they want, but it’s not that loud in there.”

Not surprisingly, the Big Apple fans aren’t pleased with Boudreau’s assessment of their arena and noise level and will no doubt give him ‘the business’ in Game 4. It has taken the attention off of his team’s struggles in the building so it’ll either prove to be a brilliant bit of tactical coaching or a stupid statement that woke up the proverbial hornets’ nest.

As far as the game, we don’t see any value on either side at the price. Instead, we’ll return to a concept that has been profitable all season long and look to play this game Under the total. Caps have now played only 22 Over in 85 games including the regular season and playoffs with 59 Under and 4 pushes. Only 12 games against opponents with winning records have gone Over this season (28 Under, 2 push). So far in this series there have been 2 games Under the total and one push. Neither team likes to play wide open hockey so we expect another hard fought defensive battle that should result in another game Under the total.

Bet Washington/New York Rangers Under 5 -130