New York Rangers (0-0-0 SU, 0-0 PL, 0-0-0 OU) vs Chicago Blackhawks (0-0-0 SU, 0-0 PL, 0-0-0 OU)
When: 8:00 PM ET, Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Where: United Center in Chicago, Illinois
Lines: Chicago -130, New York +110
Total: 5
The New York Rangers won the President’s Trophy last year as they had the most points in the NHL (113), but in the end they fell short of making it back to the NHL Finals as they lost to Tampa Bay in six games in the Eastern Finals. Tonight they will take on the Chicago Blackhawks, who are the defending Stanley Cup champs, but have lost some key pieces from last year’s team.
Two years ago the New York Rangers made it to the Stanley Cup, but lost to the Los Angeles Kings. Last year they came back with the most points in the NHL, but lost in six games to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Finals. So close the last two years for this team and they feel like they have some unfinished business to deal. They are a strong team on paper, but they did lose Martin St- Louis, who retired and took his 52 points that he put up last year with him. He will be tough to replace.
The Rangers have also traded away Carl Hagelin for Emerson Etem and they signed Viktor From Nashville to help with depth. Even without St Louis, the Rangers have a potent group of forwards that are led by Rick Nash, who had 42 goals and 27 assists last year. The Rangers also have back Henry Lundqvist, who is one of the best goalies on the league, but they did lose some depth at that position with the departure of Cam Talbot.New York is still a formidable team and will be a factor in the Metropolitan Division again, but I don’t feel they will win it as the division as a whole got stronger at the top.
The Chicago Blackhawks are the defending Stanley Cup Champions, but as with most title teams they had to part with some high priced talent, which will now make this a bit of a rebuilding season for them. Gone from last year’s team are Brandon Saad, who had 23 goals, Kris Versteeg, who had 34 points and Patrick Sharp, who had 43 points last year. That’s a lot of points to replace. Chicago did a decent job in finding replacements for those players , but still those three that were lost were really the core of the team.
A big reason for having to dump money is that the cap hits were kicking in for Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. Toews had 28 goals and 38 assists last year, while Kane had 27 goals and 37 assists on the year. Kane is going through some legal troubles, but has participated in all of Chicago’s practices and preseason games. It is unclear if he will play in this one though. The Blackhawks also went out and got Artemi Panarin, who had 62 points for St Petersburg in the KHL last year. This is still a solid team, but they lost too much from last year to think that they can get back to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Trends
New York is:
- The Under is 32-15-8 in their last 55 vs the Central Division
- The Under is 11-5-1 in their last 17 games overall
Chicago is:
- The Under is 19-6-2 in their last 27 vs the Metropolitan
- The Under is 6-1 the last 7 Meetings in Chicago
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The last four games between the teams put up five goals or less, and both of last year’s games ended 1-0. Both teams have very good goaltending,and both have lost some key offensive personnel, which will really keep the scoring down. Even if Kane starts for the Blackhawks, they just don’t have the scoring that they did last year and Lundqvist has a 1.98 GAA vs the Blackhawks in 8 career games vs them. On the other side we have Corey Crawford in goal for the Blackhawks and he has allowed just eight total goals in four games vs the Rangers in his career. This one will be a defensive battle.
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