The Blueshirts look to stop Hawks' top producing line of Colin Blackwell and Jason Dickinson while holding them to under in goals
The Blackhawks have struggled without star Connor Bedard as their offense has scored barely a goal per game with 17 in their last 13 games following his injury. They’ve been producing at the same rate as Tampa Bay forward Nikita Kucherov, who has 17 assists in his last 12 games. You can tell your team is struggling when your team is being out produced by one player and it doesn’t help that they have rough history against the Blueshirts, when playing in their own building, being outscored 19 to six in three straight home losses.
However, things are bound to change and the Hawks will look to finally kickstart their offense with three or more goals in just two of their last 16 games and the Rangers have looked human as of late with a 7-7-2 record in their last 16 games. The Hawks key to success will be keeping this game low-scoring if they can. If you want some added incentive to watch this one, here are our best bets for tonight’s matchup.
All betting lines are from Bet365 and are subject to change. Please gamble responsibly.
Pick: Blackhawks under 2.5 goals (-190), Rangers regulation ML (-180)
The odds may not be great but this is still one of the most solid bets in hockey with an unbelievably bad offense as of late with Bedard being the biggest factor people are focussing on. The bigger story is that forwards Taylor Hall, Andreas Athanasiou and Anthony Beauvillier are all out as well and have been for most of the season, so they haven’t been able to find rhythm all season with players dropping like flies. They also struggle to keep the puck out of their net with a 3.49 goals against per game average that ranks bottom five in the league, which also doesn't help with generating offensive zone time.
The only thing New York has to do is shut down their second line of Colin Blackwell, Jason Dickinson and Joey Anderson who’ve scored seven of the Blackhawks’ 17 goals since Bedard was hurt. They can come up with a very simple game plan of attack and win this one easily inside the games 60 minute timeframe.