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The New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings will complete their home-and-home with a showdown in MoTown on Thursday night.
The Blueshirts won the first leg, 4-1, though that scoreline flatters the victors a bit.
That isn’t to say that the Rangers didn’t deserve the two points, but just that it wasn’t as one-sided as the final score suggests. The expected goals (xG) at 5-on-5 ended up 2.1 to 1.7 in favor of Detroit.
Is the betting market underrating the Wings’ chances in Game 2 of this home-and-home?
Rangers vs. Red Wings prediction
The formula for the Rangers likely won’t change much this season.
The Blueshirts are elite on special teams and have one of the best goalies in the world.
That means the Blueshirts can get away with pedestrian results at 5-on-5 and still have plenty of success. That methodology landed them a Presidents’ Trophy in 2023-24.
The Red Wings do not have the luxury of having Igor Shesterkin, but they were also a top-10 team on the power play and were above average on the penalty kill last season.
That makes sense when you consider the top of the roster features players like Dylan Larkin, Patrick Kane, Alex deBrincat and Moritz Seider.
Detroit’s main issue is its lack of depth, especially on the blueline. Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson should be on their way to becoming terrific top-four defensemen, but their supporting cast could use plenty of help.
The way that the Wings have tried to protect this flaw is to play low-event, grinding hockey that allows them to hang around in contests. I’d expect more of the same in this game and going forward.
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This will be a battle of contrasting styles as the Blueshirts will want to open this game up and turn it into a back-and-forth affair, while the Red Wings will want the opposite.
That could lead to it being a pretty stodgy affair and one that should be pretty close throughout. That puts value on backing this game to go to overtime at +360 odds.
The Bet: Regulation tie (+360, FanDuel)
Why Trust New York Post Betting
Michael Leboff handicaps the EPL, NHL, golf and anything else that isn’t the NFL and NBA for the NY Post. He’s up 49.73 units betting EPL with a 7.17% ROI.