AP
Once again it seems like the betting market is a little skeptical of the New York Rangers.
Coming back with essentially the same team that won a Presidents’ Trophy and got within two wins of the Stanley Cup finals last spring, you’d expect that the bookies would have tagged the Blueshirts as one of the clear favorites to hoist Lord Stanley next June.
Not only were the Rangers the best team in the regular season, but they’re also a public darling when it comes to betting and usually bookmakers place a premium on those kinds of outfits.
And yet, the Rangers are essentially a co-favorite with the New Jersey Devils and Carolina Hurricanes to win the Metropolitan Division and their Over/Under is sitting at “just” 100.5 points, which is well short of the 114 they put up last season.
That doesn’t mean the bookies are projecting the Blueshirts to be bad, but perhaps just underwhelming compared to how they are viewed by fans, pundits and the mainstream media.
It’s a familiar song and dance for this team.
It does, however, look as if the Rangers are getting proper credit ahead of their season opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday evening.
The Blueshirts are sitting as a -140 favorite at the time of writing and that feels about right when you consider they are on the road and add in the unpredictability of opening night.
The one bet that did jump out right away was for this game to go to overtime at +360.
The best path to success for Pittsburgh in this game — and this season — is to play a more conservative style of hockey to guard against their lack of offensive skill.
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Sidney Crosby is still elite, but he’s on a bit of an island in this lineup so the Penguins will try to avoid getting into a back-and-forth battle with a more talented team like the Blueshirts.
That should slow this game down quite a bit, which puts value on it going beyond 60 minutes.
THE PLAY: Rangers-Penguins regulation draw (+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.