Sunday's best NHL picks

[Raji]

Sat, Apr 28, 2007By Jon Campbell

Anaheim Mighty Ducks vs. Vancouver Canucks (134, 5)

It’s hard to call the under a bad bet when you have Roberto Luongo minding the crease. He stopped 43 shots in Game 2 of this series to earn NHL.com’s first star of the evening and gave the Canucks a 2-1 double-overtime victory.

The combined three goals fell below the five-goal total and the under is now 6-3 in the Canucks’ playoff run. Perhaps most importantly is that Luongo made 19 stops on Anaheim’s power play to halt the Ducks’ five-game streak of scoring at least one goal on the extra-man attack.

Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere was outshone despite making 47 saves to help push Anaheim’s playoff under record to 3-2-2 in the playoffs. While he may have been outplayed, he won’t be forgotten by oddsmakers, and bettors can expect another relatively low total for Game 3 in Vancouver.

Five goals is a modest total which can entice bettors to look at the over. But the way these two goalies are playing, you have to wonder if 5 isn’t a steal.

Pick: under 5

Buffalo Sabres vs. New York Rangers (-118, 5.5)

The good news for Rangers supporters is their team looked far stronger in Game 2 than it did in Game 1, with New York even outshooting Buffalo 33-18. The bad news is the Rangers still lost 3-2 and are now down 2-0 in the series.

Can a return to Madison Square Garden give New York the edge they need to pull out a win?

Not if the Sabres continue to bully them around the ice the way they have the first two games. Pesty winger Sean Avery has spent more time flying through the air than handling the puck and Jaromir Jagr has been knocked down as much as he’s ever been in his career.

It might be easy to overcome if it was just a couple of players doing the damage for Buffalo, but the reason they’re so tough to beat is that it’s coming from all four lines. It’s why the Sabres were the Stanley Cup favorites heading into the playoffs and why they’re now about -600 to win this series. All things considered, $600 to win $100 is a pretty fair deal for Buffalo bettors right now.

As for the over/under, we told you in the previous Ice Picks for this series that if the total rises, you should look down. That held true in Game 2 and that could continue. New York gave a much better defensive effort Friday night, holding the Sabres up a little more as they came across their own blue line. As a result, Buffalo managed just 18 shots and the Sabres weren’t getting as many quality chances.

Home ice might help the Rangers stick to their slow-em-down game plan though it’s tough to say if it will be enough to cash in.

Pick: under 5.5


Raji