NHL East Betting – Buffalo, Washington, Rangers Offer Value
The sports betting calculus of the final week of the NHL regular season is predicated on motivation. Teams with more incentive to win are the teams that play with more desperation, and in a sport that demands the ability to outwork opponents, desperation truly does emerge at the forefront of reasons to pick one team over another in the month of April.
The NHL trade deadline is a thing of the past, but the teams that dealt and swapped players back in February are now going to see whose transactions carried more of a positive impact. What games are going to re-position the Eastern Conference playoff picture in the race to the finish line? Let’s choose three contests for the coming week.
The NHL’s regular-season conclusion might not be the equivalent of a March Madness betting frenzy, but the dash for playoff spots and seedings still owns an urgency and passion that are large enough to be notable. If you look at the Eastern Conference standings as of Sunday afternoon, you’ll notice that the eight teams currently in playoff position are separated by 15 points. Philadelphia and Washington, the co-leaders in the East, have 103 points, while eighth-place Buffalo owns 88 points. Basically, the eight playoff teams in the East are separated by roughly eight games. That’s a dime-thin margin of difference, so as you ponder which Eastern Conference games to pick this upcoming week, you need to look at the intangibles.
NHL betting gurus would likely tell you, based on everything that’s been said up to this point, that the Buffalo Sabres are an attractive choice – more than raw records might suggest – on Tuesday night at home against the Tampa Bay Lightning. One thing to keep in mind about Tampa Bay is that it is snugly placed in the fifth spot in the East. With 97 points, the Lightning are six points ahead of sixth-place Montreal. If any team should not be worried about falling in the East’s pecking order, it’s Tampa. Meanwhile, Buffalo – as of Sunday afternoon – was just two points ahead of ninth-place Carolina (86 points) in the fight for the last Eastern Conference playoff berth. The Sabres, more than anyone else in the East, are living on a ledge. They’re in that precarious place where they’re inside the store but are just two bad games from being pushed outside the door. Trust this situation to make Buffalo a more dedicated team against Tampa Bay on Tuesday night. Home ice should also help the Sabres pick up a valuable victory.
On Wednesday night, the Washington Capitals host the Florida Panthers. This game offers an easy opportunity to pounce on a likely outcome. The Capitals are naturally in a fight with Philadelphia for home-ice advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs, so that should motivate coach Bruce Boudreau’s team to skate past the worst club in the East. Washington should spank Florida since there’s something the Caps have to play for.
The final game of the week to consider as a bettor is Thursday’s game between the Atlanta Thrashers and the New York Rangers in the Big Apple. Atlanta has been eliminated from playoff contention and is playing out the string, but the Rangers – just one point ahead of Buffalo in seventh place and just three points ahead of Carolina for a playoff spot – are playing for their playoff lives. This familiar theme of season-ending incentive should propel the Blueshirts past Atlanta inside Madison Square Garden.
NHL Betting Picks: Buffalo over Tampa Bay (Tuesday), Washington over Florida (Wednesday), New York Rangers over Atlanta (Thursday).
