New York Rangers - Minnesota Wild - NHL

Wager: $144. We turn again our focus to the NHL: New York Rangers (23-11-1) and Minnesota Wild (20-8-4) will meet face to face tonight. The game will start at 7:00 p.m. EST at the Madison Square Garden, New York, and will be on FS-N, MSG.  New York Rangers are coming off of a heavy 7-2 road loss to the Penguins on Tuesd., but returned home where they feel comfortable. They had a two-day break between games, and I hope they win this game to erase the shame of the last loss. Rangers are 6st in "Goals Against" and 6st in "Penalty Kill %", solid performance overall. Minnesota come to New York as winners of 9 straight games after a 4-2 win in Montreal on Thursday night, which means back-to-back road matches against two tough opponents and top contenders. Wild are still 1st in "Goals Against" and 4th "Penalty Kill %", showing a superb defense. Hence, NY Rangers may catch a huge break: goaltender D. Dubnyk and his league-leading .948 save percentage, may get the night off.  Someone has to beat the Wild and snap their winning streak. Henrik Lundqvist, of the New York Rangers, is one win from passing D. Hasek to become the NHL's all-time leader in victories by a Europe-born goaltender. Lundqvist has 389 victories; he's is 6-4-0 with a 2.92 GAA in 10 career games against the Wild. That's additional incentive for New York to win this game. Rangers won 7 of 9 games against the Wild at Madison Square Garden and are 5-1-0 in the last 6.  The official Las Vegas game line is N. Y. Rangers, Money Line 1.64  (-155).  With that said, I pick the "2-way Money Line" opt. for a straight win (including OT+shutouts) @ BET365 (New York Rangers). In order to avoid confusion, we listed odds in both systems:  Decimal + American. Click here to learn the difference. Unless the bet amount is defined, our wager is $100.

UPDATE December 29, 2016 - FINAL Result: New York Rangers 4-7 Minnesota Wild.  Minnesota Wild won their 10th consecutive game, the longest streak in their history, 7-4 against the poor NY  Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 24. Mikael Granlund, Mikko Koivu, Nino Niederreiter, Marco Scandella, Jason Zucker, Matt Dumba and Charlie Coyle scored for the Wild (21-8-4), who have outscored the opposition 37-16 during the winning streak. Goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 31 saves. New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist allowed 4 goals on 13 shots before being pulled 4:55 into the 2nd period. The Wild scored five goals (?) in the 2nd period to take a 6-3 lead, which is highly suspicious, since NY's defense hasn't allowed that many goals this season in one period. Kreider scored at 3:54 into the 1st to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. Granlund scored at 9:53 to tie it 1-1. After 2 quick goals by the Wild within 18 secs. apart in the first min. (60 secs.) in the 2nd period to take 3-1 lead, McDonagh pulled New York within 3-2 on a slap shot from the left point at 2:17.  Then, Scandella gave Minnesota a 4-2 lead at 4:55 to end Lundqvist's night. Conspiracy Theorists, here are your clues for this game: The game's score after the 2nd period was 6-3, which makes number '63'. Note, "Sixty Three"=53 in Latin Red.Gematria (LRG). But, "fixed hockey" = 53 in LRG. Also, "NHL - a Black Magic lie"= 63 in LRG; 2 goals scored in the first 60 seconds by the Wild, early in the 2nd period within 18 seconds apart. See, "sixty"=49 in EK#3. Note, "NHL is a lie"= 49 in LRG. 18 stands for "sin, fault, punishment". Rangers lost the game after they had 35 SOG vs. only 21 SOG for Minnesota(?!). In any event, after this lost bet, our NHL record since November 17, 2016 is still excellent: 14-6 - 70.00% Winners.