NHL Picks: Rangers will snap losing streak against Hurricanes – CBSSports.com
Welcome to the NHL Daily Picks where hockey writers Adam Gretz and Chris Peters make their selections for all of the day’s games.
New York Rangers vs. Carolina Hurricanes, 7 p.m. ET
The New York Rangers have been a wildly successful hockey team over the past four years.
Their 191 regular season wins since the start of the 2011-12 are the third most in the NHL, they have appeared in the Eastern Conference Final three times during that stretch, they won the Eastern Conference once, and as recently as this past season won the Presidents’ Trophy with the best record in the league.
Even though the NHL is set up for teams and players to go through peaks and valleys over the course of an 82-game season, you’re probably not going to see many lengthy losing streaks for a team that has won as often as the Rangers have, so what they are going through right now as they enter play on Monday night against the Carolina Hurricanes is some uncharted territory for this current roster.
Thanks to a pair of losses over the weekend, including a game on Friday afternoon in Boston where they surrendered a pair of goals late in the third period, they are currently riding a three-game losing streak. Just how rare is that for this group? Just consider that it is only the 11th time since the start of the ’11-12 season that they have lost three games in a row. In the shootout era that’s an absurdly low number and nearly unmatched consistency in the league. They have only lost four games in a row just twice since the start of 2011 and haven’t done in it since a four-game skid nearly two full years ago when they dropped four straight between Dec. 7 and Dec. 12 during the 2013-14 season.
They haven’t lost five games in a row since 2010-11.
The fact the Rangers have slumped a bit over the past couple of weeks (lost four of six along with the current losing streak) isn’t a huge shock because they’ve had a lot of breaks go their way this season (example here) and received some out of this world goaltending from Henrik Lundqvist. There was going to come a point where some of those breaks started to go against them and Lundqvist was going to have his play level out a bit. That said, this is still a really good hockey team, and they’re not going to experience too many lengthy losing streaks during the season. And the one they’re on now is going to end on Monday against the Hurricanes.
The Hurricanes have been a pesky team this season because they play a lot of teams tough and find themselves in a lot of games late. They outshoot their opponents by an average of five shots per game and only give up 25 shots on goal per game. But because they don’t have the difference-makers on the ice to score goals (or get the goaltending required to prevent them) they are not consistently able to pull out wins. Pick: Rangers 4, Hurricanes 1
The rest of Monday’s picks
New York Islanders 4, Colorado Avalanche 3
Edmonton Oilers 5, Toronto Maple Leafs 4
Vancouver Canucks 3, Anaheim Ducks 2
The New York Rangers will get back to their winning ways on Monday night. (USATSI)
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