Welcome to the ferocious frozen tundra of the National Hockey League, where the Detroit Red Wings face off against the New York Islanders in a late-season matchup. Our NHL odds series continues with a Red Wings-Islanders prediction and pick.
Entering Thursday's matchup, Detroit have found their way to a below .500 record with a week to go until the month of April. The Red Wings are 3-6-1 in their previous ten games and have been a slumping squad since Old St Nick. was delivering gifts through chimneys way back in December. When the Red Wings and Islanders last faced on Dec. 14th, Detroit held firmly the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. Fast forward three months later, and Detroit is now hoping to play with some pride the rest of the regular season, as they are currently 21 points back of a postseason spot with only 19 games to be played remaining.
A similar season has ended up playing out for New York, as their 2021-2022 point total almost identically matches with Detroit at 63 points. The Islanders have a winning record at 27-25-9, but have vastly been playing uninspiring hockey for the better portion of a couple of months now. However, New York's past ten matchups overall have been quite kind to them, compiling a record of 7-2-1 including a dominant shutout win on Tuesday 3-0 versus the Senators.
Here are the Blackhawks-Ducks NHL Odds, Courtesy of FanDuel
NHL odds: Red Wings-Islanders Odds
Detroit Red Wings: +1.5 (-150)
New York Islanders: -1.5 (+122)
Over: 6 (+100)
Under: 6 (-122)
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Why the Red Wings Could Cover the Spread
Yes, Detroit may be trending negatively heading into April, as their 3-6 mark in their last nine games ATS confirm that, but don't count on the Red Wings in this showdown quite yet. Detroit is led by their points leader in center Dylan Larkin, who is sneaky quick with the skates and is as aggressive as they come. The Red Wings are coming off a gritty win over the even worse Philadelphia Flyers, where the team in red snuck six goals into the net on only 31 total shots throughout the night. It was a refreshing scene seeing Detroit go bananas in the scoring department, especially since the Red Wings are only averaging 2.87 goals per matchup. In order for Detroit to cover the spread versus New York, the need to take advantage of power plays when on the attack and in the penalty kill will be vital.
The Red Wings currently rank very poorly among their league opponents when it comes to power play and penalty kill percentage, rating out as the 26th and 29th team in that respective department. If Detroit is going to pull this one out, they will need to play with the utmost of urgency, similar to that of their physically-imposing victory over the Flyers on Tuesday.
Why the Islanders Could Cover the Spread
After starting out with only 19 points through the first 24 games of the 2021-2022 regular season, the Islanders were well on their way to being the lucky team selecting first overall in the NHL Draft. However, something has clicked within the Isles' locker room since then, as New York has played like a team with their hair on fire, transforming from a guaranteed bottom-five squad in the league to now having an outside chance of challenging for the second and final wild-card spot. So how did the Isles manage to turn around their dying season in such dramatic fashion? Well, other than being one of the hottest teams in the NHL since their transformation, New York has been suffocating defensively, allowing only 2.54 goals per game in their winning hysteria, good for second in the league during that span only to the NHL points leader in the Colorado Avalanche.
Credit the Islanders' goaltending, which has been a big part of their recent success. Ilya Sorokin is 21-13-7 in his 41 games played with a 92.7 Save Percentage. With Sorokin in net, New York can come out on top in any game they play, thus giving bettors a good chance in the spread being covered a majority of the time.
Final Red Wings-Islanders Prediction & Pick
Looking at the big picture, these are two crews that have gone in opposite directions as the season has progressed. The Isles are scalding hot while the Wings are piercing cold, as both teams are most likely going to be calling it a season when the regular season slate wraps up at the end of April. Until then, keep siding with the hot hand in New York, who should swarm and overwhelm Detroit's measly offensive attack early and often in this one. New York prevails!
Final Red Wings-Islanders Pick: Islanders -1.5 (+122)
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