Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you’re having a great weekend so far. Thought I would focus on hockey today and particularly on the matchup tonight between the Sens and the Caps.
All the talk around here over the last couple of days has been focused on the struggles of the Sens and what they can do to get back on track. Well, there’s no one glaring answer that pops out to everyone because just about every facet of their game has been bad.
Some people are quick to point at Erik Karlsson and his lack of urgency and production compared to what he did last year and the expectations that were put upon him for his sophomore season. Others, like me, look to the lack of production by the big names at the forward positions. It’s hard to think that Cory Clouston would be able to solve all the various problems in 48 hours, particularly as they are matched up against the best regular season team from a year ago.
I expect that the Caps should be able to handle the Sens, send them to 0-3 and make Sens fans throw up some of that turkey for the next couple of days as they wait patiently for the next chance to right the ship.
I’ll even go as far as to take the Caps to win by 2 and get good value at +140. The one saving grace I’ll give to Sens fans is that my picks have been bad since I started giving them on Friday. Taking teams by 2 will be the common theme for today, so here are a couple more that I feel pretty confident about.
New York Rangers (-1.5, +210) vs. New York Islanders
The Rangers are coming in off a high after a 6-3 opening night win on the road in Buffalo. Derek Stepan is making people forget that they’re without Chris Drury or Vinny Prospal and of course, when you have King Henrik, you always have a good chance to win.
On the other side, the Islanders are coming off a shootout loss to the Stars on Saturday in a game in which they outshot Dallas badly, but were hampered by sub-par play by Rick Dipietro. They also have to deal with another big injury as John Tavares will miss the game due to a mild concussion suffered against Dallas. Tavares now joins Kyle Okposo and Mark Streit on the injured list.
Florida Panthers vs. Vancouver Canucks (-1.5, +120)
The big thing to look at here is the gap in talent between the two clubs. The Canucks are supposed to be a Stanley Cup contender and the Panthers are supposed to be a bottom-feeder.
You can also look to the fact that the Panthers played last night in Edmonton and that Roberto Luongo has a 1.92 GAA against the Panthers in four meetings since leaving the team via trade.
Enjoy the rest of your holiday and enjoy the games this afternoon and tonight!