Rangers, Golden Knights Headed for a Goalies’ Duel

The New York Rangers are playing their best hockey of the season – but a stiff challenge awaits them as they entertain the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday night. New York has won four of its past five games and is coming off an impressive 4-0 shutout in New Jersey; the Golden Knights appear to have righted the ship and will be looking for their third straight win.

Sportsbook Odds Analysis

The Golden Knights come in as slight favorites, marking the third time in the past five road games that they’ve been favored. They lost the previous two despite being installed at -150 in both. The total for this one opened at 5.5.

Vegas News & Notes

Home-ice dominance is great and all, but the cream of the NHL crop find a way to rack up points on the road – and the Golden Knights continue to struggle in that regard. Despite owning one of the best home records in the NHL since their inception in 2017-18, Vegas went just 19-20-2 on the road last season and is 6-6-1 so far this year entering Monday’s trip to MSG.

Reinvigorating the offense will be critical to the Golden Knights’ success as they embark on a three-game road swing through New York and New Jersey. Vegas finishes November ranked 21st in the league in goals per game for the month (2.57), though the Knights could probably use a little more puck luck after finishing 14th in the NHL in shots per game over that span (32.0).

New York News & Notes

An overtime loss to the powerhouse Boston Bruins is the only blemish on the Rangers’ resume over the past five games, fanning optimism among fans and bettors that the Broadway Blueshirts are ready to make a run in the competitive Metropolitan Division. And a win over Vegas is critical, with five of the Rangers’ next six games coming on the road.

But as good as those wins look in the standings, the Rangers have to consider themselves somewhat fortunate to be on their current 4-0-1 run. They’ve been outshot 174-141 over that stretch while converting just three of 20 power-play opportunities and winning just over 48 percent of faceoffs. But a robust penalty kill (20 of the last 21 opportunities killed off) has helped.

Betting Pick: UNDER

Both sides are getting strong goaltending at the moment, and it’s hard to buy in completely to the Rangers’ new-found offensive success given their puck luck.