Rangers vs. Devils Game 3 odds, picks, predictions, best bets
The New Jersey Devils have been an absolute mess so far in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
A young team making its first trip to the postseason, there were questions about if Lindy Ruff’s team would be ready for the moment, especially against a team that has plenty of playoff experience throughout its ranks.
The answer so far is a resounding no.
The Devils have lost Games 1 and 2 by a combined score of 10-2 and even the most ardent Devils fan would struggle to come up with an argument that New Jersey deserved better than that ugly scoreline.
It’s been a clinic so far. Will it continue on Saturday night?
Rangers vs. Devils pick
(8 p.m. ET)
Everybody involved in this series knew what the Devils would need to do to beat the Rangers.
New Jersey had been the better 5-on-5 team by a mile in the regular season, but the Rangers are never really fussed about getting out-chanced.
They have an elite goaltender, a dynamic power play and plenty of game-breaking talent, so they’re comfortable waiting you out and betting on themselves when their opportunities come.
The key is to make sure those opportunities don’t come very often. Instead, the Devils have done the exact opposite.
New Jersey has handed the Rangers 10 power plays and plenty of odd-man rushes through the first two games and the Rangers are not the type of team to let those opportunities go to waste.
The Blueshirts are 4-for-10 on the power play, but they’re also outscoring the Devils, 5-0, at 5-on-5 and have generated 18 high-danger scoring chances at even strength while allowing 17.
Things are going exactly to plan for the Rangers.
So now the question for bettors becomes which Devils team do you think shows up for Game 3 and beyond?
The Devils were undoubtedly one of the league’s best teams during the 82-game regular season, but they’ve looked all out of sorts so far in this matchup and will now need to win four of five against Igor Shesterkin and the Rangers.
The Devils can take some solace in the fact that they were the second-best road team in the NHL this season, but this series has proven to be a different kind of animal for this young team to overcome.
At the time of writing the Rangers are sitting at -130, but you’d expect money to come in on the Blueshirts to push this price even higher.
Perhaps the Devils re-find their form from the regular season, but it’s hard to trust them to be able to navigate a road playoff game based on the evidence we’ve seen the past two games.
If things go south, they could hit rock bottom pretty quickly and another rout could be in the cards.
