Red Wings And Rangers Reach Break On Top

While each team in the NHL has played over half of its 82 games at this point in the season, the all-star break always serves as a faux halfway point of the season for teams and bettors alike. With that in mind, let’s review what we’ve seen in the first half of the 2011-12 season.

The seemingly ageless Detroit Red Wings went into the break on an ugly note, having their seven-game winning streak snapped in a 7-2 loss on the road to the Montreal Canadians. Still, at 33-16-1, the Red Wings enter the short vacation with the most points in the NHL at 67. Detroit is a remarkable 20-2-1 at home this season, and has won a franchise-record 17 straight games at home; the all-time NHL record for consecutive home wins currently sits at 20.

Detroit should continue to be a profitable team at home moving forward, and is the second most profitable team on the overall in the NHL at +9.8 units despite a losing record (13-14-0) on the road.

The most team just ahead of the Wings on that list is the New York Rangers, who are up 10.9 units on the season with a 31-12-4 record. The Rangers are atop the Eastern Conference standings with 66 points, trailing Detroit in the overall NHL standings by just one point with three games in hand.

Since starting the season off 3-2-2 on the road and 0-1-1 at home, the Rangers are 15-4-1 at home and 13-5-0 on the road; they aren’t easy to beat anywhere. New York is second in the NHL in goals against with 2.0 per game.

Rounding out the top five most profitable teams on the moneyline through the all-star break are the Nashville Predators (30-16-4, +7.3 units), St. Louis Blues (29-13-7, +6.5 units) and New Jersey Devils (26-19-3, +5.6 units).

The best team to fade by a landslide has been the Columbus Blue Jackets, who at 13-30-6 are down a colossal 20.7 units to date. Likely sellers at the trade deadline, it is hard to see Columbus turning things around.

From a totals perspective, there has been no safer bet in hockey all season long than pounding the ‘under’ on the Los Angeles Kings and the St. Louis Blues. The ‘under’ is 28-11-11 for the Kings, who have the NHL’s worst offense at 2.1 goals per game and fourth best defense at 2.1 goals against per game, and 26-12-11 for the Blues, who have been a defensive powerhouse under Coach Ken Hitchcock. Both teams will likely be in the market for scoring help at the trade deadline, but until they bring in a top flight scorer, there’s no reason to stop betting the ‘under.’

If you prefer rooting for goals, look to the Tampa Bay Lightning who are 31-16-1 on the ‘over’ this season. With the league’s worst defense (allowing 3.4 goals per game) and a respectable offense (scoring 2.7 goals per game), the lighting of the lamp is a regular occurrence in Tampa Bay games.