The Winter Classic takes place on New Year’s Day at Citi Field in New York on NBC, as the New York Rangers play the Buffalo Sabres. Even though the game is being played in Queens, New York at the home of the New York Mets, which is about 6.5 hours from Buffalo, the Sabres are listed as the home team. This will be the second Winter Classic for the Sabres, as they played in the first one ten years ago and lost to the Penguins, while it is the second Winter Classic for the Rangers, as they beat the Flyers in the 2012 game.
At 1 p.m. ET, tune into NBC for live television coverage of this NHL game on Monday, January 1, 2018 at Citi Field.
We'll have NHL odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NHL Monday schedule.
Odds Analysis
The Rangers will be listed as the favorites in this contest, as they have a much better record than do the Sabres. New York is battling for second place in the Metropolitan Division and has played well lately after struggling to start the season. New York is expected to start Henrik Lundqvist on Monday afternoon. He was the expected starter on Friday against the Red Wings after Ondrej Pavelec played against the Capitals on Wednesday. Lundqvist has a 2.61 goals against average and a .921 save percentage.
The Rangers have not been that great on the road this season, but Monday’s game is really not a road game, despite what the NHL says. The Rangers will have the bulk of the crowd support and they won’t have to travel, as the game is at Citi Field. If you consider this a home game for New York, and I do, the Rangers have been solid at home, going 15-9. 13 of those games went over, 10 went under, with one push. New York is scoring 3.1 goals per game and giving up 2.7 per contest.
The Sabres continue to be the worst team in the Eastern Conference. They have been bad at home and on the road, so it doesn’t really matter where they play. They were 5-12 in their first 17 home games and 4-16 in their first 20 road games. They are scoring 2.2 goals per game and giving up 3.3 per contest.
Special Teams
The Rangers are just 16th in the league on the power play at about 19%, while they are 6th in penalty killing at just over 83%. The Sabres have been awful on the power play at just over 11% and that is next to last in the league. They are 11th in penalty killing at just over 82%.
Key Stat
The Rangers have won 7 of the last 10 meetings in this series, with four of the last six going over the total. The Sabres did win two of three against the Rangers last season and the only loss was a 2-1 defeat at home.
Free NHL Picks
The Rangers are going to be listed as about 2-1 favorites in this contest. There is no real reason to back the Sabres, as they are simply a bad team. They are last in the NHL in goals per game and almost last in goals against. They have a couple of decent scorers in Evander Kane and Jack Eichel and not much else. They are going up against a superior team in New York who has the advantage in every area. The Rangers score more goals, allow fewer goals and they have the superior goaltender, as Lundqvist is better than Lehner. And to top it all off, the Rangers really have the advantage in terms of home ice with this game being played at Citi Field. I will lay the price and take the Rangers to win the Winter Classic.
NHL Odds: Rangers 4, Sabres 2
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