Rangers vs. Flames Betting Odds and Pick: Can Igor Shesterkin Continue Red-Hot Play?

Rangers vs. Flames Odds

The Flames head to Madison Square Garden to take on the red-hot Rangers, riding high after an Elias Lindholm hat-trick winner in Washington on Saturday.

Flames Defense Burns Brightest

After an opening night pummeling at the hands of the rival Oilers, the Flames have appeared to begin playing a more Darryl Sutter brand of hockey, limiting opponents' high-quality looks and allowing just six goals against over a 2-0-1 stretch of play.

Elias Lindholm, and Johnny Gaudreau and Andrew Mangiapane have produced effectively at all strengths in the early going. However, outside of that grouping the team has not offered much offensively, and as many have predicted the team appears likely to play a lot of low-scoring, structured contests this season.

Although the Flames figure to be a more defensive-minded club,  the team will likely need to see more meaningful contributions from pieces like Matthew Tkachuk, Sean Monahan, Mikael Backlund and Dillon Dube in order to return to the postseason this spring.

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Rangers Continue to Squeeze Out Wins

The Rangers will return home after a very successful road swing, which saw the club post a 4-0 record behind some very timely goal scoring and spectacular goaltending.

It would be fair to say that 4-0 might be a bit of a generous mark given the gameplay, specifically looking towards the Toronto and the Ottawa contests, but goaltending can be a great equalizer, and we have seen that in the early going from New York.

The Rangers often got the lesser of the play over the four games, owning just a 45.36 xGF% and creating just 1.9 xGF/60. Excluding empty netters, each game was a single-goal contest, and New York scored just nine goals.

A big question for the Rangers this year will be what kind of offensive depth is created behind the elite talents in Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox and Mika Zibanejad. Especially after the Pavel Buchnevich trade and the loss of Colin Blackwell to Seattle, it will be important to see progress from some of the young prospects.

In the early going this has been a concern for New York, although it has been well mitigated in winning several close, low-scoring games. However there really has yet to be much support behind those top pieces, specifically again as we drop out the empty netters.

Flames vs. Rangers Pick

So far this season the Flames have looked true to form for a Darryl Sutter-coached team, playing low-event hockey in allowing the eighth lowest xGA/60 at 2.07, and creating just 2.23 xGF/60 throughout the team's first four contests.

Although it's a small four-game sample size, I think those numbers will stay true as the season rolls along, and I would say getting the under at 5.5 for close to plus money should be +EV this year in most situations for the Flames.

Jacob Markstrom has been in solid form in the early going, stopping 92.4 % of shots against over three contests. Markstrom rested Saturday vs. Washington and will be the starter for Monday's contest.

The Rangers themselves have been involved in low-event hockey under new bench boss Gerard Gallant, posting the eighth lowest xGF/60 league wide at just 2.07, and allowing just a 2.15 xGA/60, good for 10th lowest.

The Rangers have seen spectacular play from Igor Shesterkin, who rested Saturday and will start this contest.  Shesterkin has saved 95.3 % of shots faced this year and already is 8.6 goals saved above expected, earning a stellar 3-0-1 record.

Altogether I don't see much reason to overthink this one,  neither team has shown a ton of offensive depth so far this year, and both are featuring two goaltenders in good form. This sets up as a good spot to back the under considering what we should see from the Flames long term with regards to game play and with Shesterkin's current form.

Pick: Under 5.5 (+100, play to -115)