The Islanders play their biggest game of the season in Columbus on Saturday night.
A regulation win would put the Isles eight points clear of the Blue Jackets in the Eastern Conference playoff race, but the opposite would put Columbus just four back of the Isles with two games in hand.
With the trade deadline looming, the stakes for this encounter are about as high as they get in the regular season.
Islanders vs. Blue Jackets odds, prediction
The Blue Jackets went into the Olympic Break riding a seven-game winning streak under new head coach Rick Bowness, but the Bruins snapped that run Thursday night.
Columbus was the better team in that tilt and outshot Boston, 40-23, but the B’s got exceptional goaltending to steal the two points.
The Islanders enjoyed a very different return from the break.
The Isles were second-best in their game against the Canadiens on Thursday, but another blood-and-thunder show from Matthew Schaefer flipped the script and allowed the Islanders to nick an overtime win.
That’s been the M.O. for the Isles this season.
They’ve become experts at hanging around, buying time, and relying on their star players, whether it be Schaefer, Ilya Sorokin, Bo Horvat or Mat Barzal, to provide the game-breaking moment.
That M.O. has made the Islanders a tricky bunch to handicap.
On one hand, they look like a team poised for negative regression, but at the same time, it’s hard to envision a collapse because of the performances from their best players, especially Sorokin in goal.
The Blue Jackets are also tough to get a read on.
Betting on the NHL?
They’ve been playing great hockey since Bowness took over, but the break came at the worst possible time for Columbus, and it’s fair to wonder if the new-coach bump is beginning to fade.
Given the tight odds and the confounding nature of handicapping these two teams, we’ll leave the moneyline alone and instead focus on the prop market.
While Schaefer looks like a runaway winner for the Calder Trophy, his fellow rookie Cal Ritchie has begun to emerge as a serious threat in the offensive zone. The 21-year-old was terrific in his final game before the break, and looked dangerous against the Habs on Thursday night.
Ritchie has also earned the coaching staff’s trust on the power play, which got on the board twice against Montreal.
He’s a good price to find the back of the net against Columbus on Saturday.
The Play: Cal Ritchie to score 1+ goals (+360, FanDuel)
Why Trust New York Post Betting
Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
