Pens visit Rangers in Atlantic showdown

Hockey Betting Lines

12/03/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The top two teams in the Atlantic Division square off tonight, as the Pittsburgh Penguins visit the New York Rangers and Madison Square Garden.

The Rangers are tied with Boston for first in the East with 36 points, while the Penguins are five back with 31 points. Pittsburgh has also played four fewer games than the New York.

Pittsburgh was last in action on Saturday, defeating another division rival, the New Jersey Devils, 4-1. Sidney Crosby notched his first hat trick of the season and also had an assist in the win, while Evgeni Malkin had two helpers. Petr Sykora scored the other goal.

Malkin leads the NHL with 39 points, while Crosby's four-point night and second-career hat trick has him second in scoring with 34. Crosby has 10 goals and 19 assists in 23 games versus the Rangers, while Malkin has seven goals and six helpers in 16 games against them.

Dany Sabourin made 29 saves for the Penguins, who have won two of their last three and have scored 12 goals in that span.

Sabourin will likely draw the starting assignment again tonight, as starter Marc-Andre Fleury has missed the last six games due to an undisclosed lower body injury. Sabourin has gone 2-1-1 in five starts since Fleury's injury, but lost his only other career start versus the Rangers, allowing four goals on 31 shots.

Pittsburgh begins a three-game road trip tonight and has won five of its last six as the visiting club to push its road record to 7-3-1.

The Rangers, meanwhile, had a three-game winning streak halted on Sunday when they lost to Florida, 4-0. It marked the first time this year that New York was shut out.

After notching a 4-3 shootout win last Friday in Florida, the Rangers lost the back-end of the home-and-home series. Henrik Lundqvist was yanked in the second period after giving up three goals on 23 shots. Steve Valiquette made six saves the rest of the way.

Lundqvist is 13-6-3 with a 2.10 goals against average in 22 career starts versus the Penguins.

The Rangers, who outscored their opponents 11-6 over their win streak, are 10-5-1 at home this season.

New York earned a shootout win over the Penguins at Madison Square Garden on October 25 and has won two straight, three of four and six of the last eight meetings with Pittsburgh. The Pens have also lost six in a row and seven of eight in the Big Apple.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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