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Capitals strong favorites on Wednesday Night Hockey

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Fresh off a win, the New York Rangers will travel to Washington to take on the reigning Stanley Cup champions and key Capitals player Evgeny Kuznetsov.

Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals will need to beat a division rival by a healthy margin to provide betting value on Wednesday.

The Capitals are a -300 favorite on the Wednesday NHL odds with the New York Rangers, who are on the second leg of back-to-back games, coming back at +240 at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. The total is set at 5.5 goals.

This is only the fourth time in the last nine seasons that the Capitals have been this deep into minus money on home ice. They are 10-3 in their last 13 games as a moneyline favorite of -250 or deeper, with six of those victories by at least two goals.

The Rangers, who are 2-4 on the season, have a quick turnaround after a 3-2 shootout win at home against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday. New York peppered Colorado with 43 shots on goal, an encouraging sign for a team that takes an offense-by-committee approach with lines led by centers Mika Zibanejad, Kevin Hayes and Brett Howden, but it is 2-6 in its last eight games when it played the previous day.

Special teams can be a X-factor in an underdog win, but the Rangers are tied for 24th in both power-play and penalty-killing efficiency. New York are 4-16 in their last 20 away games against Metropolitan Division opponents according to the OddsShark NHL Database.

Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who had an extended outing on Tuesday, is 21-12-5 with a 2.66 goals-against average, .909 save percentage and four shutouts against Washington. Backup goalie Alexander Georgiev lasted fewer than nine minutes in his only career appearance against the Capitals last season, getting pulled after allowing three goals on six shots.

The Capitals, who are 2-2-1 on the season, have had three days off to freshen up and fine-tune their game since their last outing. In the here and now, Washington has scored just two goals over the course of two consecutive losses, but they are 10-4 in their last 14 regular-season home games against Metropolitan Division counterparts.

While Washington has elite forwards such as Ovechkin and his linemate Evgeny Kuznetsov, they are struggling to keep the puck out of their own net (3.8 goals against per game, 26th in the 31-team NHL). This could be the type of the game where they focus on becoming more shipshape in the defensive zone, especially since they have a long road trip with limited practice time starting next week. The Capitals come into the contest with the league’s fourth-best power-play, but share 24th spot in penalty killing with the Rangers.

Washington goalie Braden Holtby is 10-9-1 with a 2.42 goals-against average, a .920 save percentage and one shutout against the Rangers.

The total has gone UNDER in five of the Rangers’ last seven road games. The total has gone UNDER in four of the Capitals’ last six home games in October. The has gone UNDER in eight of the Capitals’ last 13 home games as a moneyline favorite of -250 to -500.

For more odds information, betting picks and a breakdown of this week’s top sports betting news check out the OddsShark podcast with Jon Campbell and Andrew Avery. Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify or listen to it at OddsShark.libsyn.com.