New York Rangers vs Nashville Predators Prediction: Do not expect a goal extravaganza

Prediction for the NHL New York Rangers vs Nashville Predators match, which will take place on March 20. Check the team conditions and choose several betting options.

The Rangers are having an excellent regular season. They had a bit of a slump in February and March, but at that point, the Bluejackets added some star recruits who needed time to adjust to the new team. Now that has happened, the results for the New York club have improved. In the last six meetings, they have not been left without a point, having won five times and lost only to Pittsburgh in overtime - 2:3. By the way, they could beat the Penguins 6:0 the day before, which allowed them to retain a fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings.

Nashville is not in the most enviable position. The Predators still have a chance to make the playoffs but cannot afford to lose points at the end of the regular season. In the last two meetings, they had two losses. The failure in the game with Winnipeg in overtime is understandable - 2:3. The Jets are a team of considerable level, but the failure in the home game with a hopeless Chicago can be considered a disaster - 1:2. Now Nashville is only in tenth place in the Western Conference standings, five points behind the eighth place in the World Cup.

Nashville now vitally needs points to keep their chances of making the playoffs, so they can't have a problem with motivation, but now the Predators are in such bad shape that they can't beat even Chicago and Winnipeg. Of course, the Bluejackets are a much more skilled and ambitious team than the clubs above, and therefore it will be tough for John Hines's team to do well. The New York team is doing very well right now; they are motivated, which suggests betting on the Rangers' victory.

We should not expect a goal extravaganza in the upcoming battle. Nashville rarely plays with a result, and in the last three games with their participation, only ten goals were scored (3.33 on average per game). The Rangers are in a better situation, but they had a lot of excitement the night before in their win over Pittsburgh, so they'll play a more pragmatic game now. In addition, in the last three head-to-head encounters, we have only seen eight goals (2.67 average per game), so the best option is the total under 5.5 pucks, and separately we should bet on a total over 0.5 points of Alexis Lafreniere.