Short slate of NHL games for Monday but the Oddsbay handicapping team has four hockey betting positions locked and loaded!  Make Oddsbay your home for the best NHL betting information all season long!

ATLANTA THRASHERS AT TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS–FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Neither team in particularly good form at the moment.  Thrashers have lost 10 of their last 12 and are a far cry from the team that looked like a Stanley Cup contender in December.  They’ve been hit hard by injuries and with backup goaltender Chris Mason having been out of action starter Ondrej Pavelec has had to carry the load.  Mason was activated off the IR list on Friday and his short term replacement, Drew MacIntyre, was sent back to Chicago of the AHL.  Atlanta will not play again until Friday so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Mason get the start here which would give Pavelec almost a week of rest.  Mason wasn’t particularly effective before he was injured and having been out of action since 12/31 he’s certainly going to be rusty.  Despite having lost 7 of 10 the Leafs are in comparatively better form with7 wins in their last 13 games.  They’re a decent home team (12-11-4) and just don’t look to be in the same state of disarray as Atlanta.  Both teams play better in wide open contests and there’s every reason to expect that here–8 of the last 10 meetings between the teams have gone OVER the total including 4 of the last 5 in Toronto.  The teams have split two games this season in which they combined for a whopping 21 goals–that’s a 10.5 goals per game average!  We’ll back the home team and look for this one to go OVER the total.

PLAY TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS -130 OVER ATLANTA THRASHERS PLAY TORONTO/ATLANTA OVER 5′ -125

NEW YORK RANGERS AT DETROIT RED WINGS–FEBRUARY 7, 2011   4:35 PM PACIFIC

Detroit has won 6 of the last 8, but since they’re in different conferences they’ve only played each other once a year of late.  This is a tricky game for a Detroit team that isn’t playing their best hockey at the moment and has a lot of injuries to contend with.  Wings just 4-5-1 in their last 10 games and hold the Central Division lead by 5 points over Nashville.  This is a classic ’sandwich game’ as they’re coming off a 3-0 road loss to the Predators and will play a rematch against Nashville on Wednesday at the Joe Louis Arena.  Rangers have lost four straight games with three of the setbacks coming by a single goal.  There may not be a less enjoyable team to play in the NHL than New York–the Rangers employ an ugly, grinding style that takes opponents out of their rhythm.  It’s been particularly effective against Western Conference opponents who only see them once a year–the ‘Broadway Blueshirts’ are 9-4 against the Western Conference this season.  They’ve also been a solid road play with a 17-11 record for +9.6 units of profit.  They’re coming off a 2-0 loss at Montreal and New York is 10-4 after a loss by 2 or more in their previous game and 9-4 after scoring 1 goal or less.  Scheduling favors New York, who’ll not play again until Friday night at Atlanta.  We’ll take the pesky Rangers at a big underdog price.

PLAY NEW YORK RANGERS +170 OVER DETROIT RED WINGS

EDMONTON OILERS AT NASHVILLE PREDATORS–FEBRUARY 7, 2011  5:05 PM PACIFIC

The Nashville Predators have lost 4 of their last 5 but are coming off a solid 3-0 home win over the Detroit Red Wings.  The Preds have had trouble scoring goals, but they’ll have a good chance to do just that as the lowly Edmonton Oilers travel to ‘Music City USA’ on Monday.  Nothing new here–Oilers are a mess having lost 20 of their last 25 games.  Predators do have a much bigger game on deck as they’ll play the Red Wings in a return match on Wednesday but that plays in to our handicap here.  We expect them to play ‘loose’ here against the hapless Oilers and for one night at least abandon their usual strong defensive intensity.  For the Oilers, as the losses have piled up this year so have the OVERs–after 3 or more losses Edmonton has gone OVER in 11 of 17 games with 1 push.  Predators are OVER in 10 of 14 games after a divisional contest, suggesting the sort of ‘let up’ defensively we talked about above.  Head to head, 6 of the last 9 meetings and 3 of 4 in Nashville have gone OVER.

PLAY EDMONTON/NASHVILLE OVER 5′ +100