NHL Betting News at LinesMaker

Late-Bloomer Khaira Exceled in BCHL

Prince George, B.C. (NHL/Kimelman) — Jujhar Khaira is proof that not all hockey play­ers blos­som at the same time. Play­ing minor-midget hockey, the Cloverdale, B.C., native went undrafted by the West­ern Hockey League. How­ever, a scout from the Prince George Spruce Kings of the British Colum­bia Hockey League saw some­thing in him, and over the last two sea­sons, the rela­tion­ship has been ben­e­fi­cial to both sides. In his sec­ond sea­son with Prince George, Khaira — a left wing who now mea­sures in at 6-foot-2 and 182 pounds — fin­ished 10th in the BCHL with 79 points... 

Rangers’ Lundqvist Already Eager for Next Season

NEW YORK (NHL/Rosen) — For the first time in a while, New York Rangers goalie Hen­rik Lundqvist’s expec­ta­tions don’t match those of his fans. The most faith­ful Blueshirts fol­low­ers will tell you that Lundqvist, with­out ques­tion, should win the Vez­ina Tro­phy at the annual NHL Awards Show on Wednes­day in Las Vegas. He’s a final­ist along with the Kings’ Jonathan Quick and Nashville’s Pekka Rinne. Most of those same fans will also say he should win the Hart Tro­phy, despite the fact that just being a final­ist for the League’s MVP award along with Pittsburgh’s... 

Offense & Depth Big Reasons for Rangers’ Downfall

NEW YORK (NHL/Lozo) — The expec­ta­tions at the start of the 2011-12 reg­u­lar sea­son for the New York Rangers were tepid at best. They were com­ing off a first-round exit and a com­plete whiff of the Stan­ley Cup Play­offs the pre­vi­ous two sea­sons, and top defense­man Marc Staal was out indef­i­nitely with a concussion. Seven months later, the youth­ful Rangers were East­ern Con­fer­ence cham­pi­ons and appeared at times to be a team of des­tiny dur­ing the play­offs. They ral­lied from a 3–2 series deficit in the first round, came back to win Game 5 in the sec­ond... 

Preds’ Season Ends Prematurely

GLENDALE (NHL/Newsfeed) — The Nashville Preda­tors made a series of changes at the trade dead­line in order to beef up their offense and tough­ness — and trans­form them­selves into a fairer fight with the Detroit Red Wings, the Chicago Black­hawks and the other elite teams in the West­ern Conference. And for one play­off series against the Red Wings, the plan worked to per­fec­tion. There was just one prob­lem: The Black­hawks weren’t wait­ing for them in the sec­ond round. It was the Phoenix Coy­otes, a team built more like the plucky Nashville teams of the past, who weren’t... 

Zubrus Is the Latest Devil to Step Up

NEWARK, N.J. (NHL/Morreale) — The New Jer­sey Dev­ils have been down but never out at any stage dur­ing the Stan­ley Cup Play­offs this spring, from the bench­ing of future Hall of Fame goalie Mar­tin Brodeur to the incred­i­ble rally from a 3–2 series deficit with back-to-back over­time wins against the Florida Pan­thers in the East­ern Con­fer­ence Quar­ter­fi­nal series. Or, from the Game 1 over­time loss against the Philadel­phia Fly­ers to the debil­i­tat­ing effect they’ve had on what was once a potent Fly­ers offense en route to three suc­ces­sive victories. Let’s... 

Van Riemsdyk Sparks Flyers in Game 1

PHILADELPHIA (NHL/Kimelman) — James van Riems­dyk might have been one of the most dom­i­nant play­ers in the 2011 Stan­ley Cup Play­offs, scor­ing seven goals in 11 games. He was so good, he fin­ished tied for ninth goals with­out play­ing past the sec­ond round. After an injury-plagued 2011-12 sea­son, that player finally made his reappearance. Van Riems­dyk had a goal, was a plus-3, took a team-high five shots on net and set the screen on Danny Briere’s over­time goal that allowed the Fly­ers to take a 1–0 series lead against the New Jer­sey Dev­ils with a 4–3 vic­tory... 

Vermette Thriving in the Desert

GLENDALE, Az. (NHL/Newsfeed) — It was that gap­ing divot smack dab in the mid­dle of the Phoenix Coy­otes’ lineup. It was the rea­son the Coy­otes couldn’t match up with the rest of the Pacific Divi­sion, the rea­son they were fight­ing for their play­off lives in the West­ern Con­fer­ence. It was the rea­son Kyle Tur­ris’ petu­lant and pro­tracted con­tract hold­out and trade demands grated on fans like fin­gers across a chalkboard. The Coy­otes had a big, hard-checking cen­ter in Mar­tin Han­zal. But they lacked a true play­mak­ing cen­ter to match with their... 

Coach, Draft Among Bergevin’s Challenges

MONTREAL (NHL/Newsfeed) — New gen­eral man­ager Marc Bergevin will be tak­ing over a Mon­treal Cana­di­ens team that fin­ished No. 15 in the East­ern Con­fer­ence and No. 28 in the League stand­ings, so obvi­ously he will be fac­ing a num­ber of chal­lenges to right the ship. While that list will be an exhaus­tive one, here are five of the pri­mary chal­lenges the 17th GM in Cana­di­ens his­tory will need to tackle. 1. Choose a coach — Randy Cun­ney­worth cur­rently is the coach, but he is not expected to be the man behind the bench for long. Aside from Cunneyworth’s... 

Predators Look Past Drama, Try to Get Back in Series

NASHVILLE (NHL/Newsfeed) — By sus­pend­ing wings Alexan­der Radulov and Andrei Kos­tit­syn for Game 3 of their West­ern Con­fer­ence Quar­ter­fi­nal series with Phoenix on Wednes­day at Bridge­stone Arena (9 p.m. ET, CNBC, TSN), the Nashville Preda­tors will be with­out two of their most skilled and most pro­duc­tive play­ers in these Stan­ley Cup Playoffs. Both play­ers are pure scor­ers, known for deadly wrist shots. In their place, coach Barry Trotz said, will be two of the fol­low­ing three: rookie Craig Smith, vet­eran Jordin Tootoo and Matt Halis­chuk, who has 121... 

Mistakes Prove Costly for Rangers in Game 2

NEW YORK (NHL/Lozo) — When the Rangers lose, it rarely has any­thing to do with a bevy of gaffes. The team rose to the top of the East­ern Con­fer­ence this sea­son on the strength of play­ing mistake-free hockey, “the right way,” as coach John Tor­torella calls it. On Mon­day night at Madi­son Square Gar­den, the Wash­ing­ton Cap­i­tals made the Rangers pay for doing things the wrong way. The seventh-seeded Caps won Game 2 of their East­ern Con­fer­ence Semi­fi­nal series with the Rangers 3–2, scor­ing all three goals directly off unchar­ac­ter­is­tic errors,...