The New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes meet Wednesday in game 1 of the East Second Round NHL Playoffs at the PNC Arena. The New York Rangers are coming off a seven-game series with the Penguins. The Carolina Hurricanes are coming off a seven-game series with the Bruins.

The New York Rangers are averaging 4 goals per game and are scoring on 31.6 percent of their power play opportunities. Chris Kreider leads New York with 5 goals, Mike Zibanejad has 8 assists, and Ryan Strome has 27 shots on goal. Defensively, the New York Rangers are allowing 4.14 goals per game and are killing 73.9 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Igor Shesterkin has allowed 25 goals on 277 shots faced, and Alexandar Georgiev has given up 2 goals on 31 shots.

The Carolina Hurricanes are averaging 3.43 goals per game and are scoring on 13.9 percent of their power play opportunities. Nino Niederreiter leads Carolina with 3 goals, Tony DeAngelo has 7 assists and Seth Jarvis has 19 shots on goal. Defensively, the Carolina Hurricanes are allowing 2.86 goals per game and are killing 79.3 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Antti Raanta has allowed 12 goal on 165 shots faced, and Pyotr Kochetkov has given up 6 goals on 60 shots.

The Rangers are 9-4 in their last 13 road games and 5-1 in their last 6 Wednesday games. The Hurricanes are 42-16 in their last 58 home games and 10-3 in their last 13 overall. The over is 7-0 in Rangers last 7 overall. The over is 8-1-1 in Hurricanes last 10 overall. The Rangers are 35-16 in the last 51 meetings. The road team is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings.

The Carolina Hurricanes should be favored, as they’ve been the better team this season, they’re a buzz saw most of the time at home, and they’ve won six of the last seven meetings against the Rangers, really turning around what once was a one-sided series. However, the New York Rangers have a great deal of momentum after winning three straight to send the Penguins home, and their offense has caught fire. Yes, the Penguins defense is nothing to write home bout, but the point still stands. The Rangers were left for dead and now have a chance at new life and that can do wonders moving forward, especially in the first game, which is often one of the easier games to steal for a road team. I’ll take a shot with the plus money here.