Sports Handicapper ASA's Picks & Predictions

ASA NHL Free Bet – NJ Devils -115 at NY Rangers, 7pm ET - Tonight's Free NHL Betting Pick: New Jersey Devils ML over New York Rangers The New Jersey Devils remain a live playoff long shot and a team worth backing until they're mathematically eliminated, especially against a struggling Rangers squad. New Jersey enters this Madison Square Garden matchup as slight road favorites (around -115 to -120) after dominating the season series 2-0, outscoring the Rangers 12-6 while outshooting them by 36 total shots. The Rangers' home woes 11-18-7 on their home ice, 3-10-4 as a home dog have us on the visitor here. The Devils will have Markstrom between the pipes who is on a solid 7-4 run with a 2.81 GAA and a .889 save percentage over that stretch of games. The Rangers will counter with Igor Shesterkin in goal who is 5-4-1 in his last ten starts with a 2.92 GAA and a .906 save percentage. With the Devils on a perfect 3-0 streak as a road favorite this is a prime spot to ride New Jersey on the moneyline.

ASA NBA play on Portland Trailblazers +5.5 at LA Clippers, 11:10pm ET - This game has big implications for each team as the Clippers hold the 8th spot in the Western Conference while the Blazers are 9th. The Clippers won both meetings with Portland earlier this season but that was in late October and late December and a lot has changed since then, especially for L.A. Looking at each teams efficiency stats we find they have the 2nd (Clippers) and 3rd best eDIFF’s over the last 5 games with both teams playing at a high level. Looking at that same 5-game period, the Blazers have the lowest or best defensive efficiency rating allowing just 1.013-points per possession, which is a major factor when getting these many points in a game. If we go back to each teams previous 10 games, we find the Blazers are playing at a higher level with the 3rd best overall Net rating in the league compared to the Clippers 12th. The Blazers work on the offensive glass in recent weeks has been significantly better than the Clippers too with Portland ranking 3rd in offensive rebound rate compared to the Clippers ranking 23rd. We like those added possessions and scoring possibilities for Portland in this matchup. Portland has covered 4 of the last six meetings between these two teams on this court. We will grab the points with the Trailblazers.

#968 ASA PLAY ON Toronto Blue Jays -1.5 (-120) over Colorado Rockies, Tuesday at 7:07 PM ET - Entering this series Colorado was 0-3 on the season and the Blue Jays were 3-0. Surprisingly, the series started with a big 14-5 Rockies win yesterday. Year in and year out, the Rockies are a dreadful road team and we are banking on a bounce back for the Blue Jays today. Veteran starter Max Scherzer looked great in spring training this season and the Rockies Ryan Feltner struggled with command in his spring outings and could carry that right into the season. Also, Feltner's overall MLB stats have not impressed in his career as he is 9-26 with a 5.19 ERA in his career. The Blue Jays are slugging at a .460 clip so far this season and that is #1 in the AL The Rockies, prior to yesterday's rare explosion, were struggling at the plate and those road struggles have been typical of this Colorado team for many years in a row now. Those struggles quickly resume here while the Jays respond after the embarrassing loss. Toronto was 54-27 at home last season while the Rockies went 18-63 on the road. Last season the Blue Jays had only 5 instances all season long where they were playing at home after a home loss by a margin of 6 or more runs. Toronto went 5-0 (100%) on the year in this situation. One of those five wins was in extra innings but the other 4 wins were all by a margin of at least 2 runs! We are banking on the fact that this one will be too! The run line is available at a very fair money line price here and we invest in a strong home team against a team known for being horrible on the road. Lay the 1.5 runs Tuesday with Toronto

ASA NHL play on Carolina Hurricanes -130 over Columbus, 7:30 pm ET - The Blue Jackets face an angry Hurricanes team here. Carolina is off a 3-1 loss versus Montreal Sunday and will respond here on the road. The Canes are 8-0 the last 8 times they have entered a game off a loss and Carolina has not lost B2B games since mid-January. Columbus is playing with a lot of pressure to make the post-season while the Hurricanes are well-set and even have a shot at the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference! The pressure seems to be getting to the Blue Jackets as they have lost 3 straight and now they are facing the wrong team at the wrong time. Indeed Carolina has been fantastic off a loss plus they have revenge here for a 5-1 loss here in Columbus less than two weeks ago. This will be a payback game for the Canes.

UEFA Nations League Playoffs C/D - Rotation #234413/234414 ASA PLAY ON Over 2 Goals (-130) – Luxembourg vs Malta, Tuesday at Noon ET - Luxembourg is at home and already won the 1st Leg of this battle 2-0. However, Malta's manager has his team fired up and has them believing they can overturn the 2-0 deficit. Even if they do fall short we still expect a very aggressive effort from Malta on the road to result in plenty of scoring in this one. Prior to the 2-0 loss, Malta scored 8 goals in their last 6 matches. Luxembourg will again be confident, now at home, that they can give the Malta backline trouble again in this one. Also, Malta created scoring chances but failed to finish in the first meeting. That is noteworthy here as, prior to the shutout win, Luxembourg allowed 13 goals in their last 6 matches. The fact this one is available at 2 goals is an excellent value. Our computer math model is projecting 3 to 4 goals here and we look for a minimum of a 2-1 result in this one.