Bryan Power

9* Arizona (4:05 ET): Needless to say, the Islanders have not had a strong start to this road trip. They’ve yet to even score a single goal! Shutout losses to Nashville and Vegas leave the Isles in a third place tie in the Metro and a tenuous two points ahead of sixth place Carolina. It’s a very thin line between “in” and “out” of the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.

The same could be said out West where Arizona is trying to make the playoffs. The Coyotes would currently be a Wild Card, but are tied w/ Calgary and depending what Winnipeg does Sunday night at home vs. Chicago, one of the two Pacific Division teams would be on the outside looking in. Unlike the Islanders, the ‘Yotes do bring a bit of positive momentum in this one as they defeated Washington 3-1 on Saturday. Now they try to win B2B games for the 1st time in over a month. 

While goal scoring has been a problem for NY recently, they are still #6 in the league in goals allowed. But Arizona isn’t too far behind, ranking #9. So the edge the Isles have over most opponents won’t be present here. Plus the Coyotes have the goal scoring advantage here at home, averaging 3.1 gpg here compared to 2.4 for NY on the road. The Islanders are just 1-6 SU their L7 games as a ML dog, all but one of those games taking place on the road. 9* Arizona 

10* Iowa State (9:00 ET): Kansas figures to still be at #3 in the polls when it tips off against Iowa State Monday in Lawrence. The Jayhawks, now 22-3 SU on the year, notched impressive wins over West Virginia (58-49) and Oklahoma (87-70) over the past week. They’ve now won 10 in a row and truth be told there is an argument to be made that this is the best team in the entire country. KU has covered the spread in three straight games.

Iowa State had a far more tumultuous week as they learned star Tyrese Haliburton, projected to be a 1st round NBA pick, will miss the rest of the season with a wrist injury. In their first game w/o Haliburton, the Cyclones were crushed 90-61 at Oklahoma. But they then circled the wagons Saturday for arguably their most impressive performance to date, an 81-52 thrashing of Texas in Ames. 

Kansas has #1 Baylor on deck, a showdown in Waco that takes place Saturday. They already faced Iowa State right before Baylor earlier this season and this time KU is hopeful things turn out better. That’s because last time they ended up losing to Baylor 67-55. They did defeat ISU 79-53 in Ames, but I look for this rematch to be a lot closer than that. It’s the most points the Cyclones will get in any game all season and they’re 22-10 ATS as a road dog of at least 12.5 points going back more than a decade. The “lookahead” factor is real here. 10* Iowa State