Buffalo Sabres at Pittsburgh Penguins Betting Preview
Opening Moneyline: Buffalo +110 / Pittsburgh -130 O/U 5.5 goals
Time: 7 PM EST Monday February 1, 2010
Tonight the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins host the Buffalo Sabres. The Penguins have been playing well as of late, as they are coming off a win, are 6-4 in their last 10 games, and they are now only 3 points behind the slumping New Jersey Devils in the Atlantic Division. The Sabres are in 1st place in the Northeast Division with a 5-point lead over the Ottawa Senators and have won 2 in a row and have gone 4-3-3 in their last 10 games.
This season the Penguins are 18-9 at home and the Sabres are 14-9-2 on the road.
In their last games Pittsburgh beat the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 yesterday and Buffalo beat the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Friday night.
This game is a match up of 2 of the top 4 teams in the Eastern Conference, as Buffalo is in 3rd place and Pittsburgh is in 4th place. The Sabres have lost 4 straight road games.
Buffalo has a good offense, as they rank 11th in the league in scoring averaging 2.75 goals per game. However, the reason they are winning this season is their defense, which ranks 2nd in the league only allowing an average of 2.30 goals per game.
The Buffalo defense is led by G Ryan Miller (29 wins 2.03 GAA save percentage 93.5%), who has been great this season ranking 1st in GAA and save percentage and tied for 5th in wins. Miller will be starting between the pipes for the USA in the Olympics and he has been one of the best goalies in the league this season. However, he is only 2-4-2 with a GAA of 4.43 in his last 8 games against the Penguins.
The Sabres will have to play solid defense tonight against a Penguins offense that ranks 5th in the league in scoring (3.04 goals per game). Pittsburgh is led by superstar Sidney Crosby, who ranks 3rd in the league in both points (68) and goals (34).
When Crosby scores Pittsburgh is 17-6 this season and he has an 8-point streak against the Sabres, during which he has scored 3 goals and notched 7 assists.
If Buffalo can play good D they have a great chance to win this game, as Pittsburgh's D is only mediocre, at best, allowing an average of 2.84 goals per game.
Pittsburgh G Marc-Andre Fleury (27 wins 2.55 GAA save percentage 90.9%) will have to deal with a Buffalo offense that plays great as a team that does not have one player ranking in the top 25 in the league in either points or goals. However, Thomas Vanek, who leads the Sabres in goals (16) has scored in 4 of the last 7 games. When Vanek scores a goal the Sabres are 10-2-3 this season.
Buffalo is 8-1 in their last games against teams in the Eastern Conference and has an Over record of 4-1 in their last 5 road games. Pittsburgh is 0-4 in their last 4 home games against teams with a winning road record and has an Under record of 6-2 in their last 8 home games. When these 2 teams have played the total has gone Over in 6 of the last 7 meetings and in 5 of the last 7 in Pittsburgh.
Our Selection : We like the over in this game. Buffalo has gone over in 4 of last 5 on the road and are 8-2 in last 10 against teams in the East. The total has gone over in 6 out of last 7 games between these 2 teams. Take over 5.5 goals
Future Betting Odds
NHL Handicapping
New York Rangers at Philadelphia Flyers 4-11
Well, today's game in the City of Brotherly love is for all the marbles, as the Philadelphia Flyers host the New York Rangers. Both of these teams are tied for the 8th and last playoff spot in the East, so the winner of this game will make the playoffs while the loser will be watching them from home.