Pittsburgh Penguins at Calgary Flames Betting Preview
Opening Moneyline: Pittsburgh +110 / Calgary -130 O/U 5 goals
Time: 9:30 PM EST Wednesday January 13, 2010 on TSN
Tonight the Calgary Flames host the struggling Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins really need to stop the bleeding, as they are coming off a loss and are only 3-7 in their last 10 games. The Flames are also coming off a loss, but they are a decent 6-3-1 in their last 10 games.
The Penguins are in 2nd place in the tough Atlantic Division 8 points behind the New Jersey Devils and the Flames are tied for 1st place with the Colorado Avalanche in the Northwest Division.
This season Calgary is 12-8-3 at home and 16-27-3 O/U and Pittsburgh is 14-10-0 on the road and 20-26-1 O/U.
Both teams are coming off a loss, as Pittsburgh lost to the Minnesota Wild 4-3 on Monday night and Calgary lost to the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 also on Monday night.
Both teams are really struggling producing power play goals, as Calgary is 0 for 14 in the last 5 games and 3 for 35 (8.6%) over the last 11 and Pittsburgh has one of the lowest power play success rates in the league (14.3%). It really hurt the Penguins in their last loss to the Wild, as they were 0-6 on the power play and lost 4-3.
While Sydney Crosby has been solid offensively this season, ranking 3rd in the league in points (56) and 2nd in goals (29), fellow superstar Evgeni Malkin has struggled, big time, as of late not scoring a goal or tallying an assist in his last 9 games. When he does not have a point Pittsburgh is only 5-9 this season.
Pittsburgh will have to snap out of their offensive slump against a hot Calgary G, as Miikka Kiprusoff has a GAA of only 1.98 in his last 11 games. He is 2-1-1 with a 1.73 GAA in 4 starts against Pittsburgh.
Speaking of slumping Pittsburgh G Marc-Andre Fleury has a 3.99 GAA in his last 8 games.
Calgary's Jarome Iginla is also having a tough time lately, as the Flames leader in goals, assists, and points has not scored a power play goal in the last 20 games and he does not have a goal in his last 5 games.
Calgary has to win this game with their defense, which is only allowing an average of 2.33 goals per game this season, as their offense only ranks 17th in the league in scoring (2.65 goals per game).
The total has gone Under in 5 of the last 6 games against teams with a winning record and the total has gone Under in 9 of their last 13 road games. The total has gone Under in 6 of Calgary's last 7 home games against teams with a winning record and the total has gone Under in 12 of their last 17 games against teams from the Atlantic Division.
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NHL Handicapping
Tampa Bay Lightning at Boston Bruins 5-17
The Boston Bruins need to play much better in game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Bruins lost the opener 5-2 at home and can ill-afford to fall behind 2-0 to Lightning. Tampa Bay are on quite a roll, winning their last eight in a row in the playoffs. The oddsmaker at Bodog have the Bruins as a -145 favorite to even-up the series.