Pittsburgh Penguins at Washington Capitals Betting Odds
Opening Moneyline: Pittsburgh +175 / Washington -205 O/U 6.5 goals
Time: 7 PM EST Wednesday March 24, 2010 on NHLNET
Tonight in an Eastern Conference match up the Washington Capitals host the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins. The Caps will have the top seed in the East and the Penguins are tied for 2nd with the New Jersey Devils.
Washington has the best home record in the East, is coming off a win, and is 7-1-2 in their last 10 games. The Penguins have lost 2 games in a row and are 5-3-2 in their last 10 games.
This season the Capitals are 26-4-4 at home and the Penguins are 21-15-2 on the road.
The Capitals have won both of their games against the Penguins this season.
This game features 2 of the highest scoring teams in the league and has a superstar match up with Sidney Crosby vs. Alex Ovechkin. Each has been solid in the 2 games this season, as Ovechkin has 5 goals and 2 assists against Pittsburgh while Crosby has 2 goals. Ovechkin has 7 points in his last 5 games while Crosby has not scored a goal in his last 5 games.
Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin is day-to-day with a foot injury and this season he has 5 assists against Washington.
Penguins' G Marc-Andre Fleury (33 wins 2.66 GAA save percentage 90.6%) has a tall task tonight trying to thwart the Caps, who have the highest scoring offense in the league (3.88 goals per game).
All the odds are stacked against the Penguins in this game, as they not only face the best home team in the East, but the Caps are averaging more goals per game and are allowing fewer goals per game. However, the Penguins are still the defending champions until some team beats them in the post season.
Washington G Jose Theodore (26 wins 2.76 GAA save percentage 91.1%) has been playing decent recently and if he has a solid game between the pipes tonight the Caps should easily win this game.
There is a good chance these 2 teams will meet in the post season and it may be in the 2nd round of the playoffs.
Betting Trends
Pittsburgh is 2-5 in their last 7 games, 0-6 in their last 6 road games against a team with a home winning percentage of greater than 60%, and has an Under record of 5-1 in their last 6 games.
Washington is 6-1 in their last 7 games against teams with a winning record, and has an Over record of 5-2 in their last 7 home games, and an Over record of 18-7-3 in Capitals last 28 games against teams with a winning record.
The road team has won 4 of the last 5 meetings between these 2 teams.
Our Selection : The Capitals are very tough at home but Sid the Kid will be up for this one. The Penguins have lost their last 2 to Capitals and it's very tough to beat a team as good as Pittsburgh 3 times in one season. 5Dimes have Pittsburgh at +185 on the moneyline and that is just to juicy of a price to pass up. Take Pittsburgh + 185.
Future Betting Odds
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.