The Pittsburgh Penguins will look to stay hot as they host the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night in a game that can be seen on NBCSN. The Bruins have started to slide a little bit in the Atlantic Division but they are still right in the mix for second place while the Penguins are leading the Metropolitan Division. Surprisingly, the Bruins have owned this series recently taking 8 of the last 10 including the last five and Boston has won the last three meetings in Pittsburgh.
At 7:30 p.m. ET, tune into NBCSN for live television coverage of this NHL game on Wednesday, December 14, 2016, at Consol Energy Center.
We'll have NHL odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NHL Wednesday schedule.
Odds Analysis
This is the second of two games on this road trip for the Bruins who played in Montreal on Monday. Boston was 8-7 in their first 15 road games this season with 9 going under, just 4 going over with 2 pushes.
Pittsburgh is playing the second of a three-game homestand as they hosted Arizona on Monday. The Penguins were a spectacular 12-3 in their first 15 home games with 9 going over, just 2 going under with 3 pushes.
Special Teams
The Bruins are simply not producing on the power play this season as they ranked 27th in the league at 27%. That is part of the reason they are just 25th in the league in goals per game at 2.3 but it is not for a lack of shots as the Bruins are 2nd in the league in shots at 33.1 per contest. Boston has been saved by their penalty killers as the Bruins are 3rd in the league at 87.2%. That is one reason why Boston is allowing just 2.4 goals per game, 7th in the league.
“It seems like every game we’re outchancing teams, but we don’t outscore teams,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “That’s our biggest issue right now. Our scoring’s not there and if you don’t score goals you don’t win hockey games. Because of that, we’ll criticize everything else in our game, but our game isn’t that bad. If we were scoring goals, people would be loving our game right now.”
Boston has had 20 games this season in which they have scored two goals or fewer. The top line which features the top two scorers on the team, Brad Marchand and David Pastranak has done almost all of the scoring of late.
The Penguins are 2nd in the league in goals per game at 3.4 per contest but their power play hasn’t been great at 19.6%, 12th in the NHL. The Penguins allow 3 goals per game which is 24th in the league and their penalty killing has been poor as they are just 28th in the league at 76%.
Goalie Report
It is all about Tuukka Rask in goal for Boston as he is carrying the team. He is 14-7 on the season with a 1.85 goals against average. The backup is Anton Khodobin who is 1-4 with a 3.02 goals against average.
The Penguins goaltending controversy, if you can call it that, is over as Matt Murray is now the clear number one. He has a 10-2 record with a 2.01 goals against average and has clearly outplayed Marc-Andre Fleury who is 8-8 with a 3.42 goals against average.
Free NHL Picks
As noted earlier, the Bruins have dominated this series of late taking 8 of the last 10 but it is hard to make a case for them winning this one on the road against a superior Pittsburgh team playing at home. I will lay the price and take the Penguins in this contest. If the Penguins decide to go with Fleury in goal I will also take the game over the total.
NHL Odds: Red Wings 5, Flyers 2
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