Hockey Night In Canada: Pittsburgh vs Toronto Pick
The opening weekend of the NHL season will feature a match up between the Pittsburgh Penguins (1-0-0) and the Toronto Maple Leafs (0-1-0) at the Air Canada Centre. Cappers Picks will provide free NHL picks all season.
Hockey Night in Canada kicks off its season this Saturday with a game between the Penguins and Maple Leafs.
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Pittsburgh vs Toronto
When: Saturday, Oct 11 2014 at 7:00 pm ET
Where: Air Canada Centre
TV: CBC
NHL ATS Gambling Line: Penguins -1.5
NHL Gambling O/U Line: 5.5
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A pair of teams that tout highly skilled, fast paced offenses will go toe to toe in what is sure to be an entertaining game.
This Saturday night’s prime time Hockey Night in Canada game should see a bounty of offense as the two teams have combined for nine goals in just one game of play each. The Penguins put a 6-4 beating on the Anaheim Ducks to open their season on Thursday, while the Leafs were downed 4-3 on Wednesday by their arch rival Montreal Canadiens.
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Stars like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and James Van Riemsdyk will all put their talents on display as these two Eastern Conference teams battle it out.
Penguins
The Pens are coming off an impressive showing in their season opener, potting six goals against a Western Conference powerhouse in the Anaheim Ducks. The Pens were sharp right from the jump in their home opener, jumping all over rookie goaltender John Gibson and putting three pucks past him before the game was even 15 minutes old.
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It’s hard to fault any goalie for getting lit up by the Pens, but Gibson’s shaky start in his home town was a big reason that the Penguins rolled to a season opening win. Pittsburgh let the Ducks back in the game in the second and it wasn’t until the game was tied 3-3 that Pittsburgh found their offense again, rallying for two goals in under a minute to take a 5-3 lead.
Penguins goalie Marc Andre Fleury was anything but spectacular himself, surrendering four goals on 29 shots, but when you play behind a team that puts up six and stakes you to a 3-0 lead in the first period it’s normal that you won’t be your sharpest.
Maple Leafs
The Leafs opened their season with a see-saw battle with their Atlantic Division rival Montreal Canadiens and were downed by a late third period goal to lose 4-3. This was a pretty typical performance from Toronto where they looked brilliant in spurts and downright terrible in others.
The Buds fell behind 1-0 on a soft goal by Max Pacioretty, before battling back to take a 2-1 lead. Early in the second, a sloppy turnover cost them the lead and they found themselves behind again 3-2 in the third period.
Toronto showed fortitude in tying the game up late in the third, only to have it slip away on a goal that banked off their own defender’s skate and in with less than a minute to go.
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Leafs goalie Jonathan Bernier was pretty pedestrian against Montreal, and should take the blame on the first goal that beat him short side. He made some big saves at key times to keep his team in the game while they were down, but his play seemed to dip off when the score was tied or the Leafs were up. Bernier will need to be much better against Pittsburgh who will be coming at him in waves all night on Saturday.
Penguins vs. Maple Leafs 4* Free Pick
This match up has been dead even over the past few seasons. The Penguins do have the better of it with four wins in the last six games, however two of those came via the shootout. In their last six games the teams are dead even with 20 goals apiece (Quick math: 40 goals in six games = 6.6 goals per game).
I won’t stick my neck out in taking a winner this early in the season, but I will say take the over paying -125.
Check out our Updated NHL Odds.
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