Pittsburgh Penguins @ Ottawa Senators

This will be probably the best game of the day, due to the fact that this will be a matchup between two teams that have their best arguments on the offense.

Pittsburgh had 5 of their 7 losses on the last 8 games. They struggled a little bit with 4 straight losses, but are now returning to their best form, with 2 wins in a row. Curious is the fact that they only started to win when one of their stars, Malkin, returned. With 2 games since is return, the team is scoring 5.5 goals per game, but with him out, the team has scored 0 goals twice, and on the other games, only 1 goal. So, they definitly had struggled without him, even having Crosby, who aparently can't get enough without Malkin support.

Penguins will start a 3 games road trip and certainly will want to start it well. They are 7-4 at road, but remember that 3 of those losses where in their last road trip, when they were struggling. Despite their record and known power they are having problems with lots of injuries, specially at defense where they were improving from last season. But their biggest attributes are the offensive ones, and Crosby and Malkin together are reason enough to guarantee that Pittsburgh will hit the nets. It seems probable that Max Talbot will return today as well, he was the Game 7 two-goal scorer hero from the last Stanley Cup final in June. And Fleury will be at their nets, he is playing pretty well and will give more confidence for the few defenders that will be able to play

Ottawa even with talented players are struggling and the last time they've got 2 wins in a row was one month ago. Their last game was a win and if they stay as an unreliable team, we can expect them to lose today. They have a few veterans like Alfredsson and Kovalev, who are pure talent players and give great value to the Senators' roster, transmiting experience to younger and talented players as well, like Spezza. However, this is not enough to win games and they are having problems because they exactly struggle too many games on their offense. Against a team with their best players back to their offensive line, this is easily translated as a loss. If they will not produce on their offense, they will have problems to win their games.

So, for this game we can expect a lot of goals. Senators have talent on their offense and will probably take advantage on the fact that the Penguins have their best defenders out. Yet, the Penguins have their bigger stars in the field and will return Talbot, who did not play since the two goals to Detroit, which gave Pittsburgh their last Stanley Cup. So, it will be a game with a lot of goals, but there is a nice spot to take advantage: Ottawa this season usually loses against power offensive teams, as they can't keep the game close for a long time. They depend too much on their veterans, who are not physically so strong and fit to play too much time as the other players and that gives them a breach on their game.

Pick: Pittsburgh Penguins 3Way (1X2) +135 (2.35) Bookmaker, +155 (2.55) Goalwin