This is a FREE PLAY on the Pittsburgh Penguins.
I had a play on Pittsburgh in its last game, and it held a 3-2 lead into the final minute of the game in its eventual 4-3 shootout loss to Anaheim.
To say that loss was frustrating, both for them and for my clients and me, would be an understatement.
Now they have a chance to take out their frustrations on the Canadiens, and at this price, I think Pittsburgh is worth the price of admission on Thursday night.
When we look at the Penguins we find that they're 14-7-7 overall, including 6-4-3 at home, while the Habs are 15-11-3 overall, including 8-3-2 on the road.
The Penguins now enter after back-to-back shootout losses, also falling 3-2 in a shootout at Dallas prior to the home loss to Anaheim on Tuesday.
Pittsburgh though is in a good spot to bounce back in, with San Jose, Utah and Edmonton all coming to town after this.
Montreal enters having lost two straight, most recently the 6-1 home loss to the Lightning on Tuesday.
With another tough road game at New York, I think this is a difficult position for the Habs to try and bounce back in.
Situationally speaking, this one favors the home side for sure in my opinion.
A quick tale of the tape finds Montreal averaging 3.2 goals per game, while allowing 3.5.
Pittsburgh, on the other hand, averages 3.1 goals per game, while allowing 2.7.
Clearly, the difference comes on the defensive end.
I think it's important to look at their current form as well to determine this play, and looking at the Canadiens last two games sees them struggling to generate offense, while doing nothing to slow anyone down on the defensive end.
The Penguins, though, have been competitive in back-to-back shootout losses, and they had plenty of chances to put it away late in each game, it really was so close and could have gone either way.
When taking into account all of these situational factors, and combine it with this extremely reasonable line, the value for sure swings to the PENGUINS in this matchup on Thursday night.
Good luck, NP
