NHL Picks: Penguins to finally get in the win column against Senators – CBSSports.com
Welcome to the NHL Daily Picks, where CBSSports.com hockey writers Chris Peters and Adam Gretz share their predictions for select games every day.
Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Ottawa Senators, 7 p.m ET
Even though we’re just a little more than a week into the 2015-16 NHL season the Pittsburgh Penguins are already one of the teams that could be getting close to hitting the panic button.
That’s what happens when you have high expectations coming into the season and you stumble out of the gate to an 0-3 start. They continue their five-game homestand on Thursday night against the Ottawa Senators and it would be very beneficial for them to finally get back in the win column this season.
Yeah, it’s only four games and there are still 78 games to play after Thursday. But the recent history of teams that start winless through the first four games isn’t exactly an encouraging one. Since the start of the 2005-06 season only 15 teams have been winless through their first four games of the season, and out of that group only three of them (the 2012-13 Washington Capitals, and the 2008-09 Anaheim Ducks and Philadelphia Flyers) went on to make the playoffs that season. So, yeah … it might be early, but that’s still a tough hole to climb out of.
In terms of playing style, the Senators are the type of team that could give the Penguins some trouble because they have such a fast group of forwards, something that tends to give them problems, especially when some of their slower defensemen are on the ice. But the combination of Pittsburgh almost certainly being a desperate team (as desperate as a team can be four games into the season) and Ottawa playing the second half of a back-to-back is enough to give them an edge on Thursday. Plus, you have to think at some point that Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel are going to get going offensively, and Ottawa’s defense might be a good matchup for them.
The Senators are coming off of a 7-3 dismantling of the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday night and improved their early season mark to 3-1 with all three wins coming on the road. But is this a sign of a things to come for Ottawa? The wins are nice, but they’re giving up 10 more shots on goal per game than they take (35 against, 25 for) and according to War-On-Ice they have the worst scoring chance differential in the league during 5-on-5 play (minus-35; 72 chances for, 107 against). The results so far are there, but the way they’re getting the results isn’t exactly an ideal way to sustain success. Pick: Penguins 4, Senators 2
The rest of Thursday’s picks
New York Islanders 4, Nashville Predators 3
Washington Capitals 3, Chicago Blackhawks 2
Montreal Canadiens 4, New York Rangers 2
Tampa Bay Lightning 5, Dallas Stars 3
Buffalo Sabres 3, Florida Panthers 1
St. Louis Blues 4, Edmonton Oilers 2
Minnesota Wild 3, Arizona Coyotes 0
The Pittsburgh Penguins are still searching for the first win this season. Will they get it on Thursday night? (USATSI)
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.
