NHL Hockey: Colorado Avalanche at Pittsburgh Penguins

By BetOnline October 15, 2019

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The Pittsburgh Penguins are on a three game winning streak and coming off a pair of big wins over defensively challenged opponents. In their previous two games they beat Minnesota 7-4 and Winnipeg 7-2. They’ll make a big step up in class on Wednesday night as they welcome the scorching hot Colorado Avalanche to PPG Paints Arena. The Avs are the last remaining undefeated team in the NHL with a perfect 5-0-0 record. They did have the advantage of playing their first four games at home but they ripped the Capitals at Washington 6-3 last time out.

These teams played twice last year with each winning on their home ice. The Avs won 6-3 in Denver on November 28, 2018 while the Penguins returned the favor by an identical score at home on December 4. The Avalanche may have the best top line in hockey with Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen. The scary thing about this line is that MacKinnon has scored only twice this year though he does have 6 assists. Once he gets his goal scoring touch going the Avs top line will border on ‘unstoppable’. Colorado is currently #2 in goals scored per game at 4.40, right ahead of Pittsburgh at 4.17. The teams are pretty close to each other on the team defense table–Colorado has the #7 team goals against average (2.40) while Pittsburgh is #9-T (2.67).

The story is the same on special teams. Colorado has the #7-T power play in the league scoring on 27.3% of their man advantage opportunities. Pittsburgh is #11 scoring on 26.1% of their power plays. Neither team has been more than serviceable on the penalty kill and–surprise, surprise–they’re dead even in this statistical category tied at #17 with a 78.6% kill rate. Both teams are expected to start their top goaltenders and Phillipp Grubauer has been fractionally better for Colorado (2.51 GAA) than Penguins top netminder Matt Murray (2.82).

The Penguins are still without Evgeni Malkin which isn’t a good thing though they’ve gone 3-1 with him on the bench. The Avalanche have played a tougher schedule with quality wins over the Caps, Boston and Arizona. They’ve split their last two visits to Pittsburgh and hold a 3-1 advantage in head to head play over the past two seasons. Colorado has been very solid in non-conference play in recent years and bring a +10.6 unit profit over the past three seasons into this game. Pittsburgh has lost a ton of money over the past three years in the first half of the season (-16.8 units) and after a win by 2+ goals (-21.7 units). They’ve also lost money in non-conference play. At worst, this game is a toss up where we want to take the plus money.