Play Pens And Preds To The Under

Penguins vs. Predators, 8:00 ET

It wasn't the best sports betting week for me last week and yesterday started slightly rough with that atrocious Monday Night Football... I'd call it a game, but was it really a game? It was more like watching two incompetent teams play something that vaguely resembled football. Anyway, now we go back to the ice as we are off of football for a few days after being hammered with it for the past five days. For this play, I head to a game between the Penguins and the Predators.

Neither team in this one has much to be excited about. Both come into this game with just a 10-10-0 record, which is rather remarkable this many games into the season that they have identical records with so many ties in hockey. As you'd expect, the Penguins are having their team led by Sydney Crosby. Crosby has been the mainstay of the Penguins squad for years and remains their best player. This year, he leads the team in points and goals. He also has helped the birds out with 11 assists on the season. On the season, the Penguins have had a bit of bad luck. They have lost a lot of close games. Their defense has been playing at playoff caliber already, allowing just 2.60 goals against per game on 31.2 shots against per game. That's pretty solid odds. Even their Power Play percentage has been solid and something they can hang their hat on. Looking at their offense, they have a respectable 3.15 goals for per game, but that hasn't translated to as many wins as it should. Over the past five games, they've scored three or fewer goals in each contest. They've gone just 2-3 in that stretch.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - NOVEMBER 02: Gustav Nyquist #14 of the Nashville Predators picks up his knocked out tooth during the first period against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on November 02, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

If the Penguins are considered to be up and down right now, you have to consider the Predators to be one of the hottest teams in the NHL at the moment. They've won five straight games, four of which have come on their home ice. They've also put up at least four goals in four of the five games. Prior to that, they were still performing fairly well offensively, but struggled on defense. In fact, they lost six of seven contests and allowed an average of almost 4.5 goals per game in that stretch. Their defense, and goalies have improved over the last few and they haven't allowed more than three goals in any of the past five wins or six games total. Just like the Penguins, the Predators have their star leading the way. The Predators have Filip Forsberg doing everything for them and he is leading in points, goals, and assists. The winning streak can be at least somewhat attributed to him as he has seven points in the past five games. Overall, he has 17 of his 25 points this month as well.

I'm not quite sure who will be in net for either club tonight, but I assume it will be the primary net minder for each team, Tristan Jarry for the Penguins and Juuse Saros for the Predators. Jarry's record looks really bad, but he has a very respectable 2.44 goals against per game and has saved .918% of shots against him. Saros is worse in both categories and has a similar record, but has played better in the recent wins. I think this is probably going to be under the 6.5 as both teams are playing better defensively lately. I'd be very surprised to see either team win by the puck line, unless we get an empty net score. I'll just play the under in this one.

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