NHL Betting – Pens Dive into DC for Game 1

Pittsburgh Penguins (+115) at Washington Capitals (-135, 5 o/u)

In a playoffs full of upsets and injuries to star players, the Pittsburgh Penguins (4-1, 2-0 road) and Washington Capitals (4-2, 2-1 home) have broken the mold. Both survived the first round as the higher seed, and both will have their superstars in the lineup when they meet in Game 1 of their best-of-seven series tonight at the Verizon Center (8:00 PM Eastern).

While Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals had an astonishing regular season (56-18-8, 120 points), perhaps no team is hotter right now than Sidney Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pens won 14 of their last 17 games to close the year and then dominated the Rangers in round one, outscoring New York 21-10 over five games.

Crosby continued his pace from his torrid second half of the year, scoring eight points against the Blueshirts. Evgeni Malkin, who missed Game 1 due to injury, was back at full speed as soon as he hit the ice, notching seven points in the final four games of the series.

Pittsburgh’s only issue right now is goaltending health. Starter Marc-Andre Fleury is still dealing with post-concussion symptoms, leaving 21-year-old Matt Murray as the team’s number one. Murray has answered the bell so far, though, stopping 85 of the 89 shots he’s faced this postseason.

Ovie and the Capitals had a little more trouble with the Flyers, needing six games to bounce Philly. And the usually high-scoring squad managed just one goal over the final two games of the series. That said, the Caps looked like the dominant team throughout, even outshooting Philadelphia 44-11 during the Flyers’ 2-0 win in Game 5.

Nicklas Backstrom was the team’s leading scorer in round one with seven points. Ovechkin acquitted himself decently with three goals and 29 shots over six games.

With Vezina frontrunner Braden Holtby healthy and boasting a playoff-leading .968 save percentage, the Caps should have the goaltending edge. But the team has injury problems of its own to worry about. Defensemen Brooks Orpik and Karl Alzner are both question marks for Game 1. Orpik was cleared to return despite having problems with concussions symptoms. Alzner has an upper-body injury and hasn’t skated for the past two days.

That’s unwelcome news for a Washington team that has struggled with the Penguins. Though they dominated most of the league night in and night out this year, the Caps are just 2-6 SU in their last eight home games against Pittsburgh. The Pens also took the last two meetings of the regular season, one at home and one on the road.

Momentum means a great deal in the postseason, and no team has more of it right now than the Pens. With Washington’s moneyline at -135, Pittsburgh looks like the better value in a game that could truly go either way.

Pick: Penguins (+115).

(Photo Credit: Elliot from Castro Valley, California, USA (Sidney Crosby) CC BY 2.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.)