Pittsburgh Penguins vs New York Islanders prediction
Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh hit the ground running with an impressive away victory against the New York Rangers (3-0), who are now under the guidance of their former coach Mike Sullivan.
One standout performance came from Justin Broso, who bagged a brace. It would be remiss, though, not to mention Evgeni Malkin's influential assist. The evening's real showstopper was Latvian goalkeeper Arturs Silovs, who posted a shutout in his inaugural game after transferring to the Penguins from Vancouver.
Dan Muse's squad is riding high, currently on a six-game winning streak, which spans both pre-season exhibition matches and the official opener. The team's attacking prowess has been on full display, racking up 22 goals at an average of 3.66 goals per game.
Unfortunately, the hosts are still unable to call upon four of their players: Blomqvist, Hayes, Rust, and St. Ivany.
New York Islanders
The New York Islanders will make their season debut, a bit later than most teams entering the new stretch of regular season games.
Their pre-season left much to be desired, as the visiting team managed just two wins out of six matchups, outperforming the New York Rangers (5-4) and Philadelphia (4-3). However, they subsequently lost revenge matches to New York—2-3 and 2-3. Another thorn in their side was New Jersey, with losses of 2-6 and 2-4.
Against the Flyers, two players named Maksim left an impression—Cyplakov notched two assists, while Shabanov scored his first NHL goal, even though it was in a pre-season contest.
The Rangers' defense raises concerns, having conceded 23 goals for an average of 3.83 goals per game. To make matters worse, their offense was unable to bridge that gap with only 17 goals scored (2.83 per game).
Prediction
It will be intriguing to see how Pittsburgh fares in their sophomore outing under the new coach. Yes, they secured a clean sheet against New York, but I wouldn't rush to glorify it. Especially since New York Islanders are playing their first official game. Besides, the Islanders have had quite the successful run against the Penguins, winning four out of their last five head-to-heads. Still, I'd consider looking into an over 5.5 total. Citing the average scoring across both teams' friendlies and official matches at 5.12 and 6.66, plus the tallies from their last five face-offs (4-5, 3-4, 3-6, 3-2, 2-4), it seems like a promising bet.
