The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals meet in NHL action from the Capital One Arena on Sunday.
The Pittsburgh Penguins will look to rebound from a 6-3 loss at the hands of the Ottawa Senators in their last game. Evan Rodrigues leads the Penguins with 11 points including a team-high 6 goals while Kasperi Kapanen and Jake Guentzel each have 9 points with Kapanen logging 4 goals and 5 assists while Guentzel has 3 goals and 6 assists. Kris Letang has a team-high 7 assists and Marcus Pettersson has a team-high +7 plus/minus rating this season. Tristan Jarry has posted a 5-2-3 record in goal for Pittsburgh with a 2.23 GAA and a .929 save percentage this season.
The Washington Capitals will try to build on a 4-3 win over Culumbus in their last game. Alex Ovechkin leads the Caps with 23 points split between a team-high 12 goals and 12 assists while Evgeny Kuznetsov has 18 points with a team-high 13 assists. Tom Wilson ahs 11 points with 3 goals and 8 assists and Ovechkin has a team-high 6 power play points as well as a pair of power play goals. Nick Jensen leads the Caps with a +!5 plus/minus rating already this season. Vitek Vanecek is 3-2-3 with a 2.51 GAA and a .906 save percentage for Washington while Ilya Samsonov is 4-0-1 with a 2.93 GAA and an .894 save percentage this season.
Pittsburgh is 1-4 in their last 5 road games and 2-5 in their last 7 games overall while the over is 5-1 in their last 6 games as a road underdog. Washington is 27-8 in their last 35 games as a favorite and 19-8 in their last 27 games against a team with a losing record while the under is 7-2-1 in their last 10 games as a home favorite.
I get the allure of Pittsburgh and the plus money, but the Pens hit a new low for me with the loss to the Senators on Saturday. Washington has been up and down lately as well, but they’re the better team in my opinion here and are pretty much healthy which can’t necessarily be said for Pittsburgh. I’ll side with the Capitals in this one.