Buffalo Sabres (11-25-7) vs Pittsburgh Penguins (27-13-3)
Game Info: SUnday, April 18, 2021 at 3:00 pm (KeyBank Center)
Betting Odds: Buffalo Sabres +241 / Pittsburgh Penguins -269 --- Over/Under: 6 Click Here for the Latest Odds
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The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Buffalo Sabres meet in NHL action from the KeyBank Center on Sunday afternoon.
The Pittsburgh Penguins will look to build on a 3-2 victory over the Sabres in Saturday’s matchup. Sidney Crosby leads the Penguins in scoring with 50 points including 17 goals and a team-high 33 assists while Jake Guentzel has 46 points with a team-high 20 goals and Kris Letang’s got 28 assists. Bryan Rust has split his 34 points between 17 goals and 17 assists and Evgeni Malkin’s on 8 goals and 16 assists this season. As a team, Pittsburgh is averaging 3.3 goals on 29.6 shots with a 22.4% success rate on the power play while allowing 2.8 goals on 29.6 shots with a 77.3% success rate killing off penalties this season.
The Buffalo Sabres will look to bounce back from yet another defeat after their loss on Saturday. Sam Reinhart leads the Sabres in scoring with 28 points including a team-high 15 goals and 12 assists while Victor Olofsson has 25 points with 12 goals and 13 assists. Rasmus Dahlin has 18 points with 14 assists while Rasmus Ristolainen has 10 assists as well this season. As a team, Buffalo is averaging 2.4 goals on 27.7 shots with a 20.6% success rate on the power play while allowing 3.4 goals on 32.5 shots against with a 78.4% success rate killing off penalties this season.
Pittsburgh is 8-3 in their last 11 games overall and 2-6 in their last 8 games playing on no rest while the over is 5-0 in their last 5 road games. Buffalo is 4-17 in their last 21 home games and 13-38 in their last 51 games overall while the under is 6-2 in their last 8 games played on no rest. The under is 5-2-1 in the last 8 meetings between t hese two teams in Buffalo.
This is a lot of plus money to be giving up with a home dog like Buffalo, but the Sabres aren’t playing well enough to give the plus money any value really, and while the Penguins haven’t been great on the second half of a back-to-back, it’s better than whatever the Sabres are trying. I’ll back Pittsburgh on the puck line in this spot.
Chris’s Pick Pittsburgh -1.5
AUTHOR: Chris Ruffolo
Follow Chris Ruffolo on Twitter @ruffthepickdawg