NHL Hockey Bet : The Ottawa Senators lack players with the offensive skills and postseason portfolios of Sidney Crosby(notes), Evgeni Malkin(notes) and Jordan Staal(notes). They do possess a sound game plan, excellent defensemen and a commitment to make an Eastern Conference first-round series that was supposed to be a Penguins walkover into an extended, difficult-to-win round.
Deep down, the Penguins probably expected their true challenges to come in later rounds against Washington and/or New Jersey, teams they didn’t defeat once this season. The Senators’ surprise 5-4 victory in Game 1 changed all that.
Game 2 on Friday isn’t necessarily a must-win game for the Penguins, who came back from 2-0 deficits twice while winning the Stanley Cup last spring. But it’s as close as it gets.
“We didn’t come in here expecting to win four straight,” Crosby said Thursday. “It’s going to be a tough series. If anything, (the) last game should motivate us even more. We hadn’t played Ottawa for a long time. We have a history with them in the playoffs, and I don’t think that the element of not liking them was really there enough. That’s definitely there now.”
Ottawa vs Pittsburgh @ NHL Betting
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