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The Capitals were 23-12 on the road this year and they will come out with some fire tonight being down 2-0 in the series.

The Caps have dropped the first two despite outshooting Pitt 71-45 in both games combined. Washington is very good in the underdog role and we'll back them here on Monday night.

 Lets take the team with the better defense  and hungry for a win and to try and get back in this series.
5* Washington Capitals

Nashville has a leg up in this series after winning the opener by a 4-3 margin. The Nashville Predators have too much team speed for the Blues and it showed in game 1. Nashville really dominated the first two periods the other night. Prior to the start of this series I stated that I thought Nashville had legitimately been the better team in the series with Chicago. At the same time, I expressed the opinion that goalie Jake Allen was the only reason the Blues got past Minnesota. If STL gets out to an early lead, they are tough and just focus on defense, but this Nashville team is for real! Nashville is now 5-0 in the playoffs and that team speed advantage will be the difference. I’ll side with the red hot Predators to maintain their hot play as they win again here in game 2 on Friday night.

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The price is right to back the home Senators, in a do-or-die match. Ottawa is in serious trouble if they lose and go down 0-2 in the series. Only 12.7 percent of teams down 0-2 have come back to win a Stanley Cup series. The Bruins are banged-up both offensively and defensively. Boston is likely to be without Torey Krug, Brandon Carlo and Colin Miller on defense while also missing forward David Krejci. Meanwhile, the Senators could get back defenseman Marc Method, who has been out since March 23 due to a finger injury. Ottawa has won 5 of the last 6 in this seriers and we'll back them here in game 2. Take the Ottawa Senators.  4*

The Senators have owned the Bruins of late winning the last 6 games between the clubs. Tonight Boston has a few injuries that they are dealing with and the Senators must take advantage. The Bruins will be without Krug, Carlo and Acciari tonight and David Krejci and Dominic Moore are hurting as well and won't be 100%. Ottawa received great news when one of the league's best defenseman Erik Karlsson returned to the team from a 3 game absence. The Senators have not made the playoffs 2 out of the last 3 years so you can just imagine how the home crowd will play an important part for the Senators tonight. Take Ottawa

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This is a MUST WIN for the Islanders. They are 20-11 at home while Nashville is just 15-17 on the road. The Home team is also 5-1 in the last 6 meetings. Predators are 1-4 in the last 5 meetings in New York. The Predators are 9-25 in their last 34 after scoring 5 goals or more in their previous game. Islanders are 8-0 in their last 8 when their opponent scores 5 goals or more in their previous game. I'm backing the NY Islanders here at home on Monday night.

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The Islanders are 20-8 at home and a very good team while the Hurricanes are just 7-18 on the road this season.
NY is playing with double revenge and they have won their last four home games, and I see that continuing Monday night against visiting Carolina. Look for the Islanders to get the home at home and win their 5th straight home game.

5* NHL GAME OF THE WEEK

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The Lightning open a four-game homestand against three teams that would be in the current playoff field in Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa. Tampa Bay has scored at least three goals in five of its last six games, making life easier for alternating goalies Ben Bishop and Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Tampa Bay is 4-0-2 in its last six games and goalie Ben Bishop has allowed just five goals in his last four contests. While Edmonton also is playing well with three straight wins, I like Tampa Bay to keep rolling at home.

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have been a sluggish team in recent weeks. They haven't won back-to-back games in over a month. Pittsburgh begins play in second place in the Metropolitan, five points behind the Washington Capitals and two points ahead of Columbus. The Penguins last visit here they lost 7-1 so you can bet they will be fired up tonight. Columbus' rout of Pittsburgh in December was fueled by a hat trick from Scott Hartnell. But Hartnell missed Wednesday's win with a lower-body injury and remains day-to-day according to Tortorella. Besides dealing with Crosby, Columbus' defense may have its hands full as Evgeni Malkin and Kessel are surging for Pittsburgh. Malkin had a goal and an assist Thursday, giving him 58 points (24 goals, 34 assists) to match his total from last season. Malkin has recorded multiple points in four of his last five games, totaling three goals and five assists. He also needs one assist for 500 in his career. Pittsburgh is 4-1-1 in its last six away from home, limiting the opposition to one goal in each of the four victories. Look for the Penguins to get the win here on the road on Friday night.

5* NHL GAME OF THE MONTH

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Pittsburgh is off one of the craziest wins I’ve seen in ages. The Pens rallied from a 3-0 deficit, then blew 5-3 and 7-5 leads before getting the overtime win against the Capitals on Monday night. That game was absolutely insane, and wheeling back on the road 48 hours later doesn’t figure to be easy. On the flip side, Montreal should be pretty geared up for this game as they were giving the day off yesterday and are a very good defensive team. They came out on the short end of an overtime thriller the last time they faced Pittsburgh. In that game, the Habs were up one goal before the Penguins tied it with less than one minute to play in regulation. In the overtime, Montreal got tagged for having too many men on the ice when they botched a change while trying to prevent a 2-on-1 break and Pittsburgh skated away with the win on a power play goal. Montreak is very good at home sitting at 16-4 on their ice while Pitt is 1 game under .500 at 8-9 on the road. I’ll play the Canadiens here at home on Wednesday evening.

5* NHL Iceman Game of the Week

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The Winnipeg Jets will take on the Buffalo Sabres at First Niagara Center on Saturday. In their latest game, the Buffalo Sabres lost 3-4 to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Robin Lehner should start in net for this game. He allowed 3 goals on 28 shots during his latest appearance.

It looks like Connor Hellebuyck will get the call in this one. In Hellebuyck's latest appearance, he faced 32 shots and allowed 1 goals. Connor Hellebuyck has a 4 GAA in his last 3 games.

The Buffalo Sabres need to work on their structure as they've had trouble moving the puck up the ice this season. The Winnipeg Jets have gone 9-5 when playing Eastern-Atlantic opponents this season.

All of the value in this line is on the road club. Take the Winnipeg Jets to prevail in this game.

5* NHL GAME OF THE WEEK

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We've got the Winnipeg Jets taking on the Vancouver Canucks in the NHL in this one. In their latest game, the Winnipeg Jets lost 1-4 to the Vancouver Canucks. Blake Wheeler scored once for the Winnipeg Jets. Dustin Byfuglien had an assist.

Over 33 games this season, the Vancouver Canucks rank as one of the worst puck possessing teams in the league.

All of the value in this line is on the road club. The Winnipeg Jets will certain pepper the opposition with shots in this one. Take Winnipeg here.

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Columbus Seth Jones was placed on injured reserve Monday after sustaining a hairline fracture on the top of his right foot in Saturday's game at St. Louis. This is a big loss for the Blue Jackets and for Anaheim its a big revenge spot for the Ducks as they were thoroughly embarrassed in a 4-0 home loss to the Blue Jackets two weeks ago. Anaheim is very good defensively and one of the best teams on the power play. They are already 2-0 this season when playing with home loss revenge. Also, the Ducks have won 26 of 38 when playing with 2 days of rest and they have been off since Sunday. Look for the road team to get the win here on Wednesday night.   4*

The Washington Capitals and San Jose Sharks are going in different directions heading into their matchup Tuesday night in the nation's capital. Washington has won five consecutive games after a 4-2 victory over Florida on Saturday night. T.J. Oshie scored twice, the second time he's done that in this young season, and Alex Ovechkin added two points. Ovechkin has 11 points in his last nine games with goals in six of his last nine contests as the Washington offense continue light up the scoreboard. Goalie Braden Holtby also has won four in a row, and those are big reasons why coach Barry Trotz doesn't want to adjust too many things. The Caps are by far the better and hotter team right now and I'll back them at home tonight against a Sharks team who cant wait to get back to the West coast.   5*

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 This is an Ottawa team that Bouchard has played great. Also, we like this team to show pride and motivation coming off a bad loss to Tampa Bay in which they fell short 1-4.  We like Ottawa here on the bounce-back and they should be motivated and primed to get a road victory on the ice.  4*

We roll with Edmonton here as the underdog but the line going down which is a postive for us. We like the fact that Edmonton comes off back to back wins against quality teams defeating the likes of St. Louis, Carolina and beating Calgary twice.

 Lastly, the Winnipeg Jets are 2-11 ATS in their last 13 games when they face teams with a road winning percentage of greater than 60% overall as well.

4*

We roll with Tampa Bay here on the road as they hook up against Ottawa.  Tampa Bay comes off getting shutout in their last game and it will be hard pressed to find this team looking to not want to bounce-back right away. We also like Ottawa who scored 7 goals in their last game and this is a letdown spot. We roll with Tampa Bay to get it done on the bounce-back after scoring 0 goals in their last game.
Take the TB Lightning on Sat evening.  4*

Nashville has lost to Detroit the last 4 times they have played them (the two before that they had won). This is a Nashville team that has all the motivation in the world to step up for the big win here on the road on Friday Night. This is a Nashville team that comes off back to back losses including losing to Dallas 1-2 as -152 favorites and losing 3-5 to Chicago. Now we will roll with who we believe will be the better team, with revenge and Wings looking ahead to San Jose on deck.

4*

Washington has consistenty lost to Florida and is probably tired of it. This team lost to Florida 2-5 last year and they come off back to back impressive wins as favorites over Colorado and the Islanders by scores of 3-0 and 2-1. This team's only loss was to Pittsburgh in a shootout on the road as a small favorite and we like this team to be focused and get a WIN tonight. 4*

We roll with Tampa Bay as they are probably sick of losing to Florida. This is a TB team that has lost back to back games to Florida losing 5-2 each time. In fact, TB has lost 4 of 5 to Florida. Combine that with the fact TB didn't play particularly well against New Jersey winning 3-2 as a heavy favorite, we like them to be motivated here to play Florida and likely get it done. Tampa Bay focuses and gets it done here with revenge as this will be a benchmark to see if they have improved from last year as they have been outscored by this team 10-4 goals in their last 2 games. Major revenge game for TB here at home.  4*

The Sharks were the best road team in the NHL last season and I've seen nothing to indicate that will change this time around. Also the Rangers lost both Kevin Klein and Dan Girardi defensively with Antti Raanta in net over Henrik Lundqvist. The Sharks power play unit will be the difference in this game and should get us an easy victory.
Play the SHARKS  5*

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The Jets open the season at home against the Hurricanes who surprised a few people last season as they nearly made the playoffs but I dont think they are that good. The Jets have a clear edge with Connor Hellebuyck in net. The Jets are loaded with two top defensive pairings featuring Dustin Byfuglien, Tobias Enstrom and Tyler Meyrs.
Take WINNIPEG 4*

I have questions about the depth of this Blackhawks team long term, but I think they get the job done tonight on home ice to open the season. I think the STL Blues lost a lot of key players in the off-season. St. Louis lost top goaltender Brian Elliot, team captain David Backes and Troy Brouwer. Losing Elliot and Backes is a huge hit to a team that has to start the season on the road at the United Center against the team who also knocked them out of the playoffs last year.
Take the Chicago Blackhawks here on opening night. 4*

The Penguins have dominated shots on goal in this series. The Penguins lost 4-2 despite outshooting the Sharks 46-22 on Wednesday. In fact, Pittsburgh has outshot San Jose 179-120 through five games. The Sharks scored 2 early goals in the 1st period in the last game but I dont see that happening here. The Penguins will come out sharp and clinch the Stanley Cup tonight! With the Penguins feeling the pressure to get off to a much better start in Game 6, I look for Pittsburgh to be very aggressive early in this game. The concern for the Penguins though is not their ability to get scoring opportunities. After all, the Pens have dominated shots on goal in this series and been the better team on special teams. Murray was shaky early in Game 5 but I expect a solid effort tonight. The Penguins are 16-5 after a loss by two goals and they'll bounce back tonight.    5*

The Pittsburgh Penguins dominated Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final and there's no reason to believe they won't do it again in Game 2. THe final score made it look a lot closer than the game really was. Pittsburgh outshot San Jose by a 41-26 margin and controlled the action for most of the contest.  The Sharks had a hard time slowing down the Pens and I'm not sure they'll be able to the entire series. This Penguins team is very good and I look for them to jump out early again and not look back.

Play PITT in the NHL Stanley Cup Game 2.

St. Louis won the first game of this series 2-1 and has won all 4 contests against San Jose this year. If you watch the matchup between these two teams you will realize that San Jose has a real problem handling the St. Louis defense. Note, that these two teams have played 3 times this year with the results being 2-1, 1-0, 6-3 and 3-1. Hence, St. Louis has outscored San Jose by a score of 12-5 in goals.
The Sharks are 0-4 in their last 4 road games, 3-13 in their last 16 Conference Final Games and the Blues are 13-3 after scoring 2 goals or less in their previous game.

Lets back STL here on Tuesday night at home. 4*

4*

We roll with Nashville here at home against San Jose. Every time Nashville has had their backs against the walls they have come through this year. For example, they were down 2-3 to Anaheim in their last series only to go on the road to win the next two games in Anaheim in thrilling fashion. That speaks volumes to this team. Nashville is a team who has consistently come together when their backs are against the wall, small public fade, the Predators are 5-2 in their last 7 home games and 5-2 when facing a team with a winning percetage of greater than 60% as well. Note, the Sharks are also 1-8 in their last 9 meetings in Nashville as well.  4*

We roll with Tampa Bay here as they have a 2-1 lead and after losing game 1 they have woken up and playing some good hockey.

 Look for this team to keep it rolling here as it's a quality public fade, this team understands that they need to rest and take and place a hold on this series as if they lose this game it goes to 2-2 as they head back to Tampa Bay where anything can happen. Plus, the Lightning are 14-3 in their last 17 Conference Semi-final games, 4-1 in their last 5 games when they face a team with a winning record and the Islanders are 3-8 in their last 11 games when playing on 2 days rest.  5*

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