The Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Islanders will be back on the ice Tuesday night after spending time away from it during the Christmas break. The Penguins are third in the Metropolitan Division with 43 points, while the Islanders are sixth with 40 points. With all that being said, let’s now take a look at our NHL odds series plus our Penguins-Islanders prediction for this showdown scheduled at 7:30 PM ET.
Here are the Penguins-Islanders NHL odds, courtesy of FanDuel
NHL Odds: Penguins-Islanders Odds
Pittsburgh Penguins: -1.5 (+194)
New York Islanders: +1.5 (-245)
Over: 6.0 (-102)
Under: 6.0 (-120)
Why The Penguins Could Cover The Spread
The Penguins are coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes at home last Thursday, but that’s not a reason to sleep on the team. Notwithstanding that defeat, the Penguins should remain to be viewed as one of the hottest teams in the NHL of late. Since the start of December, Sidney Crosby and the Penguins have come up with an 8-1-1 record with a PDO of 100.4 over that span.
Netminder Tristan Jarry is a huge reason behind the recent success of the Penguins, who are undefeated this month whenever Harry is patrolling the crease for his team. In six appearances on the ice this December, Jarry has managed to put up a 6-0 record, a .939 saves percentage, and allowed only six total goals.
Jarry has yet to face the Islanders this season, but it’s not hard to imagine him showing up with a tremendous performance later tonight, considering the amount of success he’s had in his career when dealing with New York. In 11 games played versus the Islanders so far in his NHL career, the 27-year-old Jarry has compiled an impressive 10-1 record with a .931 saves percentage and a 2.01 goals allowed average.
Jarry can also expect Crosby and those in front of him to provide some goals to work with. Pittsburgh is seventh in the NHL overall with an average of 3.42 goals per contest. It is also 10th in the league with a 10.5 shooting percentage. Also clicking for the Penguins are their special teams that can’t seem to stop from scoring on the man-advantage. Pittsburgh has benefited a ton from its power-play attack which has generated 14 goals on 38 power-play chances over the team’s last 10 games. And if the Islanders want to get Pittsburgh a taste of its own medicine, they will have to figure out the Penguins’ special teams which are No. 1 overall in the league with an 84.76 percent success rate in penalty killing.
Why The Islanders Could Cover The Spread
The Islanders don’t have the consistency Pittsburgh has been showing of late, but they are at least fresh off a 5-1 victory at home over the Florida Panthers last Friday. That was a nice response for the Isles, who, prior to that game, lost back-to-back to the reigning Stanley Cup champions Colorado Avalanche (1-0 SO) and to the New York Rangers (5-3), both away from home. Although they are just 4-5-2 through 11 games so far in the month of December, the Islanders have some encouraging underlying factors to feel good about heading into the matchup versus the Penguins.
For one, the Islanders have a 101.1 PDO in their last 11 outings. New York hasn’t been winning a lot of shots battle over their last few games, but that wasn’t the case in the Panthers game in which they fired a total of 62 shots to just 37 by Florida. New York is also a respectable 12th in the NHL this December in terms of 5-on-5 high-danger shots total with 114. Overall in the 2022-23 NHL season, the Islanders are 15th with 3.2 goals per game. It is important for the Isles to have center Brock Nelson ready to go against the Penguins later tonight.
Nelson is considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury he sustained in the Florida game. Nelson lead New York this season with 34 points (15 goals, 19 assists). An absence from Nelson will add more pressure on the shoulders of the likes of Matthew Barzal, who has 33 points (5 goals, 28 assists), and Anders Lee, who has 26 points (11 goals, 15 assists).
Whether Nelson plays or not, the Islanders can hope that they can at least neutralize Pittsburgh’s offense with their own stellar goalie in the form of Ilya Sorokin. With Semyon Varlamov, the Isles are expected to put Sorokin in front of the net versus the Penguins. Sorokin carries an 11-11 record with a.925 saves percentage and 2.37 goals allowed average. The 27-year-old Russian netminder can be a black hole between the pipes. Among goalies at least 15 games played this season, Sorokin owns the highest Goals Above Expected (17.4) and the fifth-best Save % on Shots on Goal (0.925).
Final Penguins-Islanders Prediction & Pick
With two stud goalies set to work this game and with the Islanders likely to miss their No. 1 guy on offense, the safer pick would be the total hitting the Under.
Final Penguins-IslandersPrediction & Pick: Under: 6.0 (-120)
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