The Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders have combined for six or more goals in eight of their last nine matchups.
Wednesday is the second-last day of the NHL regular season with just four matchups and fewer selections for a solid addition to the Pad Stacking Challenge.
Tonight's matchups will have the added difficulty of some teams likely not going to play their star players to avoid injuries ahead of the playoffs but despite this we have found one pick that we do feel confident in.
If you aren’t familiar, our new betting challenge uses the concept of building our bank and rolling over our profits. We do this by stacking our winnings through well-researched picks given out daily that will hopefully build our bank.
Yesterday, we were correct once again with Pavel Zacha scoring the Bruins only goal in their 3-1 loss to the Senators and extended our initial $10 bet into now $105 which gives us a chance in the next few days to possibly beat our all-time high of $210 with our next pick coming in tonight's matchup between the Penguins and Islanders.
All betting lines are from BetMGM and are subject to change. Hockey is a difficult sport to predict so please gamble responsibly.
Bet: Penguins Islanders Over 5.5 goals (-145)
Since March 26, no two teams are hotter than the Penguins and Islanders. Pittsburgh made a late push for the last playoff spot but fell short as they fixed their inconsistent offense too late into the season.
They managed to blow opposing teams away during their hot streak with a 4.18 goals per game average. New York figured out their defensive woes over the past few weeks and secured the third Metropolitan Division spot thanks to a 1.90 goals against average over their recent hot streak.
A red hot offense versus defense is always an exciting matchup with history telling us the offense should prevail as it has consistently in this matchup. In all but one of their last nine matchups, there has been six or more goals scored with the Islanders scoring five goals in their last matchup in February that resulted in a 5-4 win.
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The Penguins will still have their offense humming with captain Sidney Crosby leading the charge but may have the wind taken out of their defense after a heartbreaking elimination from the playoffs. The Islanders will want to elevate their play and more specifically their offense as they head into a tough first round matchup against the Hurricanes.
New York had been mediocre in the scoring department during their recent hot stretch with just a 2.90 goals per game average and will be a focal point in their season finale.
If we roll our $105 that we’ve built over the last few days with the Over in the Penguins Islanders game, our new total will rise to $178 and leaves us one correct pick away from a new all-time high.