San Jose vs Pittsburgh: The Penguins to suffer again in California

Pittsburgh cannot beat San Jose in California for three straight games. Will Mike Sullivan's team be able to break their losing streak now? We predict that the Sharks will not go down without a fight again!

San Jose have turned into an NHL underdog in recent years, but they manage to make serious progress in the regular season, intervening in the fight for a playoff spot. The Sharks are currently sitting in eighth place in the Western Conference standings, so they'll have a tough battle ahead to get into the cup battles. Bob Boughner's team has been looking quite good lately, winning three of their previous four meetings, although two of them were won in overtime only. The main thing is that the Californians are collecting their points right now, and that's especially important in their position.

Pittsburgh had an extremely unsuccessful start to the current regular season, but nothing else could be expected from them. After all, in the offseason, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin had operations, so they could not return to form for a long time. The Canadian was the first to recover, and the Magnitogorsk native returned the following week, scoring three points in his first game to lead Anaheim to a 4-1 win. Alas, the Russian lacked emotion for the second game in a row, he had no scoring chances, and the Penguins lost 2-6. The Pennsylvanians are currently seventh in the Eastern Conference standings, but they have every chance of making the playoffs.

California are an extremely unpleasant region for Pittsburgh, where they constantly fail. For example, the day before, they were defeated by Los Angeles 2-6, and they suffered three straight defeats away from San Jose by a combined score of 3-12. Now Mike Sullivan's team travels to the Sharks after two tough games in the state, and there is still a battle with Vegas to remember. The Penguins don't have a lot of energy and emotion anymore, which the Californians should take advantage of. As a result, a bet on San Jose not losing at the end of regulation time with 1.76 is in order.

Timo Meier is a key player for San Jose this season. The Swiss forward has improved from year to year, and by the age of 25, he has become a true leader and top scorer for the Sharks, one of the top 10 most prolific hockey players in the entire league. In 33 games played, he's already scored 39 points (15 goals + 24 assists). For the first time in his career, he is making more than one action per game on average, which confirms his excellent shape, so the best option for the prediction is Timo Meier Total Over 0.5 points for 1.70.

Pittsburgh and San Jose already played each other a couple of weeks ago, when they had a fiery encounter. Already by the end of the first period, the Penguins had crushed their opponent, 6:1. However, the Sharks didn't give up and almost won back, and the final score confirms the fun they had in Pennsylvania, 8:5. We can expect the same because the Yellow and Blacks are always efficient on their own, while the Californians do not mind adjusting to their opponents. With this in mind, it's worth looking at a bet on Total Over 6 pucks for 2.00.