In the first face-to-face match of the season, Pittsburgh defeated Pittsburgh - 6: 1. Will Craig Beryube's charges be able to take revenge for such an unconvincing past game? We believe the "penguins" will be stronger again!

Pittsburgh team uniform

This season is going very hard for Pittsburgh, but at the finish of the regular season the team was still able to pull together and play a series of excellent matches. In the last ten fights, Mike Sullivan's wards left the ice only once without scored points, having won eight victories in this segment. In previous meetings, the Pennsylvanian club first defeated Boston, which also scored points in 19 matches in a row, then there was a victory over the current Stanley Cup winner Washington, after which it seemed to be the most difficult game in terms of infusion against Buffalo, however " penguins "defeated the opponent - 5: 0. Such a qualitative breakthrough allowed Mike Sullivan's team not only to return to the top eight, but also to climb to the sixth line in standings Eastern Conference, gaining 87 points out of 142 possible (61%).

St. Louis Team Uniform

For the "musicians" this season began extremely unsuccessfully, therefore, during the entire second half of the regular season, they have to win back everything that was missed at the start. The best segment of the players "St. Louis" was given at the turn of January and February, when the team won 11 victories in a row, which allowed the "bluesmen" to return to the top eight of the conference. However, in recent matches, Craig Beryube's wards again began to experience difficulties, alternately losing to San Jose, Arizona and Ottawa. As a result, at the moment, "St. Louis" takes seventh place in the standings of the Western Conference, with 79 points out of 140 possible (56%).

Head-to-Head History Between Pittsburgh and St. Louis

Within the framework of the NHL, over the past ten years, teams have held 16 face-to-face meetings, in which absolute equality is observed: each of the clubs won eight victories. The difference between the goals scored on the side of the “penguins” is 47:37. V this season the rivals played one head-to-head meeting, which took place at the Enterprise Center and ended with the victory of Pittsburgh - 6: 1.

Pittsburgh vs St. Louis Betting & Predictions

The teams approach the face-to-face confrontation, being in the opposite state: Pittsburgh won six victories in the last seven meetings and is climbing higher in the standings, while St. Louis lost in three previous matches and is already on the border of the playoff zone risking to fly out of it. Mike Sullivan's team is very emotional, so when the "penguins" are on the move, it is extremely difficult to stop them, and now they are in much better shape than the "bluesmen". Considering that the first face-to-face meeting teams ended major victory the Pennsylvania team, the bet on

Start of the match: 03:00 (MSK)

At the start of the new season of the NHL. Four matches will take place on the night from Wednesday to Thursday. And quite naturally, the most interesting is the first calendar game of the Stanley Cup triumph of two recent years - Pittsburgh Penguins.

The first rival of the penguins will be the musicians of St. Louis. But the previous meeting between the teams of Mike Sullivan and Mike Yeo at the “Pee-Pee-Gee Arena” on January 25 this year ended with a sensational defeat of the hosts with a score of - 0: 3 (Pariko, Reeves, Upshall).

Pittsburgh Penguins (head coach Mike Sullivan)

New season penguins start out with significant personnel losses... And the main one is going to new club Leagues - Vegas Golden Knights of the best goalkeeper Marc-Andre Fleury. Now post # 1 is entrusted to yesterday's stunt double Matt Murray, and will depend on his reliable performance final results club.

But Mike Sullivan's team has no problems in attack. To the stable leaders of the penguins Sidney Crosby, Yevgeny Malkin and Phil Kessel added the former right wing striker Ryan Reeves.

St. Louis Blues (Head Coach Mike Yeoh)

The main impact force The Blues is still the Russian striker Vladimir Tarasenko. In the last regular season, Vladimir scored 39 goals against St. Louis rivals (4th result of the championship):

1.Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh) - 44
2-3. Nikita Kucherov (Tampa) - 40
2-3. Auston Matthews (Toronto) - 40
4-5. Vladimir Tarasenko (St. Louis) - 39
4-5. Brad Marchand (Boston) - 39

But the two most popular Russian NHL strikers Evgeny Malkin (Pittsburgh) and Alexander Ovechkin (Washington) scored 33 times in the last championship (12-17 places).

Forecast

Bookmakers named Mike Sullivan's team as the clear favorite of the season's opening game on the main arena of Pennsylvania. Naturally, the penguins will try to please the traditionally crowded Pi-Pi-Ji Arena with a new bright victory. However, do not forget about the debut at the gate of Pittsburgh of the reserve goalkeeper. Therefore, here it is more rational to bet on the total of goals scored.

Our forecast is total over 4.5 for 1.55.

In the last fight St. Louis dealt with Buffalo at home (4: 1), having won the second consecutive victory and the third in the last four games. But overall, the Blues are second to last in the Central Division, six points behind the playoffs.

Goalkeeper Jake Allen played well against Buffalo, having saved 30 of 31 shots on target in a tie. Young striker Robert Toma showed himself excellently, scoring a goal + pass, defender Jay Boumeister, strikers Ryan O'Reilly and Patrick Maroon on the puck, David Perron and Alexander Steen each had two assists.

Russian strikers Ivan Barbashev and Vladimir Tarasenko did not score points in the duel, and Barbashev did not score goals for five matches in a row. Defenders Karl Gunnarsson and Alex Pietrangelo, forward Robbie Fabbri are injured.

A distinctive feature of "St. Louis" are relatively good special teams, which are among the 15 best in the NHL. But in general, in terms of abandoned / missed goals, the Blues occupy places in the third ten of the League.

Pittsburgh

Last match Pittsburgh at home he dealt with Detroit (5: 2), having won the fourth victory in a row and the sixth in the last seven fights. The Penguins have significantly improved their standings, gaining a foothold in third place in the Capital Division.

Forwards Phill Kessel and Derek Brassar became the heroes of the match against Detroit - both scored a double, and Kessel also gave an assist. Another goal on the account of Patrick Hornquist, two assists each were recorded by the Russian forward Yevgeny Malkin and the team captain Sidney Crosby. Defender Justin Schultz is in the infirmary; defender Jamie Oleksyak's participation is in question.

Pittsburgh has a very strong attack, throwing an average of 3.32 goals per match (7th indicator), special teams are in the top 10, but defense and goalkeepers leave much to be desired - an average of 2.97 goals conceded per match and 17 th place.

Forecast

This is the first meeting of the rivals in the season. Pittsburgh scored good move and is considered the favorite of the confrontation, but away the Penguins previously played very unstable. Until the last two victories, having won only a couple of matches out of ten on someone else's ice. Let's take a chance with the forecast for the victory of "St. Louis" in the match with a coefficient of 2.17.

Hockey March 16, 2019

March 16, 2019 at 20:00 Moscow time, in Pittsburgh for ice arena PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh The Penguins will face the St. Louis Blues in another National Hockey League home game.

Experts of BC "1xStavka" are betting on a Pittsburgh win. For the Pittsburgh triumph, the odds are 2.10. The odds for a draw are 3.90. The bookmakers bet 2.85 on the St. Louis win. The odds for the total of the match are interesting and high, the bookmaker offers the following quotes: TB 6.5 - 2.40, and TM 6.5 pucks - 1.60.

Pittsburgh had a brilliant 5-0 win over Buffalo on the road. During the meeting, the players were able to convert the majority 3 times, out of the five provided. Individually worth noting Bugstad 1 + 1, Kessel 1 + 1, Guenzental 1 + 1, Crosby 0 + 2 and DeSmith, who played to zero after reflecting all 26 shots in the match. Pittsburgh won 6 of the last 7 meetings of the season. In the Eastern Conference, the Penguins are in 6th place, with 87 points, as well as a goal difference of 247: 213. In just 71 completed rounds, the team achieved Victoria in 39 meetings. With the support from their stands, the "penguins" achieved 21 victories, gaining 44 points in 35 matches, with a positive goal difference of 122-109. At the moment, in their native walls, hockey players are winning four confrontations in a row. Top scorers clubs are Crosby 33 + 59, Kessel 24 + 48, Malkin 21 + 50 and Guentzel 36 + 32. Note, Evgeny Malkin, he overcame the 1000-point mark in his NHL career. Now Malkin has 1001 points in the NHL - 391 goals and 610 assists. The Russian took 849 matches to reach this figure. He became the 88th player in history and the 5th reigning hockey player in the league to reach this milestone. From Russian players this barrier was overcome by Alexey Kovalev (1029), Alexander Mogilny (1032), Sergey Fedorov (1179) and Alexander Ovechkin (1200). Sidney Crosby finished 46th in NHL history with 1208 points, surpassing Vincent Dumfus' 1205. The next target for Crosby is the position of Bernie Nicholls (1209). Plus "Pittsburgh" repeated the achievement of "Detroit" in the number of players with 1000 points in the NHL. Evgeni Malkin became the fourth Pittsburgh player to score 1,000 points in games for the club. The record belongs to Mario Lemieux (1723), second place is taken by Sidney Crosby (1208), the top 3 closes Jaromir Jagr(1079). As part of Detroit, the historic milestone was subdued by Gordie Howe (1809), Steve Yizerman (1755), Alex Delvecchio (1281) and Niklas Lidström (1142).

St. Louis in the last match played unconvincing and lost to Ottawa away, with a score of 0-2. At the moment, "Notes" are in 7th place in the Western Conference table, with 79 points in the piggy bank and with a goal difference of 199: 193. In total, over 70 fights, the club managed to beat opponents 36 times. Hockey players demonstrate excellent results in guest confrontations, gaining more points than at home in 36 meetings, 43 points, with a goal difference of 95-85. The leader of the attacks of the "musicians" this season is O'Reilly 26 + 41.

St. Louis is currently in seventh place in the standings, after a gorgeous streak of victories, during which the "blues" tore everyone and everything, there was a slight decline, which is quite logical - the guests have lost the last three matches, only once reaching overtime. ..

In the last match, it went to extremes - St. Louis lost to Ottawa on the road with a score of 0-2, and, perhaps, this is a sure sign that the team has an obvious decline. Now the rivals will be Pittsburgh, one of the best teams throughout the NHL in recent years. V recent times the Bluesmen are not doing well on the road - at seven recent fights the team suffered five defeats in the away format. I think that in this match St. Louis will not be able to outplay his opponent, after all, the game will be very difficult ...

Pittsburgh Penguins

Pittsburgh is currently in very good shape - of the last seven matches, the team won six, five - in regulation time. In the last matches, the Penguins looked simply gorgeous - at first the Penguins were able to outplay Boston 4-2, then Washington was beaten with a score of 5-3, but in the last round the Pennsylvania team defeated Buffalo 5-0 ..

Pittsburgh, although having a far from ideal season, has good home statistics - in thirty-five home format matches, Pittsburgh was able to win twenty-one times, eighteen in regulation time. “Pence” for a long time can not beat St. Louis on their ice, but now provides an excellent chance to do so, as the teams are in fundamentally different form. I think that in this match the “penguins” will be able to show that the team is completely ready for the playoffs ...

Forecast

It seems to me that the hosts will be able to win in this match. “Pence” at the moment are in very good shape, while St. Louis in the last match could not even print the gate of Ottawa, let alone win. I think that in this meeting, Pittsburgh will gain two points, winning in regulation time!