Can the Surprising Canucks Keep Rolling Against Pittsburgh?
Canucks vs Penguins Odds Favors Penguins to Slow Surging Canucks
Pacific Division Leading Vancouver Looks To Keep On Rolling
Exactly a year after the last meeting, the Vancouver Canucks and Pittsburgh Penguins will meet for the first time this NHL season. The Canucks vs Penguins NHL odds have this matchup approaching Pick’em status.
Vancouver is coming off a 5-2 win against the New York Islanders. Vancouver is 2-2-1 when paying in the second game of a back-to-back. Pittsburgh hasn’t played since beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 on Monday. That is enough for Pittsburgh to be priced at -121 to win the game according to the NHL odds with the Moneyline set at +108 for visiting Vancouver. The total comes in at 6.5 with the Over juiced to -120, and the Under at +104.
Winger Phillip Di Giuseppe and defenseman Guillaume Brisebois are out for Vancouver.
For Pittsburgh, forward Matt Nieto and defenseman John Ludvig are out.
Pittsburgh is 10-8-1 at home. Vancouver is tied for the Western Conference lead with 13 road wins.
Vancouver was tied for 20th in the odds of winning the Stanley Cup title when the season began. Those NHL odds have moved from +6000 to +2200 while the championship odds for Pittsburgh have gone from +2800 to +4000.
Canucks vs Penguins 
Day/Time:
Location: PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh, PA
Streaming: Watch Live Sports
Homecoming for Lafferty
Sam Lafferty began his career with the Penguins as he had 21 points in 94 games. He has bounced around a bit since that time and is in his third team in the last three years.
The Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania native will be playing in Pittsburgh as a visiting player for the first time. He has scored one goal in 40 home games with the Penguins during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons.
When looking at the Canucks vs Penguins NHL odds, keep in mind that the total has gone over in eight of the last 10 games for Vancouver.
Guentzel Delivering For the Penguins
The last time that somebody other than Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin either led Pittsburgh in scoring or tied for the team lead came during the 2003-04 season before either Crosby or Malkin were on the team.
Right now, Jake Guentzel is the top point producer with 44 points and also leads Pittsburgh with 26 assists followed by Crosby and Malkin. That could factor into the Canucks vs Penguins NHL odds.
NHL players don’t come more consistent than Guentel as he has nine goals and 13 assists both at home and on the road. Guentzel has five goals and five assists in his last five games against Vancouver.
The total has gone under in four of the last six games.
Last Meeting
Pittsburgh has won three of the last four meetings with Vancouver as the Penguins won 5-4 in the most recent NHL matchup.
Evgeni Malkin had two goals and two assists as Pittsburgh erased an early three-goal deficit to earn a split of the 2022-23 season series.
The game landed over the 6.5-goal total with 13:02 left to play in the second period. The previous four games between Vancouver and Pittsburgh had finished under the total.
The home team has won four of the last five games between the NHL teams.
Canucks vs Penguins Betting Preview
Something will have to give as both teams are 7-2-1 over the last 10 games. Vancouver leads the NHL with an average of 4.4 goals per game during that stretch. Pittsburgh is tied for sixth in goals-against average.
Vancouver just swept the three New York area teams as the long road trip continues.
The total has gone under in four of Pittsburgh’s last five home games as well as in four of the last five meetings against Vancouver. That is a trend that the Penguins hopes will continue after the Canucks 17 goals in the last three games.
Elias Pettersson has led the way with five goals and three assists, all at even strength. J.T. Miller has three goals and two assists while defensemen Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek both contributed a goal and four assists. That quartet has a plus/minus rating of +33 in those three games.
Pittsburgh might not mind seeing the NHL picks go from listing the Penguins as the favorite to being the underdog considering that the Penguins are 9-5-1 as the underdog and 10-12-2 when listed as the favorite.
Fifteen of Vancouver’s 22 road games have finished over the total as the highest scoring team in the NHL thrives in wide-open affairs.
The total has gone over in 11 of Pittsburgh’s last 15 games against Pacific Division teams so this does not have the feel of a 2-1 type of game. While only two of the last four games played by the Penguins had at least seven goals scored, there have been 38 combined goals scored in Vancouver’s last five games.
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