Posted by After their huge win in Boston, San Jose travels to Pittsburgh to take on last year’s Eastern Conference champions tonight at 7:30pm EST, at Mellon Arena.
Pittsburgh is coming of a loss Sunday to the Detroit Red Wings, and currently resides in the tenth spot in the East. The team with the eighth-best record, the Florida Panthers, are two and a half games up on Pittsburgh.
That is what makes this win so imperative for the Penguins. If Pittsburgh does not win this game, I believe it is a sign that they are not ready to make it back to the playoffs.
On paper, the Sharks appear to have a major edge. They have a better road record than Pittsburgh has at home. They are top four in scoring, defence, power play, and penalty kill; Pittsburgh ranks 11th, 23rd, 23rd, and 20th respectively in those categories.
However, three things are lining up to give them an edge:
- San Jose played the night before and traveled to get here. That means the Penguins will be playing a tired team and, likely, a back-up goaltender. It is also is the Sharks third game three time zones from home.
- San Jose should still have Brad Lukowich, Jeremy Roenick, and Torrey Mitchell out, and Marcel Goc may be added to that list. While the Sharks have been without Mitchell for the entire season, just as Pittsburgh has been without Gonchar, but he has now been cleared to play. Even without him, the list is still unbalanced in the Pens’ favour: they are missing only Ruslan Fedotenko and Mike Zigomanis.
- San Jose is likely to have an emotional and mental letdown after playing such a big game. That was what happened following the Detroit game before the All Star game, leading to San Jose’s first three game losing streak of the season.
For these reasons and the fact that the game is of more importance to Pittsburgh, I expect them to pull it out, much as I expected San Jose to beat Boston. It might take them overtime, but I think they will win.
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[...] my preview of this game, I talked about Sergei Gonchar being cleared to play while Marcel Goc was likely to be [...]