It’s time for the defending Stanley Cup betting champion Pittsburgh Penguins to break out the smelling salts. After losing at home the #8 Montreal Canadiens this team needs a strong wake up if it wants to find itself back in the Stanley Cup betting odds this year.
No one could have foreseen the transformation that Montreal has taken in the first few weeks in this year’s NHL playoff betting action. This is a team that snuck into the Stanley Cup betting competition as the #8 seed.As a reward the team drew the Washington Capitals, the most dominant team in hockey betting this year with an offense that simply couldn’t be stopped in the NHL betting regular season.
Yet goal tender Jaroslav Halak has been playing like a man possessed so far in the race for the Stanley Cup betting title and he shut down the Caps in seven games, winning in Washington to seal the series.
Still, the Stanley Cup odds makers claimed that the Caps had an off-series; claimed the Caps mindset was wrong for the NHL playoff betting action considering the team had been on cruise control since February.
No one in hockey betting wanted to give the Habs their due but after splitting the first two games of the second round of the Stanley Cup betting action, there is hardly a hockey betting fan alive that doesn’t believe the Canadiens have a legit shot at winning this series.
Sydney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin had seen what Halak had done to Ovechkin and Co. and knew he was playing like a brick wall in the net. And yet, they have been more or less powerless against him in Game 2 of their recent NHL playoff betting series.
After winning Game 1 easily the team was nearly blanked in game two with Halak saving 38 shots.
Now the momentum and location shift to Montreal and Crosby is going to have to find a way to get the puck past the Hab’s red hot keeper if the Pens want to advance to the Stanley Cup betting finals again this year.
The Penguins are no doubt the better team in this hockey betting matchup and certainly have more NHL playoff betting experience. But if they can’t find a way to get the puck past Halak their hockey betting season could come to a premature ending.