Arizona Coyotes vs. Pittsburgh Penguins Prediction, NHL Odds
The Penguins are opening the regular season completely healthy, proving that age is just a number for their core of 35-year-old Sidney Crosby, 36-year-old Evgeni Malkin and 35-year-old Kris Letang, while the Coyotes are looking for a season-opening win for the first time since 2016.
The Penguins are a heavy -372 favourite to win tonight on the NHL odds, with a total of 6.5.
Coyotes vs. Penguins NHL Betting Odds
Arizona did not win a game in this year’s pre-season, boasting a 0-6-1 record and playing all seven games on the road or at a neutral location. They were terrible in October last year, putting up a 0-8-1 record in the first month of the regular season. They have not won their season opener in any of the past five seasons.
Pittsburgh wrapped up their pre-season with back-to-back wins to put themselves at an even 3-3 record. When opening the season on home ice the Penguins are 7-4-1 all-time, winning three of their past four.
The Penguins swept the Coyotes in last year’s season series, beating them 4-1 and 6-3. These squads will meet once more on Jan. 8 in Arizona. On the NHL Futures, the Coyotes have the longest odds to win the Stanley Cup at +32600 and are set at +2162 to even make the playoffs. Looking to make the playoffs for the 17th season in a row, the Penguins have the 11th best odds at winning the Cup at +2030. The Over/Under on Pittsburgh’s season points is set at 101.5.
Arizona Coyotes
The Coyotes went through major changes this off-season and not just with their on-ice roster. After getting the boot from their home arena, the Coyotes will play home games from a 5,000-seat arena at Arizona State University. We will not see what that looks like for a while though as the Coyotes are playing their first six games of the season on the road.
Their roster will look quite different from last season after losing forwards Phil Kessel, Alex Galchenyuk, Antoine Roussel and defenceman Anton Stralman, who all decided to walk in free agency. Coming in are forwards Zack Kassian and Nick Bjugstad along with defencemen Patrik Nemeth, Troy Stecher, Josh Brown and Juuso Valimaki. They also picked up goalie Connor Ingram from waivers to backup Karel Vejmelka.
Jakob Chychrun, who has been involved in a lot of trade talks recently, will be unavailable Thursday due to a nagging wrist injury after off-season surgery.
On a brighter note, 19-year-old winger Dylan Guenther made the team’s final 23-man roster and will be looking to make his NHL debut sooner rather than later.
Pittsburgh Penguins
The NHL’s oldest roster led by Crosby, Malkin and Letang opens the season as healthy as ever. The trio will begin their 17th season together, looking to make the postseason for the 17th season in a row. Head coach Mike Sullivan is beginning his seventh season with the club. After getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs for the fourth year in a row, Sullivan’s team will be looking for another deep playoff run.
The biggest move the Penguins made this off-season was swapping defenceman Mike Matheson for Jeff Petry and Ryan Poehling in a trade with the Montreal Canadiens. Other than that they picked up Jan Rutta and Ty Smith to round out the defence and said goodbye to Evan Rodriques in free agency and John Marino (traded for Smith).
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