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It's the day after Thanksgiving. A lot of us may be hungover, a lot of us may still be stuffed, and a lot of us may be down bad financially after yesterday's NFL games. If you're that last person, I fully understand if you don't even bother clicking on this blog. But for those of you who are still here, welcome back and I hope you had a nice holiday!
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Game 1: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Philadelphia Flyers
This is Philadelphia's second prime time game this week, so I'll probably skip my mentioning of them altogether this time around. A quick summary of what I said about them on Wednesday: John Tortorella knows they stink, you know they stink, we all know they stink.
The Pittsburgh Penguins, on the other hand, are a bit different. Over the years, I've learned that Sidney Crosby and company are a lot like the Tom Brady of the NHL. Sure, Crosby has four less rings than Brady, but in terms of getting better with age, they are one and the same. Although Pittsburgh is off to a bit of a slow start, I will never count them out. Crosby and the Penguins have shut me up way too many times over the last two decades. Every time I have them down for the count, they do something wild like go on a February-May tear and mess around and win the division. So yeah, we're better off not betting against them.
Still, this is one of the fiercest rivalries in sports, so if you're able to, I'd try to catch this game.
I'll take:
PIT ML
O 6
Sidney Crosby O 1.5 points
Game 2: St. Louis Blues @ Tampa Bay Lightning
Both the St. Louis Blues and Tampa Bay Lightning were teams that we thought were supposed to be good this year, right? I mean, the Lightning have been to three straight Stanley Cups and won two of them, and the Blues won it all in 2019 and haven't missed the playoffs since. Both teams got off to an abysmal start at the beginning of the season, but are starting to find their footing and become the teams we all knew they would be this year.
Tampa Bay currently holds a 11-7-1 record with 23 points, while St. Louis sits with a 10-9-0 record, 20 points. The Blues were riding a nice 7-game win streak into Wednesday night's game against the Buffalo Sabres, where they lost 2-6. However, prior to that, they lost eight in a row. Are the Blues officially turning it around? Tampa Bay also lost their last time out, as they were defeated by the Boston Bruins on Monday, 3-5. Losing to the Bruins is nothing to hang your head in shame about these days.
I'll take:
O 6
Steven Stamkos anytime goal scorer
Jordan Kyrou O 0.5 points