Pittsburgh Penguins vs Washington Capitals Prediction: Both collectives tend to act more pragmatically

Prediction for the NHL match which will take place on January 3. Who will turn out to be stronger? Check the team conditions! Several betting options are available.

Pittsburgh has been trying to prove to us lately that they're not going to drop out of the Cup race, even though their Cup prospects were in doubt a couple of weeks ago. Thankfully, they have improved dramatically since then. In the last nine meetings, they have only once been held scoreless, losing to Toronto 0:7, another overtime loss to Ottawa 4:5, and the Penguins have been victorious the other seven times. In the last three games, they beat the Islanders twice - 7:0 and 3:1, and once again beat St. Louis 4:2. This allowed the Black-and-Yellow to move up to 11th place in the Eastern Conference standings.

Washington has the opposite situation. They have been sitting firmly in the playoff zone recently, squeezing the most out of themselves in every game, but such a tight and intense schedule has affected the physical condition of an age team. All of this has led to a noticeable slump, and the results have decreased drastically. In the last four games, the Capitals have lost to Tampa Bay 1:2, Rangers 1:5, Islanders 1:5, and the day before, they lost to Nashville 2:3. A series of four consecutive defeats also affected the position of the Red-Blues, who dropped to ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings.

A couple of weeks ago, Pittsburgh and Washington were in completely different standings: the Penguins were far from the playoff zone, while the Capitals were firmly located in the Cup Final Eight. Both teams have 40 points each, so we can say that the Pennsylvanians are in much better shape now. They have picked up points in six consecutive games and won their last five battles at home. The team, on the other hand, continues to be in crisis. They have lost the last four meetings in a row.

The rivalry between Pittsburgh and Washington has seriously deteriorated in goal-scoring lately. Both teams tend to be more pragmatic, cautious on defense, and minimize risks. In four previous head-to-head meetings, the rivals have scored only 20 goals (5.00 average per game), which is mediocre by NHL standards. In addition, in four of the five previous games involving the Capitals, at least one of the teams has scored less than two goals.