NHL Picks: Florida Panthers vs Buffalo Sabres

Sunday, 10 February 2008

After a huge season of NHL Picks last year when the Sabres were the class of the Eastern Conference it has been a different story thus far this season but hope to remedy that when they face the Florida Panthers today. The Sabres come into this one at 25-21-0-8 and rank only 21^st in total points. It certainly hasn’t been their scoring that has been causing the problems this year as they are the 5^th ranked team in the NHL netting 2.93 goals per game. Their defense has been an issue allowing 2.70 goals per game but have improved to 14^th after ranking 17^thearlier in the season. The Buffalo power play after ranking 7^th in the NHL seem to have fallen on tough times as they now rank only 15^th in the NHL scoring on 17.6% of their chances which is down from 20%. SBGglobal.com seems to think that the Sabres should be able to dispatch of the Panthers as they are listed as a huge -185 favorite on the money line and -1.5/+155 on the puck line.

The Florida Panthers come into this one as one of the hotter NHL picks teams as they have won four of their last five games including last night’s win on the road over the Boston Bruins. The recent winning streak has put the Panthers at 26-25-0-6 overall and 22^nd in total points, one point behind the Sabres. The Panthers recent success can be attributed to a much improved offense. The Panthers worked hard in the off season to improve in this department and after ranking only 26^th in scoring earlier in the year are now ranked 19^th scoring 2.63 goals per game. It will be especially important for them to get off to a good start as they have been horrible when trailing after the first period winning only 29% of their games in that situation.

With Buffalo being such a large favorite you would expect that trends are in their favor as Florida is a horrible 8-33 ATS in road games revenging a loss versus opponent over the last 3 seasons. But Florida has had some success on the road this season as they are 6-1 ATS after playing 3 consecutive road games this season.

Join Michael Alexander for the answer to all of your NHL questions this Sunday at Alexandersports as he has GUARANTEED Winning NHL selections.

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