| Free NHL Pick: Carolina Hurricanes at Buffalo Sabres |
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| Written by Steve Hastings | |||||||
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Friday, 14 March 2008
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The Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes are both fighting to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs, and they square off against each other tonight. BetOnline.com has the Buffalo Sabres –115 odds favorites against the Carolina Hurricanes –105 with the over/under set at 6.5 goals. Carolina has put together a very impressive win streak, winning four straight games and seven of their past eight. The Hurricanes have held off Washington's late push for the Southeast Division title and are essentially a lock to hold down the third seed in the Eastern Conference. Carolina has had few problems scoring this season – as of Wednesday's action, it was third in the NHL in scoring – but quality play on the defensive end has been lacking. The Hurricanes rank near the bottom of the league in goals allowed, partly thanks to their league-worst penalty killing percentage. Things have turned around a bit during their recent run, however. Goalie Cam Ward has been very solid during the four-game winning streak, posting a 2.22 goals against average and .914 save percentage. He'll need to maintain that effort, and better it, if Carolina wants to make any noise in the playoffs.  A power outage on Buffalo's offense is crippling its chances of stealing the final playoff spot. The Sabres, four points back of Philadelphia heading into Wednesday's action, have scored on only 14.8 per cent of their power plays over the past five games. Four of those games were losses and Buffalo has lost three in a row. With just three victories in the past 10 games, the team needs to get things figured out – fast. Getting some more shots on net might help; the Sabres have surpassed 26 shots in a game just once in their last five games, and it's tough to score when you're not shooting (the team has averaged nearly 30 shots per game this season). The Sabres could use a better effort from the back end, too, as goalie Ryan Miller has just a 3.08 goals against average in his last 10 starts.The Sabres have already dropped two out of three games to Carolina this season. Playing as badly as they are, this should make it three out of four. Get your Free NHL Pick in Now! Carolina at Buffalo, Friday @ 7:30 p.m. ET Free NHL Pick: Carolina Hurricanes It's not too late to get into the NHL betting action. Visit BetOnline.com's world-renowned sportsbook today!                        |
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