Livetipsportal presents you tonight's game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins are actually leading 3 wins to none in the series, and are therefore looking to complete their sweep and advance to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second straight year.
So far in the series, the Pens have simply dominated the Canes, outscoring them 16-8, and outshooting them by a margin of nearly 9 shots per game. If game 1 was a relatively tight affair (3-2), games 2 and even more game 3 have been one-sided stories, won 7-4 and 6-2 by Pittsburgh. Carolina seems to be pretty tired after requiring 7 games to win each of their first two rounds. This opens some space in their defense, and the Penguins exploit it greatly.
Penguins stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin already combine for 14 points and 8 of the 16 goals of their team so far in the series. On the other hand, Carolina's Eric Staal has been held to just one assist, and is on a six games scoring drought. And the Canes seem to rely heavily on their star forward. They've won all seven games where he scored a goal. But they have just one win and nine losses when he doesn't.
Carolina really needs to tighten things defensively. They have yet to get a game where they allow 2 goals or less in this series. They need to kill the time and space of the Penguins, and need to grind them physically. Problem: this requires a lot of energy, and the Canes appear to be out of gas after two very physical series against New Jersey and Boston. In the same time, they need a better offensive production. They had three goals or more only once over the first three games. The underrated Penguins defense did a great job to silence the top line of Whitney-Staal-Cole, who combine for zero goal on Marc-Andre Fleury. In this series, Whitney has 2 assists and a -5 rating, Staal has one assist and a -6 rating, and Cole has 2 assists and a +0 rating. Carolina won't go anywhere if they can't get more from those guys.
On the other hand, Pittsburgh is really solid defensively and is rocking offensively. And they really want to go back to the Finals, especially since there's a high chance that they meet the Detroit Red Wings there, which would be a re-match of last year Finals. The Pens want their revenge, and they need to walk over Carolina once more to get a chance to get it. So no doubt they'll be highly motivated and ready to face the desperation of the Canes.
Choice: Pittsburgh Penguins, with an odd of 2.20 at Expekt
