San Jose vs Pittsburgh Prediction 28 January 2025

🔊 Will the "Sharks" break their losing streak? San Jose continues to remain the worst team in the Western Conference. The club is firmly rooted at the bottom of the standings and clearly has no plans to climb out. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, continues to chase a spot in the Eastern Conference playoff eight, but has been performing poorly lately.

📊 Head-to-head

In the current regular season, the opponents have already met once. In mid-November, the "Penguins" barely won on their home ice in Pennsylvania (4:3 in a shootout). At that time, the "Sharks" showed remarkable resilience, managing to come back and tie the game after trailing by three pucks. The most productive player then was San Jose forward Tyler Toffoli. The Canadian scored twice, but it didn't help his team win. He recently returned from injury and hasn't scored points in the last two games.

🦈 San Jose

The "Sharks" have long and firmly settled at the bottom of the Western Conference standings. The club has suffered 9 defeats in their last 10 matches, miraculously managing to beat Detroit (6:3). San Jose has conceded more than anyone else in the West by a wide margin, and the new Russian tandem of goalkeepers hasn't drastically improved the defense. Essentially, the team from California has no tournament objectives for this season. The lower they finish in the final standings, the better for them. This way, they will get another highly talented player from the upcoming draft.

🐧 Pittsburgh

The club from Pennsylvania was long close to the Eastern Conference playoff eight and seriously aimed for a playoff spot. However, starting from the second half of January, the team couldn't keep up with this race and fell into a series of failures. In their last eight games, Mike Sullivan's squad suffered six defeats, managing to beat only Buffalo (5:2) and Los Angeles (5:1). However, these local successes didn't affect the overall trend. Pittsburgh is falling lower and is now second-to-last in the East. Knowing the tough nature of general manager Kyle Dubas, radical decisions can be expected from him. Only Sidney Crosby is considered untouchable here.

🔗 Projected lineups

San Jose: Georgiev - Ceci, Walman - Smith, Granlund Zetterlund

Pittsburgh: Blomqvist - Pettersson, Letang - Beauvillier, Crosby, Rakell

🥅 Goalkeepers

San Jose goalkeeper Alexander Georgiev, having moved to California during the season, hasn't stopped underperforming regularly. The Russian went to the bench early in the second period against Florida after conceding four pucks. However, to be fair, his partner Yaroslav Askarov also didn't remain "dry." The "Sharks'" defense is so weak that any goalie will face a barrage of shots.

Pittsburgh's goalkeeper Joel Blomqvist has been playing much more often after Tristan Jarry was sent to the farm team. However, his appearances on the ice can't be considered effective. In the last game against Seattle, the Finn openly failed and saved only 84% of shots on his goal. Nevertheless, he remains the club's main young hope.

📝 Editorial prediction

Most matches involving the "Sharks" are high-scoring. The team's openly weak defensive play impacts all their results. However, the "Penguins" have recently been leaning towards defensive formations and a low number of goals. The trends surrounding the upcoming match have a similar direction. In 11 of the last 12 head-to-head matches, no more than seven goals were scored. This trend is also present in eight consecutive away games for Pittsburgh. We have almost no doubt that the upcoming game won't be a goal-fest, and the teams will stay within current trends. Our key bet is total under 7.5 pucks.