We have back Guest Sports Handicapper George Pappas. As we stated before he is the best hockey handicapper on the internet today. He proved it on Tuesday with a 3-0 day overall including the free play he gave all of us (over 5 Russia vs Canada). He is back for more on Friday and he is going to be breaking down the quarter final matchup between USA and Finland.
USA / FINLAND 3PM EST - Under 4.5
Did anyone really expect Finland to make it this far? Or are they truly the underdog throughout this whole tournament? Yes Finland has talent on the bench and in net and pretty good stacked defense line up. They play a very conservative style type of game and wait for the opposing team to make a mistake and then they capitalize on that mistake and take full advantage. The net-minder Kiprusoff could easily be the only reason they are still alive in this tournament, and many wouldn’t disagree. But when facing a team like USA he needs to be 150% ready to play. You can’t take a team like the Czech Republic into factor, I mean, with the talent they had on the bench you expected them to destroy the Fins and that was not the case. Kiprusoff played average if you ask me and that is all he had to do against a poorly anticipated Czech team. I expect the Fins defense and goalie to come up very big in this game and could be the deciding factor on the outcome of the game.
As for Team USA, what is there to say that you don’t know already? Young, fast, strong, motivated, heart, defense, and most of all goaltending. Let’s face the facts if it was not for Miller, Team USA would have been sent home games ago. They completely humiliated Brodeur and sent him to being the back up goaltender for Team Canada, but Brodeur was on a bad stretch before the Olympics started. As for the other goalies they have faced they were only averaging 2 goals per game after shooting the puck over 45 times on net.
When looking at what the books are offering for this matchup, I can see them offering a PK game. This game could swing either way, it is going to come down to what goalie stands on his head better and gets the win. With that said we are going to take the safer bet and go with UNDER 4.5 or better. Anything lower than 4.5 is not a safe bet.
Thanks again for our free Olympic hockey pick make sure you check out all of George's hockey picks at his website Hot Sports Plays.
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