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April 2nd Hockey news ... Bet On Hockey at beton-hockey.com

NHL: Desperation fuels Philadelphia Flyers
2021-06-04

Things looked bleak at times for the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals as they faced going down a seemingly insurmountable three games to none. Yet, they persevered and now have the chance to even the set at two games apiece with another home win over the Blackhawks. oddsmakers aren’t quite as confident in Philadelphia’s chances here as they were in Game 3, installing the Flyers as -115 favorites after a -130 price on Wednesday.

Forget about all the other remarkable aspects the Flyers have done just to be in the Stanley Cup Finals, what they had to overcome emotionally in Game 3 was plenty. Down 2-0 in the finals, Philadelphia needed video replay to take a 2-1 lead in the second period. Chicago roared back to take a 3-2 lead in the third period before stunned Philly fans, yet 20 seconds later Ville Leino tied the score at 3-all.

Off they went to overtime knowing any fluky Chicago goal would for all intents and purposes end their season. The Flyers Claude Giroux redirected Matt Carle’s pass past Antti Niemi for the game winner at the 5:59 mark, but only after having video replay confirm an early goal the Flyers crowd had thought had ended the contest at that juncture.

This is how everything is done hockey-wise in Philadelphia these days.

“Like I said this morning (Wednesday), 2-0 for us is comfortable,” coach Flyers Peter Laviolette said. “We’re OK with that. We know how to battle through it.” Philadelphia is up to 13-7 in the postseason after the victory.

Chicago has been fantastic in stopping the Flyers top scoring unit led by Mike Richards, who have all but invisible. The Hawks should start turning attention to Leino, Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell line, who are doing most of the damage for Philadelphia.

The Blackhawks seven game road winning streak was snapped and though beaten, they are hardly down, knowing they could have just as easily been up 3-0 in the series.

“Right now it looks like they have the momentum in the series,” Patrick Kane said. “But if we take Game 4, then we put ourselves in a great position to go back and play in front of our home crowd and hopefully win it there.” Chicago is 8-1 on the road if the opponent has won 60 percent or more of their home games.

has Philadelphia as -115 money line favorites to even the series, with total once again Ov5.5. The Flyers are 11-1 in their last dozen favorite roles and 7-1 UNDER after a home game where both teams scored three or more goals this season. Chicago enters next contest as a treacherous road underdog with 11-1 mark and 20-9 UNDER off a loss.

Philadelphia has defeated Chicago nine consecutive times in the City of Brotherly Love and is 7-0 after winning previous game in overtime.

The VERSUS Network will have Game 4 at 8:00 Eastern. The StatFox Power Line shows Chicago -112, indicating an upset is possible.



NHL: Is Philadelphia finished?
2021-06-02

The Flyers gave a much better overall accounting of themselves in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals and actually dominated the last 20 minutes, but they don’t hand out Stanley Cups for trying. You have to win four games to take home this trophy, which is proving to be a large dilemma in Philadelphia right now. The Flyers will look to get back in the series when they host Chicago in Game 3 on Wednesday night as -130 favorites, according to .

The Flyers outshot Chicago 15-4 in the last period and against 80 percent of the teams in the NHL they would have won the last stanza 3-0 or more, however not every team has a goalie like Antti Niemi between the pipes, as he made a handful of incredible saves to keep Philly shooters out of the net but once.

Philadelphia has remorse for not playing with the same passion the entire contest.

"I thought we were way too conservative in the first two periods," Philadelphia forward Danny Briere said. "We didn't give them much, I understand that. But it's not really our type of hockey. We didn't forecheck. We didn't create much offensively. We didn't spend much time in their zone." This left the Flyers 6-18 against good passing teams averaging five or more assists per game this season.

What was particularly painful was letting down at the exact wrong moment. Ben Eager, a former Flyer, is a high energy enforcer who was moved from fourth line duty to the first line by coach Joel Quenneville with Jonathan Toews and Dustin Byfuglien, just seconds after Marian Hossa had broken scoreless tie.

Philadelphia had done exceptional work in keeping the Blackhawks top unit down and Quenneville wanted an individual to mix it up, especially after he had flatten a couple of Philly players earlier in the game.

However, Chicago wouldn’t be 44-21 off a home win had it not been for netminder Niemi. The 26-year rookie has exceptional flexibility and he needed it throughout the third period with the Philly barrage. “We call him the octopus because he's got arms and legs going everywhere," Chicago forward Adam Burish said. "He was special tonight. Niemi was unbelievable in that third period. Some of the pucks, I don't know how he saw them."

Philadelphia might be dire straits (teams that sweep the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals are 31-2), however they are in familiar territory (think Boston series) and have leaders like Chris Pronger upon returning home where they are 22-7 the second half of the season.

"Yeah, I think we need to play with more desperation than we did, like the third period," Pronger said. "We need to play with that passion, energy, drive, determination, like we did in the third through the whole game. It needs to be 60 minutes."

The Flyers are 7-1 in the tournament at the Wachovia Center and 9-1 in last 10 since April 4. has Philadelphia as -130 money line play with total lowered to Ov5.5.

With the unbalanced schedule in place, this will be just Chicago’s 10th visit to the City of Brotherly Love in 14 years and they have one win in the time span. The Blackhawks are 20-5 after playing exactly two consecutive home games this season and 8-1 UNDER in road tilts riding a six-game or more win streak.

The Flyers have lived dangerously almost all season, with their margin for error thinner than a skate blade and are 6-14 revenging consecutive losses to opponent as a favorite. The Flyers are 8-1 UNDER off a road failure by one goal this season.

The first game in Philly has an 8:00 Eastern start on NBC, with Chicago having won seven straight on the playoff road.

The StatFox Power Line shows the wrong team is favored, Chicago -123


NHL: Philadelphia to test Montreal’s mettle again
2021-05-24

Going into Monday’s potential Eastern Finals clincher, the Philadelphia Flyers already know a couple of different things. The first is with a win, they will be playing for the Stanley Cup championship and second, who their opponent will be, the Chicago Blackhawks. However, before thinking too far ahead, Philadelphia has to take down the peskiest team in the tournament, Montreal. The Flyers are -180 home favorites to do so according to .

“With each series, it obviously gets harder and harder, but I don’t think you can look past that next game and that next win,” Philadelphia defenseman Chris Pronger said. “You’ve got to focus on closing out a team and being closers. We’ve got a team now down 3-1. We’ve got to get that fourth win.

“We’ve got to understand what it’s going to take, because they’re obviously a team that’s had their backs against the wall throughout the course of this playoff, through Washington and Pittsburgh, and they’ve been able to rally and come back. We obviously want to stymie that and make sure we’re putting our foot on the throat.”

The Flyers have won 21 of their last 28 home games and can advance to the Cups Finals for the first time in 13 years with a fourth and deciding victory over the Canadiens. Philadelphia is well aware the danger Montreal presents, having seen them come from behind against the Capitals and Penguins to win series and their 5-0 record in elimination games.

“We have to be careful,” Flyers forward Danny Briere said. “If there’s a team that would know that, it’s us, with what we were able to do in the previous round to the Bruins, and also what Montreal did to Washington and Pittsburgh. We’re definitely not going to take them for granted. There’s still one big win.

“We always say the fourth one or the last one is always the toughest to get against a team. We expect them to come out with a lot of desperation in Game 5, but at the same time, yes, we know we’re getting closer.” The Flyers know a thing or two about desperation, having trailed 3-0 to Boston before winning the next four.

Philadelphia has now won seven of last eight and shutout Montreal three times in the series with domineering defense and the fine goaltending of Michael Leighton, who only had to face 17 shots in last contest (one in the second period).

“One of our main goals was to play better defensively and I don't know how many times they came down the wing trying to fire pucks at me, and we had our 'D' men who stuck their stick out and it went up in the crowds," Leighton said. "We talked right before the game and said we want to block as many shots and stop them charging the net and we did. We definitely showed up to play."

For the Habs, the situation certainly appears bleak, but it is far from over as far as they are concerned, with their 9-4 record off a home loss by three or more goals. “We put ourselves in this hole and it is what it is. We’ve got to go and win a game,” Montreal defenseman Hal Gill said.

has Philly as a -180 money line favorite with total Ov5 and they are 20-7 as home ice favorites. They will arrive at Game Five 10-4 UNDER in home games after a win by two goals or more this season. Montreal will try and manufacture one more miracle and is 11-5 after being defeated by three or more goals and is 10-3 UNDER on the road after scoring one goal or less this campaign.

The East Final has a 7:00 Eastern start on VERSUS and CBC and if Philadelphia does emerge victorious, one person who deserves a lot of credit is Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette.

It took him until the last few weeks of the regular season to convince this team how good it can be and he never let them get down on themselves in the Bruins series. After tonight, Philadelphia might be thinking about bringing home first Stanley Cup title since 1975.

StatFox Power Line – Philadelphia -174


NHL: Montreal finally a playoff favorite
2021-05-20

The NHL’s goalie of the moment, and maybe the player most responsible for the Philadelphia Flyers' unexpected run toward a Stanley Cup, arrived in Montreal with one simple wish for his 29th birthday. “Just get some rest,” Michael Leighton said Wednesday with a big laugh. OK, but not much. As busy as Leighton has been in registering consecutive shutouts by stopping all 58 shots Montreal has fired at him in the first two games of the Eastern Conference final, the Canadiens are vowing to make it even tougher on him. For Thursday's Game 3, the host Canadiens are listed as -125 favorites.

A day after a 3-0 loss at Philadelphia, Canadiens coach Jacques Martin spent much of a 45-minute meeting attempting to erase 120 minutes of futility by stressing to his players the importance of getting more traffic in front of Leighton as the best-of-seven series shifts to Montreal for Game 3 on Thursday.

Defenseman Josh Gorges is buying in because at this point, scoring a goal— just one—has become the Canadiens primary objective, no matter how it comes. “Even if it’s one of those ugly ones, off someone’s behind or deflecting in off of one of their guys, we’ll take it,” Gorges said. “First of all, I think that would give us a boost, a little confidence to know that he’s not invincible.”

The Canadiens have been resilient this postseason. Seeded eighth, they’ve already rallied from series deficits to knock off both top-seeded Washington and defending champion Pittsburgh in seven games each, however, is 12-21 in home games playing with double revenge.

The seventh-seeded Flyers pulled off maybe the greatest comeback in NHL history just to get here, coming from three games down against Boston and three goals down in Game 7 to beat the Bruins and they are 20-9 off a home win.

The latter part of this journey is doing it with a journeyman goalie. Claimed by the Flyers off of waivers in December, Leighton has grabbed the spotlight since taking over the starting job after Brian Boucher hurt his knee in Game 5 against Boston. Leighton has now won four straight, and has been invincible this series.

Leighton became the first goalie to register two consecutive shutouts in the NHL playoffs since Detroit’s Chris Osgood did it against Pittsburgh in the 2008 Stanley Cup final. His shutout streak of 165:50 is second among Flyers goalies, behind only Boucher, who went 184:45 without allowing a goal in the 2000 playoffs.

Flyers coach Peter Laviolette initially balked at answering a question about who the star of his team might be, saying “we’re not a one-guy team.” Laviolette then made an exception regarding Leighton’s performance on Monday. It was a game in which the Flyers led 1-0 after 20 minutes despite being outshot 16-6.

“Michael Leighton gave it to us last night and kept us in that game,” Laviolette said. “So there’s your answer.” This all gave the Flyers their sixth consecutive win.

With a shutout on Thursday, Leighton would become only the seventh player to do it in three straight games, and first since Anaheim’s Jean-Sebastien Giguere’s triple-blanking in the 2003 Western Conference finals against Minnesota. “Well, obviously, I’m trying to enjoy it. But I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself,” Leighton said. “I haven’t really accomplished too much yet.”

The Flyers are 16-0 in their history when leading a series 2-0, and are now two wins from their first trip to the Stanley Cup final since 1997. They are 5-1 on the road and 5-0 playing with a day between games.

Given how topsy-turvy the East playoffs have been the Flyers aren’t taking anything for granted. “That would be the worst mistake we can make,” center Danny Briere said. “This is far from over. … I’m hoping we’re not going to fall into that trap.”

The Canadiens, meanwhile, are looking forward to playing their first game at home in 10 days. The trouble for Montreal is its offense has been far too one-dimensional, even before it hit the Leighton Wall. Of the 39 goals Montreal has scored this postseason, 19 have come from two players: Mike Cammalleri has 12 and Brian Gionta seven.

Center Tomas Plekanec, who had a team-leading 70 points in the regular season, has managed just four assists in his past 10 games. Play-making forward Scott Gomez has a goal and 10 assists this postseason, but hasn’t scored a goal in his past 15. The Habs are 10-4 on home ice if they have been away for a week or more.

Martin was confident in his team. “We’ve earned the right to be here. We know it’s not going to be easy,” Martin said, before noting how the Canadiens rallied from a 3-1 series deficit against Washington. “A lot of people here, after Game 4 against Washington, weren’t too optimistic. And this group proved them wrong.”

placed Montreal in a very unusual situation; they are favored for the first time in 17 games in the playoffs at -125 on the money line with total of OV5. The Canadiens are 10-5 after losing by three or more goals and 5-0 UNDER after falling to same opponent twice by two or more goals in each contest.

Philadelphia will seek a commanding 3-0 lead but is 1-7 after allowing one goal or less in consecutive outings and is 10-3 OVER when playing in the conference finals.

The VERSUS Network and CBC have the Game 3 action starting at 7:00 Eastern. The StatFox Power Line shows Philadelphia -170