NHL: Philadelphia Flyers vs. Buffalo Sabres odds & prediction
The Philadelphia Flyers are in a tough spot for the away leg of their home-and-home with the Buffalo Sabres. Not only did Philadelphia lose the first game of this two-step, 5-2, but the Flyers also saw goaltender Carter Hart go down with an injury that will keep him out of the crease for a bit.
Solid goaltending is vital for a team in a funk -- Philadelphia has lost three in a row and five of six -- to snap out of it, but now Philadelphia will need to rely on deputy goalie Samuel Ersson to get it back on track.
The Flyers are a +155 underdog in Buffalo on Friday night.
Although the score ended up lopsided in favor of the Sabres on Wednesday night, it is fair to say that it was the Flyers who were generally the better team. Philadelphia outshot Buffalo, 40-15, and easily won the expected goals battle, 3.61 to 2.25. On most nights, the Flyers would win a game that played out like that.
What’s more encouraging about the performance is that it wasn’t really any outlier for Philadelphia. John Tortorella’s team has been regularly tilting the ice in the right direction this season and the numbers back up that notion. Philadelphia ranks inside the top-10 in shot attempt differential, expected goals percentage and high-danger scoring chance rate.
The problem was that Ersson wasn’t able to come up with the big save when the Flyers needed one, while Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was terrific in goal for the Sabres.
The Sabres came into this season with much higher expectations than the Flyers, but through 10 games it would be pretty fair to say that there’s not all that much separating these two teams. That is likely to change over the next few months, but right now the Flyers are right there with Buffalo and the numbers show that.
Betting on Ersson does not seem like a fun proposition with the way he’s started this season, but Luukkonen hasn’t set the world on fire in his brief NHL career, so the goaltending matchup may not be all that treacherous.
This game feels like it should play out pretty close to 50/50 and will come down to who gets the saves and that means the value will be on the underdog Flyers at a good number.
Philadelphia Flyers +154 (DraftKings)
The Inquirer is not an online gambling operator, or a gambling site. We provide this information about sports betting for entertainment purposes only.
