This week’s Wednesday night rivalry matchup has the Washington Capitals visiting the Philadelphia Flyers. The Capitals have had plenty of time to get ready for this game as they have not played since Saturday when they lost 2-1 at home to Montreal. On the other side, the Flyers hosted Nashville on Monday night. This will be the first meeting between these teams since last year’s hard fought playoff series that the Capitals won in six games.
This war on the ice will go down Wednesday, December 21, 2016, at 8 p.m. ET at the Wells Fargo Center. The game will be televised live on NBCSN.
We'll have NHL odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NHL Wednesday schedule.
Odds Analysis
There is no question the edge in scheduling goes to the Capitals as they have had three days off to get ready for this game while the Flyers have had just one. The Capitals are 8-3-3 on the road this season while the Flyers were 11-5-2 at home in their first 18 home games.
The Capitals should be listed as slight road favorites in this game with the total at 5.5.
Special Teams
The Capitals have not been that potent offensively so far this season as they are averaging just 2.7 goals per game and the power play hasn’t been anything special. The Capitals are just 12th in the league at 19.6%. Washington has one of the top scorers in the league in Alexander Ovechkin but so far this season the power play hasn’t clicked. The second unit has actually been better of late with Evgeny Kuznetsov leading the way. He has some talent around him on the second unit including Jakub Vrana and Justin Williams. Kuznetsov has seven assists in his past six games, three on the power play.
Washington has been very good on the penalty kill as they are 7th in the league at 84%. The Capitals are allowing just 2.1 goals per game which is 3rd best in the league.
The Flyers have been scoring a lot of goals this season due in large part to their power play which ranks 3rd in the NHL at 23.3%. The Flyers are scoring 3.1 goals per game which is 4th in the league. “It’s an important part but we can’t just rely on that for big goals,” goaltender Steve Mason said about the power play. “We have to find a way 5-on-5, as well.”
The penalty kill has not been anything special as the Flyers are 13th in the league at 82.5%. The Flyers are giving up 3 goals per game which is 24th in the league.
Goalie Report
The Capitals should be going with Braden Holtby in this game considering they have had three days off. He is the clear number one and has a 14-9 record with a 2.08 goals against average. The backup is Philip Grubauer who is 5-2 with a goals against average of 1.83.
The Flyers top goaltender is Steve Mason who is 13-12 this season with a 2.76 goals against average. The Flyers have two backups in Michal Neuvirth who is 4-2 with a 3.54 goals against average and Anthony Stolarz who is 2-0 with a 1.47 goals against average.
Free NHL Picks
These teams met in last year’s playoff and the Capitals won a tight series four games to two. The Capitals won the first three games of that series and then lost two before winning 1-0 in Philadelphia to wrap up the series. It was a very low scoring series with four games going under, just one going over with one push. The teams have split their last six games in Philadelphia with five of the last seven going under the total.
I will take the Capitals in this contest and the game under the total.
NHL Odds: Capitals 3, Flyers 2
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