Atlanta Thrashers at Philadelphia Flyers Betting Odds
Opening Moneyline: Atlanta +180 / Philadelphia -210 O/U 6 goals
Time: 7 PM EST Sunday March 21, 2010
Tonight in an Eastern Conference match up in the City of Brotherly Love the Philadelphia Flyers host the Atlanta Thrashers. The Thrashers are streaking, and at the right time, as they have won 3 in a row and are 4-5-1 in their last 10 games while the Flyers are coming off a loss and are 4-4-2 in their last 10 games.
The Thrashers need to keep winning, as they are currently in the 9th spot in the East, but they only trail Boston by 1 point for the 8th and final playoff spot. The Flyers are in the 5th spot in the East and they really need to end the season on fire to catch 4th place New Jersey, who lead them by 9 points, so they can host a 1st round playoff series.
This season the Flyers are 21-12-2 at home and the Thrashers are 13-16-6 on the road.
These 2 teams played yesterday with the Thrashers winning 5-2 in Atlanta.
The Thrashers can sweep the season series with the Flyers if they win tonight and pull within 4 points of them in the East standings.
Atlanta has a good offense ranking 6th in the league tied with 2 other teams averaging 2.94 goals per game and they have scored 15 goals in their 3-game winning streak.
One of the other teams that are tied with Atlanta in scoring is Philly and they will be facing a goalie that has played well against them this season. Atlanta G Johan Hedberg 19 wins 2.67 GAA save percentage 91.4%) does not have eye-popping stats, but he has started all three games, all win, this season against the Flyers and made 25 saves in yesterday's win.
The Flyers only have 1 win in their last 4 games.
The G situation in Philly has been nightmare this season, as they lost starter Ray Emery for the season and they recently lost backup Michael Leighton for the season with an ankle injury.
If the Flyers are going to make any noise in the playoffs, if they make them, then Brian Boucher will have to play well. However, this season he is only 5-13-2 with a GAA of 2.84.
Luckily for the Flyers they have been solid at home this season while the Thrashers are 3 games under .500 on the road.
Betting Trends
Atlanta is 7-19 in their last 26 road games, 4-14 in their last 18 games against teams with a winning record, and have an Over record of 6-2 in their last 8 road games.
Philadelphia is 6-1 in their last 7 home games, has an Under record of 6-1 in their last 7 home games, and an Under record of 13-6 in their last 19 games.
In the last 7 games between these 2 teams the total has gone Over 5 times.
Future Betting Odds
NHL Handicapping
Tampa Bay Lightning at Boston Bruins 5-17
The Boston Bruins need to play much better in game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Bruins lost the opener 5-2 at home and can ill-afford to fall behind 2-0 to Lightning. Tampa Bay are on quite a roll, winning their last eight in a row in the playoffs. The oddsmaker at Bodog have the Bruins as a -145 favorite to even-up the series.