Flyers vs. Maple Leafs NHL Spread/Handicapping
Flyers and Leafs Climbing Toward Respectability Monday Night
The Philadelphia Flyers embark on a six game road trip starting in Toronto against a Leafs team coming off their best performance of the season – a 6-0 thrashing of the Montreal Canadiens on the road Saturday for their third straight win.
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Philadelphia Flyers (5-6-0-1) at Toronto Maple Leafs (7-5-0-0)
When: 7:00 PM ET, Monday, February 11, 2013
Where: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Broadcast: RDS2, CSN-PH, SNET-O
Flyers vs. Leafs Betting Lines from betonline.com
Philadelphia Flyers +1½ -285 +100 Ov 5½ +100
Toronto Maple Leafs -1½ +240 -110 Un 5½ -110
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For Toronto, home dates have been a disaster – they are just 1-4 at home so far this season. A positive sign for the Leafs – the Flyers are just 1-5 on the road this season. A negative is that the Flyers owned them last year winning all four meetings.
The Philadelphia Flyers stumbled out of the gate and in turn put themselves in a bit of a hole. But a 3-0-1 stretch has the Flyers staring at a .500 record – the offense and the defense have all started to resemble the top tier team that most expected at the start of the season.
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Philadelphia is still not quite where they want to be offensively – averaging 2.42 goals per game. Team leader Claude Giroux has seven points in 12 games and Danny Briere has four points in eight games – not great numbers but they have started to play better as of late. All in all, no Flyer is close to a point a game – Matt Read lead the team with nine points and Jabob Voracek has eight and has two goals and three assists in his last four games.
Perhaps the biggest difference in the Flyers is between the pipes. Ilya Bryzgalov is 5-2-1 in his last eight games with a 1.98 GAA and .929 save percentage after starting the season 0-3.
The Toronto Maple Leafs finally look like the team that former GM Brian Burke envisioned – too bad he will take little credit for the potential turnaround of this team. Despite a share of injuries Toronto has emerged as one of the true surprises of the season thus far. The offense is ramping up and the much maligned goaltending situation appears to be taking care of itself.
The Leafs enter Monday night`s contest middle-of-the-road in scoring with an average of 2.83 goals per game. But there is reason for optimism that this team will rise in that department. Phil Kessel who has been mired in a season long slump has broken out with his first two goals of the season along with four assists during a three game streak. James van Reimsdyk will face his former team having scored in three goals in three games and having tallied seven already this season. Tyler Bozak is hot and Nazem Kadri has proven all his doubters wrong with nine points in 12 games. Matt Frattin has also been a nice addition to this team after getting called up from the minors. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Could it be that the Leafs finally have a formidable team – one that oozes chemistry, commitment, accountability and confidence?
The Luongo talk has cooled off in Toronto for the time being – a large part of the reason has been the play of James Reimer who is 5-3-0 with a tidy 2.30 GAA and .929 save percentage. His confidence is sky high after shutting out the Habs on Saturday. Expect Reimer to start again Monday and to erase what has been an ugly start to the season on home ice.
Betting Prediction
:
A few trends to consider:
• PHI are 1-8 in their last 9 road games.
• PHI are 5-11 in their last 16 overall.
• Over is 19-9 in PHI last 28 vs. Northeast.
• TOR are 3-15 in their last 18 home games.
• TOR are 2-9 in their last 11 vs. Atlantic.
• Over is 19-7 in TOR last 26 vs. Atlantic.
• Under is 6-1-1 in the last 8 meetings in Toronto.
Monday’s game is an interesting matchup of a brutal road team versus a terrible home team. On paper however, one team stands above the other – the Flyers. I expect a bit of a letdown after an emotional win in Montreal for the Leafs and for the Flyers to play with a sense of urgency as they try to climb to the .500 mark for the first time this season. Toronto’s mojo may have been used up Saturday night!
Pick: Philadelphia Flyers +100
