The red-hot Philadelphia Flyers will look to win their 10th straight game as they visit the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday in a game that can be seen on NBCSN. The Flyers current 9-game winning streak is the longest in the NHL this season and the longest winning streak for the team since 1995. The Flyers are now challenging the Rangers for first place in the Metropolitan division. On the other side, the Avalanche bounced back from a humiliating 10-1 loss to Montreal to defeat Toronto 3-1 on Sunday.
Don't miss the ice action from the Pepsi Center at 10 p.m. ET on Wednesday, December 14, 2016. Catch every moment of the game live on NBCSN.
We'll have NHL odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NHL Wednesday schedule.
Odds Analysis
The Flyers are playing the second game of a three-game road trip that started with a 1-0 win in overtime against Detroit on Sunday. The Flyers have not been nearly as good on the road as they have been at home as they are just 7-6 in road games compared to 11-7 at home. The Flyers have gone over in 8 of their 13 road games.
The Avalanche are beginning a quick two-game homestand on Wednesday. Colorado has not played well at home this season going 4-9 with five games going over; five going under with 3 pushes.
The Flyers will be road favorites in this contest with the total at 5 over or 5.5 under.
Special Teams
The Flyers have surged thanks to their power play which is now 2nd in the league at 24.1%. The Flyers are scoring 3.2 goals per contest which is 5th best in the league. Philadelphia has three players in the top 15 in the league in scoring with Jakub Voracek (11 goals, 21 assists, 32 points), Claude Giroux (9 goals, 20 assists, 29 points) and Wayne Simmonds (15 goals, 13 assists, 28 points). The Flyers are still not that good on defense as they allow 3 goals per game which is 25th in the league. Their penalty killing is just average at 81.7% which is 15th in the league.
Colorado is 14th on the power play at 17.6% but it hasn’t really mattered because the team is still not scoring many goals as they are 28th in the league at 2.2 per game. The Avalanche have been poor in penalty killing as they are 24th in the league at 79.2%. They are just 29th in the league on defense, allowing 3.1 goals per contest.
Goalie Report
The Flyers starting goalie is Steve Mason who is 12-11 with a 2.78 goals against average. The current backup is Anthony Stolarz who is 2-0 with a 1.47 goals against average. He may not be up with the team much longer as Michal Neuvirth should be coming back from injury shortly but Stolarz has played really well so perhaps Neuvirth goes on the trading block when he gets healthy.
The Avalanche have a solid starter in Semyon Varlamov but the Colorado defense is so poor that oftentimes he doesn’t get much help. Varlamov is 6-12 with a 3.21 goals against average. The backup is Calvin Pickard who is 5-4 with a 2.72 goals against average.
Free NHL Picks
These teams have split their last ten meetings with three of the last four going over the total. The road team won both meetings last season as Colorado won 4-0 in Philly while the Flyers won 4-2 in Colorado. The win last season by the Flyers was a rare one for Philadelphia in Colorado as they had dropped the past seven before that victory.
Current form definitely favors the Flyers in this one but the trends favor the Avalanche. I will avoid a side and just take the game over the total.
NHL Odds: Avalanche 4, Flyers 3
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