The New York Rangers are favored on Wednesday night as they host the Philadelphia Flyers in a rivalry matchup on NBCSN. The Flyers have hit the skids recently as they fallen from near the top of the Metropolitan Division to out of a playoff spot. On the other side, the Rangers seem to have gotten goaltender Henrik Lundqvist back on track and New York is battling to stay within striking distance of Washington in the division.
At 8 p.m. ET, tune into NBCSN for live television coverage of this NHL game on Wednesday, January 25, 2016, at Madison Square Garden.
We'll have NHL odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NHL Wednesday schedule.
Odds Analysis
This is not a bad spot for the Flyers as they are on a two-game road trip and they will have had two days of rest plus they didn’t have to travel as they played at the Islanders on Sunday. Philadelphia has not played well on the road this season going 8-15 in their first 23 road games with 12 going over the total, 10 going under with 1 push.
The Rangers have a much more difficult situation as they are playing their third game in four days as they were in Detroit on Sunday and home against the Kings on Monday. The only positive is that they did have Tuesday off. The Rangers were just 13-10 in their first 23 home games with 12 going over the total, 8 going under with 3 pushes.
Player to Watch
The Rangers have gotten outstanding play this season from Michael Grabner who leads the team in goals scored with 21. He also has eight assists and is a +23. Grabner has excellent speed and he has opened things up for his teammates this season. New York is second in the league in goals scored at 3.5 per game and Grabner is a big reason why. He has had a huge impact on his linemates as his line which includes Kevin Hayes and J.T. Miller has scored 49 goals and has a plus/minus rating of +54.
Special Teams
The Flyers are 9th in the NHL on the power play at 21.8%. They have slipped to 13th in the league in goals per game at 2.7 per contest. The penalty killing for Philadelphia has been poor as they are just 21st in the league at 80%. The Flyers are allowing 3.1 goals per game which is 28th in the league.
The Flyers are going nowhere again this season as they have poor management from the top all the way down. General manager Ron Hextall has no real idea how to turn things around. “We’ve got to keep our heads now. Nobody’s gonna get us out of this. It’s the whole group,” “This isn’t about one thing or one move or one player not playing or one player playing. This is about our whole group and we’ve got to be better.”
New York is 8th on the power play at 22.1%. As noted earlier, they are second in the league in goals at 3.5 per contest. The Rangers are just average in penalty killing at 81.9% and they are giving up 2.7 goals per game which is 15th in the league.
Free NHL Picks
The Rangers have won the last five in this series with two of the last three going under the total. The teams have met twice this season with New York winning 5-2 and 3-2 with both games in Philadelphia. New York has won five of the last six at home in this series with four of the last five going under the total.
The Flyers have been awful on defense all season and although Lundvqist has been better lately I am still not sold his problems are over. I think both teams should be able to score at least three each goals in this one so I will take the game over the total.
NHL Odds: Rangers 4, Flyers 3
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