The Washington Capitals looked like they were set to sweep away the Philadelphia Flyers, but the men from the City of Brotherly Love came up by with a 2-1 victory on Wednesday night to ensure at least one more day on the ice. A pivotal Game 5 takes place on Friday night, one in which the Caps will certainly feel some pressure to win to avoid a trip back up I-95 to Philly.
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ODDS ANALYSIS
Washington has been a huge favorite every step of the way in this series, but it was finally stopped at -152 on Wednesday night in Game 4. The Caps were favored by matching margins of -212 in Games 1 and 2, and they were easily the better of the two teams in those games. They didn't quite look like themselves until the third period when they were down two goals against the Flyers in Game 4 though, and the oddsmakers could remember that when lining this game.
Washington will still surely be set at -200 at minimum, but we aren't sure the margin will be quite as high as it was last week when this series kicked off.
GOALIE REPORT
The Flyers really didn't have much of a choice but to sit Steve Mason down. Mason was a disaster in this series, allowing 12 goals, including three really bad ones which he'll remember for a long time. We wondered whether or not he was going to be left for dead for the remainder of this series, but Philly has turned to Michal Neuvirth, who last played in the playoffs when he was a member of the Capitals.
Neuvirth stopped 31 of the 32 shots he faced against a very good Washington front line which had crushed the Flyers in this series to date, and if he can catch some fire, he might be able to pull off something truly special.
It's not like Braden Holtby had a bad game, though. Sure, he allowed two goals in Game 4, but there's really no shame in going 23-of-25 on the road in a playoff game.
LIVE BETTING
The real issue we had with the Capitals is that they just didn't look sharp in Game 4 of this series. When they've been flying all over the ice, they've clearly been the better of these two teams. But where was Alex Ovechkin? He only had two shots on goal and didn't really get a decent look and was uninvolved in the offense for the most part.
The Flyers made this game a little dirtier than the games we saw earlier in this series, and that might be the key for live bettors to watch in this one.
QUICK PICK
It was nice to see Philly make this a little bit more of a series, but it's still over with. The Capitals were 29-6-3-0 in their first 38 games played at home this year, and though they slacked just a bit at the end of the regular season, they picked it back up in the NHL playoffs and took these first two games.
There's a price that we'd take the Flyers at, but that surely won't be the number on the board in this game. The Capitals are definitively the better of the two teams, and they'll close this series out on Friday night.
NHL Odds: Capitals 4, Flyers 1
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