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May 21st Hockey news ... Stanley Cup Betting at stanley-cup-betting.com
NHL: Is Philadelphia finished?
2021-06-02
The Flyers gave a much better overall accounting of themselves in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals and actually dominated the last 20 minutes, but they don’t hand out Stanley Cups for trying. You have to win four games to take home this trophy, which is proving to be a large dilemma in Philadelphia right now. The Flyers will look to get back in the series when they host Chicago in Game 3 on Wednesday night as -130 favorites, according to .
The Flyers outshot Chicago 15-4 in the last period and against 80 percent of the teams in the NHL they would have won the last stanza 3-0 or more, however not every team has a goalie like Antti Niemi between the pipes, as he made a handful of incredible saves to keep Philly shooters out of the net but once.
Philadelphia has remorse for not playing with the same passion the entire contest.
"I thought we were way too conservative in the first two periods," Philadelphia forward Danny Briere said. "We didn't give them much, I understand that. But it's not really our type of hockey. We didn't forecheck. We didn't create much offensively. We didn't spend much time in their zone." This left the Flyers 6-18 against good passing teams averaging five or more assists per game this season.
What was particularly painful was letting down at the exact wrong moment. Ben Eager, a former Flyer, is a high energy enforcer who was moved from fourth line duty to the first line by coach Joel Quenneville with Jonathan Toews and Dustin Byfuglien, just seconds after Marian Hossa had broken scoreless tie.
Philadelphia had done exceptional work in keeping the Blackhawks top unit down and Quenneville wanted an individual to mix it up, especially after he had flatten a couple of Philly players earlier in the game.
However, Chicago wouldn’t be 44-21 off a home win had it not been for netminder Niemi. The 26-year rookie has exceptional flexibility and he needed it throughout the third period with the Philly barrage. “We call him the octopus because he's got arms and legs going everywhere," Chicago forward Adam Burish said. "He was special tonight. Niemi was unbelievable in that third period. Some of the pucks, I don't know how he saw them."
Philadelphia might be dire straits (teams that sweep the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals are 31-2), however they are in familiar territory (think Boston series) and have leaders like Chris Pronger upon returning home where they are 22-7 the second half of the season.
"Yeah, I think we need to play with more desperation than we did, like the third period," Pronger said. "We need to play with that passion, energy, drive, determination, like we did in the third through the whole game. It needs to be 60 minutes."
The Flyers are 7-1 in the tournament at the Wachovia Center and 9-1 in last 10 since April 4. has Philadelphia as -130 money line play with total lowered to Ov5.5.
With the unbalanced schedule in place, this will be just Chicago’s 10th visit to the City of Brotherly Love in 14 years and they have one win in the time span. The Blackhawks are 20-5 after playing exactly two consecutive home games this season and 8-1 UNDER in road tilts riding a six-game or more win streak.
The Flyers have lived dangerously almost all season, with their margin for error thinner than a skate blade and are 6-14 revenging consecutive losses to opponent as a favorite. The Flyers are 8-1 UNDER off a road failure by one goal this season.
The first game in Philly has an 8:00 Eastern start on NBC, with Chicago having won seven straight on the playoff road.
The StatFox Power Line shows the wrong team is favored, Chicago -123
NHL: Montreal finally a playoff favorite
2021-05-20
The NHL’s goalie of the moment, and maybe the player most responsible for the Philadelphia Flyers' unexpected run toward a Stanley Cup, arrived in Montreal with one simple wish for his 29th birthday. “Just get some rest,” Michael Leighton said Wednesday with a big laugh. OK, but not much. As busy as Leighton has been in registering consecutive shutouts by stopping all 58 shots Montreal has fired at him in the first two games of the Eastern Conference final, the Canadiens are vowing to make it even tougher on him. For Thursday's Game 3, the host Canadiens are listed as -125 favorites.
A day after a 3-0 loss at Philadelphia, Canadiens coach Jacques Martin spent much of a 45-minute meeting attempting to erase 120 minutes of futility by stressing to his players the importance of getting more traffic in front of Leighton as the best-of-seven series shifts to Montreal for Game 3 on Thursday.
Defenseman Josh Gorges is buying in because at this point, scoring a goal— just one—has become the Canadiens primary objective, no matter how it comes. “Even if it’s one of those ugly ones, off someone’s behind or deflecting in off of one of their guys, we’ll take it,” Gorges said. “First of all, I think that would give us a boost, a little confidence to know that he’s not invincible.”
The Canadiens have been resilient this postseason. Seeded eighth, they’ve already rallied from series deficits to knock off both top-seeded Washington and defending champion Pittsburgh in seven games each, however, is 12-21 in home games playing with double revenge.
The seventh-seeded Flyers pulled off maybe the greatest comeback in NHL history just to get here, coming from three games down against Boston and three goals down in Game 7 to beat the Bruins and they are 20-9 off a home win.
The latter part of this journey is doing it with a journeyman goalie. Claimed by the Flyers off of waivers in December, Leighton has grabbed the spotlight since taking over the starting job after Brian Boucher hurt his knee in Game 5 against Boston. Leighton has now won four straight, and has been invincible this series.
Leighton became the first goalie to register two consecutive shutouts in the NHL playoffs since Detroit’s Chris Osgood did it against Pittsburgh in the 2008 Stanley Cup final. His shutout streak of 165:50 is second among Flyers goalies, behind only Boucher, who went 184:45 without allowing a goal in the 2000 playoffs.
Flyers coach Peter Laviolette initially balked at answering a question about who the star of his team might be, saying “we’re not a one-guy team.” Laviolette then made an exception regarding Leighton’s performance on Monday. It was a game in which the Flyers led 1-0 after 20 minutes despite being outshot 16-6.
“Michael Leighton gave it to us last night and kept us in that game,” Laviolette said. “So there’s your answer.” This all gave the Flyers their sixth consecutive win.
With a shutout on Thursday, Leighton would become only the seventh player to do it in three straight games, and first since Anaheim’s Jean-Sebastien Giguere’s triple-blanking in the 2003 Western Conference finals against Minnesota. “Well, obviously, I’m trying to enjoy it. But I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself,” Leighton said. “I haven’t really accomplished too much yet.”
The Flyers are 16-0 in their history when leading a series 2-0, and are now two wins from their first trip to the Stanley Cup final since 1997. They are 5-1 on the road and 5-0 playing with a day between games.
Given how topsy-turvy the East playoffs have been the Flyers aren’t taking anything for granted. “That would be the worst mistake we can make,” center Danny Briere said. “This is far from over. … I’m hoping we’re not going to fall into that trap.”
The Canadiens, meanwhile, are looking forward to playing their first game at home in 10 days. The trouble for Montreal is its offense has been far too one-dimensional, even before it hit the Leighton Wall. Of the 39 goals Montreal has scored this postseason, 19 have come from two players: Mike Cammalleri has 12 and Brian Gionta seven.
Center Tomas Plekanec, who had a team-leading 70 points in the regular season, has managed just four assists in his past 10 games. Play-making forward Scott Gomez has a goal and 10 assists this postseason, but hasn’t scored a goal in his past 15. The Habs are 10-4 on home ice if they have been away for a week or more.
Martin was confident in his team. “We’ve earned the right to be here. We know it’s not going to be easy,” Martin said, before noting how the Canadiens rallied from a 3-1 series deficit against Washington. “A lot of people here, after Game 4 against Washington, weren’t too optimistic. And this group proved them wrong.”
placed Montreal in a very unusual situation; they are favored for the first time in 17 games in the playoffs at -125 on the money line with total of OV5. The Canadiens are 10-5 after losing by three or more goals and 5-0 UNDER after falling to same opponent twice by two or more goals in each contest.
Philadelphia will seek a commanding 3-0 lead but is 1-7 after allowing one goal or less in consecutive outings and is 10-3 OVER when playing in the conference finals.
The VERSUS Network and CBC have the Game 3 action starting at 7:00 Eastern. The StatFox Power Line shows Philadelphia -170
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