Philadelphia Flyers vs. Montreal Canadiens – 8/12/20 NHL Pick, Odds, and Prediction

The Montreal Canadiens and the Philadelphia Flyers meet in game one of their Eastern Conference quarter-final matchup in NHL action from Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday night.

The Montreal Canadiens come into this one fresh off of their series upset over the Pittsburgh Penguins, dispatching of the Pens in four games following a 2-0 win over Pittsburgh in the series-clincher last time out. Shea Weber and Paul Byron each had a team-high 4 points with Weber logging 2 goals and 2 assists while Byron had a goal and a team-high 3 assists. Jeff Petry has 2 goals and an assist while Artturi Lehkonen has a goal and 2 helpers for the Habs after the opening series. Brendan Gallagher leads the Canadiens with 17 shots but is still held with just an assist to show for his first four games of the postseason. Carey Price started all four games for Montreal in the opening round, securing his 3-1 record with a .947 save percentage and 1.67 GAA in goal after the opening round.

The Philadelphia Flyers come into this series as the top seed in the East after going unbeaten in the round-robin stage of the opening round, taking down Boston, Washington and Tampa Bay to secure the #1 spot in the Eastern Conference. Scott Laughton led the Flyers with 5 points coming on a team-high 3 goals with 2 assists while Kevin Hayes isn’t far behind with a team-high 4 assists to make up his 4 points tally through the round-robin portion of the Flyers’ postseason schedule. Captain Claude Giroux had a team-high 8 shots through the first three games but has yet to get on the score sheet. Carter Hart and Brian Elliott split the goaltending duties for Philly in the round-robin, with each posting a 1.00 GAA while Hart went 2-0 with a .966 save percentage and Elliott had a 1-0 mark with a .941 save percentage in goal.

Montreal is 5-1 in their last 6 games against the Metropolitan division and 7-16 in their last 23 Wednesday games while the under is 12-2-3 in their lat 17 playoff games as an underdog. Philadelphia is 21-6 in their last 27 games overall and 11-1 in their last 12 games following a win while the under is 6-0 in their last 6 games against the Eastern Conference. The favorite is 14-5 in the last 19 meetings between these two teams and Montreal is 3-7 in the last 10 meetings between the two.

The plus money with the Habs is tempting given that the Canadiens are capable of stealing any game, and as we saw, a series, when Carey Price is on his game. However, I think a lot of that Montreal series win had to do with Pittsburgh crumbling under the pressure of having all of the weight on their shoulders and while Philadelphia has a bit of weight as a high seed, the flyers have also far exceeded the expectations that were set out for them earlier this year. The Flyers getting the top seed in the East was no fluke, and I think the Flyers show that here. Give me the Flyers on the puck line to get some value out of the bet here.