The Philadelphia Flyers and the Washington Capitals meet in NHl action from the Capital One Arena on Saturday night.
The Philadelphia Flyers will be looking for a bounce back after a 3-2 loss to the rival Pittsburgh Penguins in their last game. Claude Giroux leads the Flyers with 11 points including 5 goals and 6 assists while Sean Couturier also has 11 points with a team-high 7 assists. Travis Konecny has 8 points split between 4 goals and 4 assists while Cam Atkinson has a team-high 6 goals and a team-best +8 plus/minus rating this season. Carter Hart’s made 7 starts for the Flyers in net, going 3-2-2 with a 2.41 GAA and a .926 save percentage this season.
The Washington Capitals will try to bounce back from a 5-4 loss at the hands of the Florida Panthers in their last game. Alex Ovechkin leads the Caps with 18 points including team-highs of 10 goals and 8 assists while Evgeny Kuznetsov has 13 points with 8 assists of his own. Ovechkin and Kuznetsov also share the Capitals’ lead with 5 power play points this season. Tom Wilson has 8 points with 7 assists while Nick Jensen leads Washington with a +11 plus/minus rating this season. Vitek Vanacek has posted a 2-1-3 record with a 2.49 GAA and a .902 save percentage while Ilya Samsonov is 3-0-1 with a 2.91 GAA and an .893 save percentage this season.
Philadelphia is 34-16 in their last 50 games against the Eastern Conference and 0-5 in their last 5 Saturday games while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall. Washington is 24-7 in their last 31 games as a favorite and 2-5 in their last 7 games against a team with a winning record while the under is 3-0-2 in their last 5 division games.
I get the case that can be made for both sides in this one, but realistically, I think the over is the best bet. Both teams have a ton of offensive punch in their lineups and while the goaltending’s been good at times this season, I don’t trust the goalie pairings on either side and think that goals will come in bunches on Saturday. Give me the over here.