NHL Betting Free Picks: Montreal @ Philadelphia
Added on May 16, 2010 by Jack Thurman in
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NHL betting resumes at sportsbooks on Sunday with two playoff games. We’ll take a look at the Eastern Conference Finals between the Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers. If you’d told someone that these teams would be fighting to win the East they’d have had your head examined. It’s an online betting matchup between the #7 and #8 seeds, with the winner facing the victor in the Chicago/San Jose series for the Stanley Cup.
Montreal Canadiens at Philadelphia Flyers
May 16, 4:05 PM Pacific
Teams that win 7 game series are notoriously bad bets in the first game of the subsequent series, but here we’ve got a pair of teams that won a decisive game on enemy ice to advance. We’re thinking that the ’7 game effect’ will more profoundly impact the Flyers for a couple of reasons. First, they’re the home team. Second, the nature of their series–going down 0-3 and winning 4 straight games–seems to lend itself more to a ‘letdown effect’. Philly and Montreal split 4 regular season games, with each team winning once at home and once on the road. Habs have done well against the Flyers in Philadelphia over the years, with a 15-10-3 record.
The Bruins were the higher seeded team in their series with the Flyers, but were a team with a number of glaring weaknesses. They over-relied on their rookie goaltending sensation Tuukka Rask, and as the series progressed played increasingly bad defense in front of him. And, of course, the Bruins were a pitiful offensive team all year. You can make a very good argument that the Flyers didn’t so much win the series as the Bruins lost it. Montreal is a completely different story–they’ve got not only the best goalie left in the playoffs in Jaroslav Halek but also the one in best form. He’s been playing insane hockey, and there’s plenty of precedent for a hot goalie taking his team all the way to the Stanley Cup finals. Flyers will be without Brian Boucher here, although Michael Leighton played well in relief. Leighton won’t have it as easy against Montreal, however, as they’re playing well on offense–particularly Michael Cammalleri who has 12 goals and 6 assists in 14 playoff games. We think Montreal is the better team here, and they’ve obviously played a much higher level of opposition. We’ll back them to get the series started with a Game 1 victory.
Bet Montreal +115 over Philadelphia
