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Jeremy Perry
Penguins vs. Flyers: Game 4 Prediction, NHL Playoff Odds
The Philadelphia Flyers looked like a whole new team in Game 2 when they rebounded from their Game 1 loss and handed the Pittsburgh Penguins a 5-1 loss on their home ice. Well, after Game 3, it’s back to square one for the Flyers. After getting crushed 5-1, they again face questions as to whether their defense and goaltending are good enough to win this series. Game 4 is on Thursday night and it’s really their last stand. If they lose this, they can kiss their season goodbye.
Penguins vs Flyers Stanley Cup Playoffs Betting Analysis
The good news for the Flyers here is they’ll have two days off in between games to recover. The bad news is that they’re just 3-10 this season when on two days’ rest. The Pens are 10-9.
Pittsburgh has now won 10 of their last 13 first round playoff games while the Flyers are 3-6 in their last nine. Worse yet, the Flyers aren’t a great bounce back team, going just 14-16 when allowing four or more goals in their previous game and 8-10 when losing by two or more in their last game.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Sidney Crosby delivered another memorable playoff performance in game 3 with a goal and four points. Meanwhile, Evgeni Malkin chipped in with two points. Crosby has been especially dominant against Philadelphia throughout his career and if he and Malkin are firing on all cylinders, then the Penguins will be tough to slow down. It also helped that goaltender Matt Murray bounced back from a poor performance in Game 2 with 26 saves in Game 3. Murray has been an outstanding playoff performer over the past couple of seasons, so the Pens are hoping that Game 2 was an aberration.
Outside of Game 2, the Flyers have had no answers for the Penguins offense in the six meetings this season. In the Pens five wins, they’ve scored at least five goals each time. The Flyers will have to pull a rabbit out of the hat again in Game 3 to stop that from happening.
Philadelphia Flyers
Goaltending remains the biggest question mark for Philadelphia heading in to Game 4. Brian Elliott turned aside 34 of the 35 shots he faced in the Flyers 5-1 win over Pittsburgh in Game 2. However, he allowed five goals on just 26 shots in the 5-1 loss on Sunday afternoon. If Elliott struggles, the Flyers have no shot.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia needs to figure things out up front as well after being held to just a single goal in their first two losses of this series. The general understanding was that they’d have trouble stopping Pittsburgh but nobody figured they’d have issues scoring.
Sean Couturier has led the way with three points in three games but Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds have been held to one assist each through three games. The Flyers need more out of those three at the offensive end of the ice after they led the way for an attack that averaged 3.0 goals per game during the regular season. A lot has to go right for Philadelphia to pull even in this series again. The more likely scenario is that Pittsburgh avoids another letdown and pushes the Flyers to the brink with another win at the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday night.
