Philadelphia Flyers (0-0-0 SU, 0-0 PL, 0-0-0 OU) vs Tampa Bay Lightning (0-0-0 SU, 0-0 PL, 0-0-0 OU)
When: 7:30 PM ET, Thursday, October 8, 2015
Where: Amelie arena in Tampa, Florida
Lines: Tampa Bay -180
Total: 5.5
The Philadelphia Flyers are looking to get back on track after a rough season that saw them finish 6th in the Metropolitan and home for the playoffs. The Tampa Bay Lightning come into this season off a very good year in which they won the Atlantic Division with 108 points and made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, before losing to the Blackhawks
The Philadelphia Flyers did not have a good year at last year as they went just 33-31-18 on the year, while posting 84 points on the season. GM Ron Hextall didn’t make a lot of noise in the offseason as he felt he has a great core of young players. The problem was getting them to play to their potential and that is why he went out and hired Dave Hakstol to coach this team that has tons of potential. Dave has spent his coaching career in the colleges, which is very odd because usually in hockey you don’t see coaches go from the colleges to the pros.
Hakstol was at the University of North Dakota and tok hi team to the Frozen 4 in 7 of 11 seasons. He was an excellent college coach and really knows how to get the most out of players, which is exactly what Hextall is hoping for with his young team. Still it is a gamble for the Flyers as hockey at the ro level is a different animal altogether. The only other real moves that Hextall made were to trade for Sam Gagner and he gave Evgeni Medvedev a big contract. Medvedev has played for Russia and was also a superstar in the KHL. The Flyers have some nice pieces in place and if Hakstol can work his magic then this Flyers team may surprise people this year.
The Tampa Bay Lightning lost in the NHL Finals last year, but this year’s team looks to be a bit better and they didn’t have to do a whole lot in the offseason to make it that way. Steve Yzerman likes his team so much that he felt it was best to leave it alone in the offseason. This is a young and talented team that has Stanley Cup runs in them for at least the next few years. 11 of their regular players are 25 or younger and just 2 players on the entire roster are are above 30 years old. Of the 11 players that are 25 years or younger, four of them were the top four scorers on the team.
Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov are known as the Triplets and the trio combined for 199 points last year, which is the highest for a trio in the league and they may top that this year. Steven Stamkos is a player to watch as he has 50-goal potential and is heading into a contract year. The Lightning should get his best this year. The Lightning also have one of the better defenseman in the league in 24 year old Victor Hedman, while in goal is Ben Bishop, who was 40-13-5 last year. Behind him is Andrei Vasilevskiy, who is a blue-chipper and gives them the best 1-2 goalie punch in the league. This team is ready to finish what they couldn’t last year.
Trends
Philadelphia is:
- 13-38 in their last 51 road games
- 1-6 Their last 7 in the series
Tampa Bay Is:
- 37-15 their last 52 home games
- 7-0 Their last 7 at home in the series
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Free NHL Pick: Tampa Bay -180
I know it’s a bit pricey, but I just can’t go against Tampa Bay at home here. They are clearly the better team that is mostly intact from last year’s team that went to the Stanley Cup Finals. The Flyers are also mostly intact, but they are going through a coaching change and that may take a little time to work itself out. Philadelphia is a team on the rise, but they are not at this level just yet, especially on the road vs one of the best teams in the league. You may want to look at the puck line in this one as well. I say Tampa wins rather easily.
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