New York Islanders (42-25-10) at Philadelphia Flyers (48-23-7)
NHL Hockey: Monday, August 24, 2020 at 7:00 pm (Scotiabank Arena)
The Line: Philadelphia Flyers -115 / New York Islanders -108 --- Over/Under: 5.5 Click Here for the Latest Odds
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The New York Islanders and the Philadelphia Flyers meet in game one of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semi-final matchup from Scotiabank Arena on Monday.
The New York Islanders booked their spot in the conference semis after taking down the Washington Capitals in five games after a 4-0 win in the series-clinching game last time out. Josh Bailey leads the Isles in points with 10 points as well as a team-high 8 assists while Anthony Beauvillier isn’t far behind with 9 points including a team-leading 6 goals. Brock Nelson and Mathew Barzal each have 7 points with 3 goals and 4 assists for the Islanders while J-G Pageau has 4 goals and 6 points and Ryan Pulock has 5 assists as part of his 6 points this postseason. Semyon Varlamov has taken over the Islanders’ crease this postseason, posting a 7-2 record with a .934 save percentage and a 1.67 GAA in this year’s playoffs.
The Philadelphia Flyers come into this one after a hard-fought series win over Montreal, taking the series in six games following a 3-2 win in the series-clinching game over the Habs in Philly’s last game. Jakub Voracek leads the Flyers with 8 goals with a team-high 4 goals and 4 assists while Kevin Hayes has a goal and a team-high 6 assists, sitting second in scoring with 7 points. Scott Laughton and Sean Couturier have 5 points apiece with Laughton adding 3 goals while Couturier has 5 assists as well for the Flyers. Carter Hart’s seen the bulk of the work between the pipes for Philadelphia, posting a 6-2 record with a .943 save percentage and a 1.71 GAA this postseason.
New York is 5-1 in their last 6 games overall and 4-1 in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 3-1-2 in their last 6 games following a win. Philadelphia is 13-3 in their last 16 games following a win and 16-5 in their last 21 games against a team with a winning record while the under is 10-1-1 in their last 12 games overall. The over is 11-1 in the last 12 meetings between these two teams.
These two teams play a tough, gritty (ironic considering the Flyers’ mascot is named just that) style of hockey and the Isles enforced that fully against the Capitals while the Flyers played a ton of grind it out hockey in their series against Montreal. With that said, I do think we see a bit of a higher-scoring series here and it starts in game one as I could easily see this one finishing 4-2 or 4-3, so give me the over as my free pick for this game, but my stronger play is on the side and I have that available as a premium pick that you can find here.
Chris’s Pick Over 5.5
AUTHOR: Chris Ruffolo
Follow Chris Ruffolo on Twitter @ruffthepickdawg