New York Islanders (45-25-13) at Philadelphia Flyers (51-26-7)
Saturday, September 05, 2020 at 7:30 pm
At 7:35 pm, our selection is on the New York Islanders over the Philadelphia Flyers. You can sum up another come-from-behind Flyers victory on Thursday to force this seventh game in two words -- Carter Hart. The young goaltender was outstanding when he needed to be, amidst an onslaught of pressure from a superior Islanders offense for most of the game's five periods. When the smoke cleared, and Ivan Provorov had won it for Philly, Hart had made a remarkable 49 saves and was the unquestionable MVP for his team. On the other end, Semyon Varlamov had his second shaky performance in a row so I wouldn't be surprised if Barry Trotz tabbed Thomas Greiss to be in net for New York tonight. But we've seen Hart struggle after a huge effort before, so if the Isles keep the pressure up like they did on Thursday, they should find themselves in the East Finals against the Lightning. Indeed, they've been without a doubt the better team in this series. One of my favorite stats of this year's Playoffs is that New York is 10-5 in the Playoffs, and has yet to lose by more than 1 goal. In other words: they've played well enough to have won every single game. For the Playoffs, they've outscored their foes 50-31, while the Flyers have actually been outscored 33-27, even though they've won seven of 12 games. So, New York's outscored its foes by an average of 1.26 gpg, while the Flyers have been outscored by 0.5 gpg. New York's a super 33-25 off back to back losses (+10 games on the moneyline). Take the Islanders. As always, good luck...Al McMordie.