NHL: NY Rangers vs Philadelphia Flyers NHL Odds Preview
New York leads the Metro by six points, but the Flyers hope to run them down starting tonight.Â
The New York Rangers (38-16-3, 79 points) are in a comfortable spot on top of the Metropolitan Division, but many feel it’s a matter of time before the Carolina Hurricanes sit on top of the division.
The Philadelphia Flyers (30-20-7, 67 points) are a distant 12 points behind, but when you put it in terms of potentially taking six games to pull the Flyers even, getting two points is vital to John Tortorella’s team. NHL betting odds opened the Rangers as a -135 road favorite with a total of 6 (-108 each way).
New York brings in a 9-game win streak after a 5-1 win against the New Jersey Devils, while the Flyers have won five of their last seven games. Puck drop is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. ET/noon PT and can be seen on ABC and ESPN. Let’s start our Rangers vs Flyers NHL odds preview with a look at New York from a betting perspective.
Rangers vs Flyers 
Day/Time:
Location: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
Streaming: ABC, ESPN
New York Needs To Close Scoring Gap
When we talk about a gap in scoring we don’t mean between themselves and another team, we mean the Rangers need to fill in the gap that separates New York’s top six and its bottom. NHL statistics show New York’s first line features 60 goals and 66 assists, led by Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad’s 108 combined points.
Their second line may be even stronger with 68 goals and 99 assists, led by Artemi Panarin, whose resurgent has him at the 78-point mark. After the top six, New York has a massive depth problem, with just 44 points coming from the third line and eight from their fourth. New York took a hit when Blake Wheeler was put on LTIR, a loss they’ll try to address at the deadline.
The loss is another addition to a list of veterans (Bonino and Pitlick) the Rangers brought in to give them the depth that wins Stanley Cups. We are two weeks away from the trade deadline, and the Rangers are expected to have around $5 million to spend.
New York has been a friend to bettors this season with 6.64 units won, only the Flyers (+6.99 units), Vancouver Canucks (+7.53), and St. Louis Blues (+11.21) have been better. The Rangers are 29-15 as a favorite this season (+2.05 units) and 10-8 (-1.42 units) as a road favorite.
Tortorella, Exactly What Philly Needed
We knew from the minute John Tortorella was named as the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers that this was the move that was going to catapult the team to the postseason.
We’re not there yet, but Philly is securely in a position to make the postseason for the first time in three seasons. With 25 games to go, the Flyers are one win away from matching their total from last year (31).
Philadelphia is on pace to pocket 96 points, the most since the 2017-18 season when they totaled 98 points. It’s been 13 years since Philly was a 100-point team, but it appears they’re on their way to doing just that with a few more wins over the pace.
What Torts has done is bring an attitude and a resume that includes a Stanley Cup win with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004. Like the Rangers, scoring depth is a problem, but for a team that hasn’t been a betting .500 for three seasons, the goal is to be part of the NHL playoff schedule.
Betting With Philly In Mind
When betting totals, handicappers have to determine who they think will control the game when they have two contrasting styles. We think that will be the Flyers which means they’ll be more than happy to play a defensive, hard-hitting, heavy forecheck, type of game.
When Philly is at their best, games are what we saw a few nights ago when Philly suffocated the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-1. Their last two high-scoring games were losses to Toronto (4-3 OT) and New Jersey (6-3). This game is a must-win for the Flyers if they have any hope of winning the division, but to do that, this match-up can’t be a shootout. Take the under 6.
That does it for our Rangers vs Flyers NHL odds preview, we wish you all the best with your NHL picks and parlays this weekend.
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