The Philadelphia Flyers have surged out to an early lead in the East Division, but the Boston Bruins are hot on their heels as they meet for the first of two straight matchups Wednesday in Philadelphia. The Bruins are riding the high of a three-point weekend in Washington and have won five of their last six. The Flyers have won four straight since losing twice in Boston, and are looking for some revenge on home ice.
No one was expecting much offensively out of the big-bodied Ritchie, but the winger has used his size and physicality to make an impact on the scoresheet. Ritchie has points in six of Boston’s nine games and has scored four goals already this season, which is on pace to exceed the nine goals he scored in 44 games last season, split between Anaheim and Boston. It’s unreasonable to assume Ritchie can keep up the pace he’s put on so far, but this is the type of physical game that might suit Ritchie’s style a little more. He had a goal and three assists in the first two games with the Flyers this season. The +370 odds from the hockey betting sites in New Jersey is a steal in my book, so I’m going to take it. NICK RITCHIE SCORES GOAL When these two teams met in Boston two weeks ago, both games hit seven combined goals, though in very different ways. The Flyers have scored the sixth-most goals in the NHL through these opening 10 games, but Boston has allowed the sixth fewest thus far. The Bruins, however, rank 10th in goals scored and have tallied at least three goals in six straight games. Considering Philadelphia is struggling on the defensive end early in the season, the surging Bruins could take advantage of the Flyers’ woes. The +150 odds from the legal sports betting sites in New Jersey is pretty good considering how high scoring this season has been so far, so we’ll roll with it in this matchup. OVER 6.5 TOTAL GOALS The Bruins are an exceptional third-period team this season, but more importantly, they are a resilient team. Boston had two consecutive three-goal comebacks against Washington over the weekend, forcing overtime in the first game and scoring five unanswered goals in the second. The Flyers are used to playing with a lead and both of Philadelphia’s regulation losses coincide with them trailing after both the first and second period. Boston is comfortable playing from behind, and the constant wave of pressure has been difficult for teams to deal with this year. It’s a gamble to pick a Bruins game to end in regulation it seems, but at +125 odds from the NHL betting sites in New Jersey, I’ll take the risk. BOSTON BRUINS WIN IN REGULATION
Head to Head This is the third meeting of the season between Boston and Philadelphia, but the venue has switched to Philadelphia after the first two games were at TD Garden. The Bruins won both games at home, taking the first in a shootout then winning the second one handily. Stats The team that scores first in this game will have a big advantage. The Bruins have won all four games in which they have scored first while Philadelphia has a 5-0-1 record when it tallies first. That one loss, though, was the shootout defeat to Boston two weeks ago. Boston is outscoring teams 15-7 in the third period after scoring four times against Washington on Monday. The Bruins are scoring on 16.5 percent of their shots in the final 20 minutes and shooting just 6.3 percent in the other two periods. The Flyers have four players with at least 10 points and three with at least eight assists through this opening stretch. James van Riemsdyk leads the team with 13 points with four of his five goals this season coming on the power play. Boston’s David Pastrnak returned to the lineup over the weekend in Washington and made an instant impact for the Bruins. The Czech winger had an assist in his season debut then scored twice in Monday’s comeback win over the Capitals.
Boston Bruins to win The third-period flurry in the first game of the season between these two teams seems to have woken up Boston’s offense. The Bruins have score at least three goals in each of the past six games and they have controlled the other team’s offenses as well over that stretch. After picking up three of four points in Washington, the good vibes continue for Boston in Philadelphia.
