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Flyers a Home Dog Against Panthers as We Begin a New and Hopefully Less Harrowing Philadelphia Sports Week
By Joe Tansey
Published:
It’s time to start a new, fresh Philadelphia sports week.
If you want to be the mayor of Posidelphia, everything that happened last week is in the rearview.
If you reside in the borough of Negadelphia, you’ll note that the Flyers are 0-2, got jobbed by an overtime call on Saturday, and welcome the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers to Xfinity Mobile Arena for their home opener on Monday.
The Flyers are a +125 money line underdog at BetMGM.
Honestly, that’s not that bad considering where both franchises are at the moment.
The Flyers were competitive with the Panthers down in Sunrise on Thursday. It’s important to note that the Panthers are missing two of their best players, Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, due to long-term injuries.
So if there ever was a time to pounce on the Panthers, it’s now, while they’re still working on lineup tweaks with a pair of top-six forwards not on the ice.
I’ll note that it’s too early to apply trends, but the Panthers are 2-1 to the under. Monday’s over/under sits at 5.5.
To be competitive again on Monday, the Flyers need to have more of a foothold in the attacking zone. They forced 19 saves out of Sergei Bobrovsky in the opener while Dan Vladar turned away 32 shots in the 2-1 defeat.
A year ago, Florida was only one game over .500 on the road. The Flyers beat the Panthers once at home and played a 7-5 game in the other contest in Philly.
With all of that in mind, I think it’s worth going after a few Flyers shots on goal props, especially with most of them sitting at Over/Under 1.5 at BetMGM.
I’d start with Tyson Foerster, who had five SOG in the first two games, then Owen Tippett and Trevor Zegras to all have 2+ SOG. That puts you at +360 before you apply BetMGM’s NHL Odds Boost Token.
If you’re feeling adventurous with PA sports betting, Foerster/Tippett/Zegras 3+ SOG is +2200 on BetMGM, but I wouldn’t put more than pizza money on it.
The other play I’d take a shot on is Noah Cates to score a goal at +450 at bet365. Cates has been the Flyers’ most active player in terms of shots on goal to start the season and he’s scored once already.
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Joe Tansey writes sports betting posts for Crossing Broad and also covers the Philadelphia Union for his Substack site, Union Soccer Blog.