Online Sportsbooks Overview
The Buffalo Sabres are one of the worst home teams in the NHL and the Philadelphia Flyers are one of the best road teams in the league. Right from the start, things do not look good for the Buffalo Sabres. To say the Sabres are struggling this season is an understatement. The team is 4-5-1 in its last 10 games and has been trying to deal with the tremendous pressure of a fan base that wants the team to start winning now. With a new owner in place that has made some bold promises, the team continues to underachieve and that creates the distractions of rumors and finger-pointing. The Sabres are also still riddled with injuries that are having a significant effect on the team’s play, The most significant injuries are on defense, and the problems just keep piling up.
The Philadelphia Flyers were supposed to be one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, according to the price per head sports predictions in the preseason. The Flyers got off to a shaky start as it looked like new goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov was still trying to get his feet on the ground. The Flyers have been up and down all season long, but it has managed to remain at the top of the conference and in a three-way dogfight for the top spot in the Atlantic Division with the New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins. But the bookie software will still not give the Flyers too much of an advantage this season because Philly cannot seem to rely on its goaltending. The Flyers are hoping that changes as the Christmas holiday approaches.
Buffalo Sabres
Nine games after Sabres’ goaltender Ryan Miller was hit by Boston’s Milan Lucic and given a concussion, Miller returned to play against the Nashville Predators. The result was another run at Miller by Nashville tough guy Jordin Tootoo. A betonline.com review of the hit shows that it could have been avoided, and now the league is being forced to react. Miller and the Sabres seem to be at the center of the newest trend of disrespect in the NHL and that is running goaltenders. The Flyers play a physical game, and it will be interesting to see if Miller is now a little shell shocked after being run into twice in the span of three weeks.
Philadelphia Flyers
The Flyers want to make Ilya Bryzgalov the number one goaltender. Being the number one goaltender is why Bryzgalov is getting paid a lot of money. But the Flyers have had to turn to Sergei Bobrovsky on more than one occasion to bail Bryzgalov out. The only team that Bryzgalov does not seem to have any problems with is the Buffalo Sabres. This game could be the confidence-builder that Bryzgalov needs.
The Bottom Line
In the NHL, it used to be a goaltender’s world. But with players taking runs at goalies and the inconsistent play of veteran superstars, the goalie world is a little shaky right now. Both the Sabres and the Flyers are hoping to get some stability with the result of this game.
Pick: Buffalo Sabres
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