Online Sports Book Overview
The Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers are two exhausted hockey teams. Right as online betting for Kentucky Derby favorites is getting ready to start, the Bruins and Flyers get ready to have a re-match of last year’s Eastern Conference playoffs where the Flyers beat the Bruins in seven games. The headlines in the NHL news last season told of how the Flyers came back from being down three games to none to knock the Bruins out last season in the Eastern Conference semifinals. While the price per head Eastern Conference semifinals schedule for this season may show the same team names as last season, these are definitely not the same teams.
The Bruins tried to ride the wave of success that young goaltender Tuukka Rask had created last season when they met the Flyers in the semifinals. But Rask’s lack of experience showed and the Bruins lost in a humiliating fashion. This season, the Bruins have their number one goalie Tim Thomas in top condition and ready to play. The Flyers will have to work a lot harder to win this series than they had to work last year.
Philadelphia Flyers
The Flyers are playing the same game of “musical goalies” this season that they played last season. The difference is that last season it was due to injuries. This season, it was due to poor play. Last year, the Flyers watched as their starting goalie Ray Emery was hurt late in the season and then back-up Brian Boucher was injured in the first game of the playoffs. Michael Leighton came in and played way above his pay grade and helped to push the Flyers to the Stanley Cup finals. This year, rookie Sergei Bobrovsky played all season as the starter, but he cracked under the pressure of the playoffs and was replaced by Boucher. Boucher was pulled in lieu of Leighton after Boucher played poorly in game four of the quarterfinals. After that, the Flyers went back and forth from Leighton to Boucher.
It seems now that Brian Boucher is the starter for the Flyers in net, but he was never really tested by the Buffalo Sabres. The Boston Bruins will crash the net and take a lot of shots at Boucher. He will need to play his best to hold on in this series.
Boston Bruins
The Bruins’ story in this series is also about goaltending. The primary difference between this year’s team and last year’s is the play of goaltender Tim Thomas. Thomas is a smart and talented veteran goaltender who does not crack under pressure, and is not phased by collisions in front of the net. The Flyers will have to keep pressure on Thomas to beat him, but Zdeno Chara and the punishing Bruins’ defense have not allowed anyone to get consistently close to their goaltender all season long.
The Bottom Line
The Flyers are riding a huge wave of momentum right now, but there are flaws in their game. Danny Briere was a juggernaut in the Buffalo series, but the Bruins play much better defense in front of their own net than the Sabres did. The Flyers will not have the room to skate in this series that they had in the quarterfinals, and that will make a huge difference in the outcome.
Pick: Boston Bruins
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