The Battle of Pennsylvania: Penguins clash with rival Flyers

With the All-Star break in sight there're five games on the slate this Tuesday night. The Pittsburgh Penguins will travel to Pennsylvania to play the rival Philadelphia Flyers. The home team suffered an embarrassing 7-1 loss in Pittsburgh at the start of the season, can Philadelhia avenge this loss tonight?

Philadelphia Flyers: strong home record

The Philadelphia Flyers missed last season's Stanley Cup playoffs and they know this must be prevented in the current season. The battle in the Metro Division is unprecedentedly exciting. Six teams compete for three guaranteed playoff tickets. Philadelphia is currently in sixth place with 58 points, three points behind the New York Islanders, who are in third place. Because the Metro Division is so heavily occupied this year, there is a good chance that the Flyers, with a possible fourth or fifth place at the end of the regular season, will still manage to get a wildcard ticket.

In the first months of the NHL season, the Flyers were barely beaten in regulation at Wells Fargo Center, which is a different story in January. Philadelphia played five home games in the last three weeks and lost two of those games. First, the Tampa Bay Lightning proved to be too strong in Pennsylvania (0-1) and last week, in front of its own audience, Philadelphia lost 1-4 to the Montreal Canadians. The hockey team recovered well from this defeat, as they won 4-1 against the Los Angeles Kings last Saturday. Travis Konecny had an important part in the victory with two goals.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Crosby on fire

The Pittsburgh Penguins won consecutive Stanley Cup titles in 2016 and 2017, and this season they go for the third title in five years. Coach Mike Sullivan has already had to deal with an incredible plague of injuries and several times the expectation was that this would break up the Penguins and they would face a difficult season, but the reality is that Pittsburgh currently leads the Metro Division and has a three-point lead over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Last week, Sidney Crosby made his long-awaited comeback against the Minnesota Wild after a sporthernia. The captain immediately made his mark with one goal and three assists in the 7-3 win. Last Sunday, the Penguins rallied from an early hole to beat the Boston Bruins. The hockey team came back from a 0-3 deficit and showed some great resilience. Crosby is playing like he never missed a game, since his return, the captain has collected eight points (three goals and five assists).

Over 6 goals / Penguins (ML)

The Philadelphia Flyers have one of the best home records this season. At Wells Fargo Center they only lost four times in regulation. The Battle of Pennsylvania resumes as the in form Penguins face the Flyers. I expect Sidney Crosby to step up again, while Philadelphia seeks revenge for the embarrassing 7-1 loss in Pittsburgh earlier this season. Nicolas Jarry starts in net for the Pens. The goalie has a great season, but his save percentage went down a bit in January, so the Flyers should be able to score a couple of goals to make the over succeed. All in all, I expect the Penguins to head into the All-Star break with momentum.