Adam Williams presents his prediction for the NHL match.
The Philadelphia Flyers started the week with a home defeat to the Colorado Avalanche (2:3), ending a three-game winning streak. In the early hours of Thursday, they will face the Carolina Hurricanes, one of the Metropolitan Division leaders.
Philadelphia Flyers
An avalanche of injuries has struck the Flyers at the worst possible time. Their main goaltender Samuel Ersson is out, along with three top-four defensemen: Cam York, Jamie Drysdale, and Emil Andrae. Each of these players can handle the puck well during power plays and assist in clearing the blue line, either through skating or a smart first pass. This capability is crucial for Philadelphia as they thrive on counter-attacks. It's unfortunate because the Flyers had just started to display impressive hockey and achieve good results.
Carolina Hurricanes
Under Rod Brind'Amour, the Hurricanes tend to take divisional matchups very seriously. In the new season, they have maintained a perfect record in such games (five wins in a row) and last season, they collected points in 20 out of 26 matchups. Overall, the modern-day Hurricanes are functioning brilliantly: seven wins in their last nine games, and in six of those, they've conceded two goals or fewer.
Philadelphia Flyers vs Carolina Hurricanes Prediction
In their optimal lineup, the Philadelphia Flyers might have been able to challenge the favourites, but in their current state, lacking puck-moving defenseman and with Ivan Fedotov/Aleksei Kolosov in goal, their chances of success are slim. The Hurricanes would need to make a series of glaring mistakes for the game to become interesting. We’re backing the visitors to win with a significant margin.
