Back the Flyers as road underdog against Maple Leafs in Thursday’s matchup

The Philadelphia Flyers went into All-Star Weekend riding a five-game losing streak and were in danger of losing their grip of a playoff spot. They have a chance to get it all back with a fifth-straight win on Thursday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Flyers are +135 underdogs in Toronto.

The Flyers and Maple Leafs are quite close to on another in the standings but the two sides are polar opposites in how they approach the game and get results. While the Leafs entered the season as a Stanley Cup favorite and rely on their stars to be the difference-makers, the Flyers opened the campaign as a longshot and have wildly exceeded expectations thanks to their depth and work ethic.

On most nights, the Flyers need to win the 5-on-5 battle to get two points. Philadelphia just doesn’t have the offensive flair to overcome mistakes or getting out-chanced by a wide margin, so every detail of their game matters. Through 54 games that approach has worked well enough for Philadelphia to be sitting comfortably (at least at the moment) in a playoff spot.

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The Maple Leafs don’t necessarily need to play a precise game to win. Toronto can afford to be a little looser thanks to players like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander’s ability to create offense out of nothing. Toronto’s power play can also be a difference-maker on nights when the ice is tilted against them.

Toronto is coming off a strong defensive effort in a 4-1 win over the St. Louis Blues. The Leafs were missing No. 1 defenseman Morgan Rielly as well as Mitch Marner and John Tavares in that contest and opted to play a tidy, defense-first style to get over the line. That will likely be how the Leafs try to win on Thursday as they need to be sharp without Rielly and there’s a chance a few more players miss the game due to illness.

That kind of game should suit the Flyers, who themselves want to keep things predictable and win games through structure and effort. This is a good opportunity to back a dogged Flyers team as an underdog once again.

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