Back the Flyers to win third straight game in Saturday’s matchup with Kraken

The prevailing thought around the NHL going into the All-Star break was that the Philadelphia Flyers were on the verge of crashing back down to earth. Not so fast.

The Flyers have won their first two games since the hiatus, both against strong opposition, and can make it three in a row with a win over the Seattle Kraken on Saturday.

The Kraken are slight -117 road favorites in their first game back since the break.

After sticking to their structure in a 2-1 win in Florida on Tuesday, the Flyers jumped on the Winnipeg Jets and never looked back in a 4-1 victory on Thursday. The Flyers played a strong 5-on-5 game against a strong opponent and relied on goaltender Sam Ersson to make the big saves when he was called upon.

It was a pretty low-event contest, but that’s music to Philadelphia’s ears. The Flyers don’t have the firepower to get involved in thrilling contests, so keeping things tidy is always a high priority for John Tortorella’s side.

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Like the Flyers, the Kraken are in the thick of a playoff race right now. Seattle put itself back in the mix with a nine-game winning streak through the holidays, but things went south right before the break. The Kraken are 2-5-1 with a -7 goal difference in their last eight contests.

Despite the poor record, Seattle’s 5-on-5 numbers look pretty strong of late. The Kraken have done a good job limiting high-danger scoring chances and own a 53.4% expected goal rate over their last 10 contests.

These two teams are pretty similar. They both want to keep things predictable and rely on their structure to put them in a position to win the game.

This one is pretty close to a coin flip, but the Flyers do have a schedule edge here. Seattle hasn’t played a game in 10 days, while the Flyers already have two well-played contests under their belt since the break. That makes them an appealing bet, even as a slight favorite on Saturday.

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