Flyers/Sens Eastern Final Preview
The CDNHL Eastern Conference Final begins Wednesday night between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Ottawa Senators. These teams had nearly identical records in the regular season as Philly went 48-26-8-1 for 105 points, while Ottawa matched them at 49-26-7 for 105 points. Even their goal differential numbers were within a single goal and they tied in winning percentage.
The Flyers won both games in an early season head to head matchup, 2-1 and 3-2. The Sens have only lost once so far in the playoffs going 8-1 after sweeping the Habs, then disposing of the Sabres in 5 games. The Flyers took 6 games to get past the Rangers in round one, but only 5 games to get past the defending champion Hurricanes in round two.
In goal, the Sens have the edge with a higher rated Thomas Greiss. While the defense is deep for both teams, a second pairing of Ekman-Larsson and Keith give the Sens the advantage over the Carlson-Biega combo in Philly. Up front, both teams feature star studded talent which is relatively even. The Sens have Panarin, Stamkos, Zibanejad, Stone, and Staal, while the Flyers counter with Giroux, Tarasenko, O’Reilly, Arvidsson, and Gallagher.
The series looks to be very close and could go either way.
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Really good matchup, should go the distance.
Nice writeup.
Very even matchup. I’m not sure I agree OEL/Keith gives an edge on D. Flyers have a better 1st pairing (Giordano/Petry > Trouba/Chara). But you never know how chemistry plays into these things.
Goalies pretty even. Forwards pretty even.
Should be a good series!
I was thinking more about Biega. He might be generously rated in this league to play top 4 minutes, but as a Canucks fan, I know he isn’t one. He barely cracked the Canucks top 6 when they were rebuilding. OEL/Keith makes you deeper, which is why I looked at that 2nd line specifically.