{"id":37737,"date":"2011-04-28T13:51:25","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T20:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.capperspicks.com\/blog\/?p=37737"},"modified":"2011-04-28T13:59:32","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T20:59:32","slug":"playoff-picks-boston-bruins-vs-philadelphia-flyers-series-predictions-28411","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/nhl\/playoff-picks-boston-bruins-vs-philadelphia-flyers-series-predictions-28411\/","title":{"rendered":"2011 Stanley Cup Playoff Picks \u2013 Bruins vs. Flyers"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>NHL Playoff Betting \u2013 Bruins vs. Flyers Series Preview &amp; Pick<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p> <!--more--><\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/record.bettingpartners.com\/_TcMlrmSOeQxhg6WO2I1rgWNd7ZgqdRLk\/1\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT BODOG.COM\u2019S NHL HOCKEY BETTING LINES FOR TONIGHTS MATCHUPS!!!!<\/a><\/h3>\n<p><strong>2011 EASTERN CONFERENCE QUARTERFINALS | #2 Philadelphia vs. #3 Boston<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Saturday, April 30 at Philadelphia, 3:00 p.m., NBC, CBC<br \/>\nMonday, May 2 at Philadelphia, 7:30 p.m., VERSUS, TSN<br \/>\nWednesday, May 4 at Boston, 7:00 p.m., VERSUS, CBC<br \/>\nFriday, May 6 at Boston, 8:00 p.m., VERSUS (JIP), CBC<br \/>\n*Sunday, May 8 at Philadelphia, 3:00 p.m., NBC, CBC<br \/>\n*Tuesday, May 10 at Boston, TBD, VERSUS, CBC<br \/>\n*Thursday, May 12 at Philadelphia, TBD, VERSUS, CBC<\/p>\n<p><strong>Odds To Win Cup: Boston 8\/1, Philadelphia 8\/1<br \/>\nBruins vs Flyers Odds To Win 7 Game Series: Bruins -110, Flyers -110<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>YES. Flyers Bruins, baby. If I were describing to an NFL fan what we can expect from this series, I\u2019d say Steelers-Ravens. These two smashmouth teams are ready to kill each other. For the Bruins, the series offers a chance at revenge after the Flyers rallied from a 3-0 series deficit to beat them in last year\u2019s Eastern Conference final.<\/p>\n<p>This is an extremely difficult series to call. Both teams are physically punishing at the forward and defense positions; both teams have tremendous depth at forward; and both teams have at least one glaring flaw.<\/p>\n<p>The Boston Bruins are the better team at keeping pucks out of their net, bar none. They have a massive goaltending edge with the stylistically ugly but tremendously athletic Tim Thomas leading the way. After setting an NHL single-season record with a .938 save percentage this regular season, he had a solid .926 mark in seven games against Montreal. If Thomas falters for whatever reason, Tuukka Rask is as good a safety net as any team has.<\/p>\n<p>The Bruins also have a rock-solid defense by committee. Zdeno Chara is the shutdown guy but he has a fearless group of rough, shot-blocking supporters like Dennis Seidenberg, Johnny Boychuk and Andrew Ference.<\/p>\n<p>Where Boston falters is in the offensive finish department. The B\u2019s have powerhouse wingers in Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton and fantastic two-way centers like Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci but they lacked touch against the Habs to say the least. Boston was 0 for 21 on the power play against Montreal over seven games. How on Earth did it win a series without scoring a goal with the man advantage? Tomas Kaberle has to be better. If he isn\u2019t helping the power play, what is he good for?  <iframe allowtransparency='true' src='http:\/\/ff.connextra.com\/Bodog\/selector\/client?client=Bodog&#038;placement=Ext_RS_Sports_250x250&#038;cxt_aff_id=151627&#038;tclk=http:\/\/www.bodog.eu\/welcome\/151627\/' class=\"alignleft\" style=\"margin: 1px; border: 3px solid #FFFFFF;\" width='250' height='250' scrolling='no' frameborder='0' style='border-width:0'><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p>Now \u2013 it\u2019s important to note that Montreal\u2019s best penalty killer was Carey Price. He stoned the Bruins in a way no Philadelphia goalie can. That\u2019s the Flyers\u2019 glaring weakness in this series. Yes, Brian Boucher came up big when it mattered in Game 7, but he\u2019s still as inconsistent as goalies come. The Flyers used three different netminders in the first round.<\/p>\n<p>The Flyers present a new challenge to the Bruins in that their forwards are much more up to the task of physically matching their defenders. Mike Richards, Scott Hartnell, and even hard-nosed speedsters like Daniel Briere and Claude Giroux are more likely to mix it up with Chara and company than guys like Scott Gomez and Mike Cammalleri were.<\/p>\n<p>Still \u2013 overall, the Flyers just look like a slightly worse version of Boston to me. Montreal was almost a more awkward matchup for the Bruins in that the Habs could match Boston\u2019s goaltending and their slippery forwards really tested their footwork and discipline.<\/p>\n<p>The Flyers, meanwhile, are inferior in goal. Their power-play was almost as bad as Boston\u2019s in the first round, too. Only Chris Pronger seems capable of quarterbacking it and, though he returned late in the series against Buffalo, he\u2019s nowhere near 100 per cent. The Flyers don\u2019t have their equivalent of Chara ready to rock in this series.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d expect another war but conquering the Habs may have actually been a tougher challenge for Boston. Look for the Bruins to ride their goaltending and overall defensive superiority to victory over the Flyers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Flyers vs Bruins prediction: <\/strong>Bruins in six<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"\/handicappers\/\"><strong>CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT OUR HOCKEY HANDICAPPING PLAYS FOR THIS YEARS PLAYOFF ACTION &#8212;&#8211;&gt;<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2011 NHL Playoff 7 game series between the  #3 Boston Bruins vs. #2 Philadelphia Flyers opens on Saturday night, here\u2019s the odds and our free Series prediction for the 2011 2nd round playoff matchup\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":36963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[28750,31544,48133,48751,28706,48748,21944,48749,28703,48750,48752,21458,11979,12004,27691,27692,27674],"class_list":["post-37737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl","tag-28750","tag-2011-stanley-cup-futures","tag-2011-stanley-cup-playoff-picks","tag-boston-bruins-vs-philadelphia-flyers-predictions","tag-boston-vs-philadelphia","tag-bruins-flyers-lines","tag-bruins-flyers-picks","tag-bruins-flyers-predictions","tag-bruins-vs-flyers","tag-bruins-vs-flyers-series-preview","tag-eastern-conference-semi-finals","tag-hockey-betting-picks","tag-round-2","tag-round-2-predictions","tag-stanley-cup-playoff-picks","tag-stanley-cup-playoff-prediction","tag-stanley-cup-playoffs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37737"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38089,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37737\/revisions\/38089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}