Philadelphia Flyers - Ottawa Senators
Tuesday December 23rd 2008 - Start 7:00 pm EST 2008

Philadelphia Flyers (18-8-7, 2nd Atlantic)

Philadelphia is playing well in December, 10 games played and 7-1-2 score.

The key to their success is excelent power play and good goaltending and the team has managed to stay sharp in offense despite number of injured players.

Medical Watch :
• RW Scottie Upshall suffered a right knee sprain about four minutes into the second period Sunday when he was checked into the boards by Devils C Bobby Holik, and he did not return. “I stopped and Holik hit me awkwardly,” Upshall said. “It doesn’t seem too serious right now. Obviously, it was bad enough to take me out of the game, but we’ll re-evaluate (Monday).”
• C Glen Metropolit (back strain) is day-to-day.
• C Daniel Briere (groin strain) is skating on his own and plans on returning Dec. 30.
• D Ryan Parent (shoulder surgery) is skating and is looking at a return on Dec. 26.
• D Derian Hatcher (right knee) is on long-term injury and is unlikely to return this season.

First Line :
Simon Gagne, Mike Richards, Mike Knuble is playing very well. GK Antero Niittymaki (2.62 GAA, .915 SV%) improved his stats a lot will probably start this game.

Ottawa Senators (12-14-5, 5th Northeast)

The Ottawa Senators begin a season high eight-game road trip that extends into mid-January.

Ottawa has an Eastern Conference low eight points on the road, and its three road wins are tied with Los Angeles for the fewest in the NHL.

Ottawa's offense ranks as 29th (league has 30 teams) with only 72 goals scored and 2.28 GAA.

Ottawa coach Craig Hartsburg has tried everything to improve his offense. He even broke his top line Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza but even that didn’t work.

Medical Watch :
• Ottawa may be without Alfredsson for this game. The Senators captain and team’s second-leading scorer is day-to-day with a hip injury.
• D Filip Kuba appeared to suffer a lower body injury against Dallas and could be out too.
• RW Jesse Winchester and C Dean McAmmond are on injury reserve.

Head to Head

NHL 2008/2009
Ottawa - Philadelphia 4:1 07.11.2008
NHL 2007/2008
Philadelphia - Ottawa 3:1 29.02.2008
Ottawa - Philadelphia 3:2OT 20.02.2008
Philadelphia - Ottawa 6:1 21.01.2008
Ottawa - Philadelphia 3:4 25.11.2007

The Verdict

I have to back Philadelphia here. Ottawa is quite bad this season with only 3 wins on road.

Pick:

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Philadelphia to win in regulation.