The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook released their over/under odds for NHL team point totals for the 2018-19 season on Tuesday and were the first sportsbook to do so for the upcoming season. After a 98-point campaign last season, the over/under for the Flyers heading into the 2018-19 campaign is 98.5 points. Here are the odds for every NHL team, via Michael J. Leboff:
The Orange and Black are a somewhat difficult team to project a point total for a little over a month out from the start of the season. They aren’t the best team in the division, but they are probably the most improved. Not only did the team add 30-goal scorer James van Riemsdyk to the fold, the departures of Valtteri Filppula and Brandon Manning can be considered two significant addition-by-subtraction transactions. These three moves alone should drastically improve the team’s play at 5-on-5, as van Riemsdyk had the highest relative corsi for percentage for a forward on the Maple Leafs while Filppula and Manning hurt their linemates even strength play for most of the season.
Injuries also played a big role for the Flyers last season, as Wayne Simmonds played through a laundry list of injuries and the team’s top two options in net missed significant time down the stretch. If Simmonds is fully, or even mostly, healthy he most likely returns to being a force in front of the net on the power play and breaks 30 goals again. Brian Elliott or Michal Neuvirth were in no way elite this past season, but if either were healthy they would have been the better option compared to throwing Alex Lyon into the fire or turning to a sporadic and inconsistent Petr Mrazek.
On the other hand, it’s fair to question how likely it is some of the biggest producers for Philadelphia during the 2017-18 are able to post the same numbers. Claude Giroux could break 100 points again, but it is far from a sure thing. Sean Couturier might be trying to duplicate his 31-goal season after missing most of the preseason. Ivan Provorov is an elite defenseman in the making, but how likely is it he’ll finish tied for the league lead among defensemen in goals again? These players will still post impressive numbers, but some of the totals from last year could end up being career years. If that’s the case, does the team have enough depth to make up the differential?
Another thing working against Philadelphia is the penalty kill. After finishing 29th in the league by killing 75.8 percent of the opposition’s power plays in 2017-18, it looks as though little was done to address the team’s biggest weakness. A team’s special teams’ units won’t entirely propel or derail a team’s entire season, but it can definitely be the main reason why they lose a few games here or there. It’s hard to envision a way the Flyers’ penalty kill gets any worse, but they were only 29th. If it remains at just under 76 percent or even drops a bit, could that cost the Orange and Black a few points in the hunt for a 100?
Considering all the positives and negatives brings us to the big question: do you think the Flyers are a 100-point team in 2018-19?
Will the Flyers earn 100 points this season?
| Yes | 802 |
| No | 258 |
