Philadelphia Flyers vs Pittsburgh Penguins Prediction: Don’t expect a lot of pucks

Prediction for the NHL match which will take place on January 9. Who will turn out to be stronger? Check the team conditions! Several betting options are available.

Philadelphia continues to try to keep their position in the cup eight. Such an outcome of the regular season could be considered sensational for the Flyers, as all the last years they have acted as hopeless outsiders in the league, who did not even try to interfere in the fight for a place in the playoff zone. And this season, they have suddenly improved dramatically; they were confidently located in the top 8 for a long time. It wasn't until the finish of 2023 that they experienced a slump, which continues to this day. In the last eight meetings, the Black and Orange have allowed six losses, beating only Vancouver and Calgary 4:1 and 3:2, respectively. That's enough to keep them in seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings.

Things are much worse for Pittsburgh, which has made the playoffs for over a decade but, last season, remained without cup battles. After that, no global personnel decisions were made in the Pennsylvania team. All the leaders have become even older; therefore, they do not have enough strength and emotion to consistently demonstrate good results over the distance. Nevertheless, they won eight victories in the last 12 meetings with four defeats, which is a great result for a team not in cup eight. Currently, the Black-and-Yellows are only 12th in the Eastern Conference standings.

In the current regular season, the Pennsylvania derby has already been held twice, and both times, Philadelphia hockey players were stronger but exclusively outside of the main time. In the upcoming battle, Pittsburgh has no right to allow a third consecutive failure in confrontation with a principal rival; the Penguins are also in better shape. They have won eight in the last 12 games, while the Flyers have suffered six defeats in eight previous battles.

Not so long ago, the confrontation between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh was characterized by incredibly high efficiency, including in cup battles, when they, time after time, were marked by a double-digit number of scored goals. Alas, all this is history now the Flyers and Penguins do not meet in the playoffs and the regular championships and do not score goals. In six previous head-to-head meetings, they had only 30 goals (5.00 average per game); in five cases, there was a bookmaker's total under (83%).