USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con
The Edmonton Oilers are at it again.
At this time last year, Edmonton was struggling through the first week of the schedule en route to a 2-9-1 start that would eventually cost Jay Woodcroft his job.
The rest, as they say, is history as the Oilers turned their season around under Kris Knoblauch and finished one game short of lifting the Stanley Cup.
Coming into the new season as Stanley Cup favorites, the entire hockey world expected the Oilers to be shot out of a cannon to avoid another sluggish start.
But hockey is an unpredictable sport and wouldn’t you know Edmonton is 0-3 with a -12 goal difference despite playing a pretty soft schedule.
The Oilers were shut out, 6-0, by Winnipeg and then lost to two projected bottom-feeders, Chicago and Calgary, over the weekend.
There’s no such thing as a must-win four games into an NHL season, but it would certainly behoove Edmonton to take care of business against the Philadelphia Flyers at home Tuesday night.
The Oilers are a -210 favorite at BetMGM as of Tuesday afternoon.
While acknowledging that the Oilers are in a different class compared to the Flyers in terms of roster talent, you’d be hard-pressed to pick a team you’d want to play less than Philadelphia in this situation.
What John Tortorella’s side lacks in pure ability, it makes up for through savvy and effort.
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Philadelphia will make you work for every inch of ice and will frustrate you if things aren’t breaking your way, which is exactly what is happening to the Oilers right now.
The Flyers are masters at hanging around against superior opponents and I expect them to do just that in Alberta on Tuesday night and that makes them a dangerous underdog against a team that will be in desperation mode.
THE PLAY: Flyers +185 (BetMGM Sportsbook)
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