Back the Blackhawks as slight home underdog against Flyers in Wednesday night’s matchup

The Philadelphia Flyers have a great opportunity to put some distance between themselves and the playoff cutline on Wednesday night. The Flyers, who have dropped two in a row (0-1-1) after a four-game winning streak, will extend their lead over the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils to seven points with a win over the last-place Chicago Blackhawks.

Philadelphia is a -210 road favorite at the time of writing.

Flyers vs. Blackhawks prediction: Analysis

It’s been an ugly season for the Blackhawks, but that was the plan for a team that is beginning to rebuild around Connor Bedard. The Hawks are 15-38-3 with a -81 goal difference and are sitting in 32nd-place in a 32-team league.

That said, things seem to go much better for the Blackhawks at home compared to on the road. Chicago is 11-14-2 at the United Center this season and while that isn’t an impressive record, it is exponentially better than the 4-24-1 that the Hawks have served up on the road.

Another bit of good news for the Blackhawks is that they’re getting healthier. Bedard returned to the lineup on Feb. 15 and Anthony Beauvillier joined him two games later. Obviously getting Bedard back into the fold makes Chicago exponentially better, but for a team with almost no depth, the return of Beauvillier is noteworthy. He may not be a top-six winger on most teams, but he is for Chicago and adds a capable, NHL-caliber player to a lineup that desperately needs it.

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And there are some signals that point to this being a decent matchup for the Blackhawks. Philadelphia has had a lot of success this season because of its work ethic and ability to keep things tidy at 5-on-5. The Flyers are incredibly comfortable without the puck and their structure allows them to hang around in games until their opponent makes a mistake or simply can’t keep up with Philadelphia’s work-rate. It’s why we’ve been beating the drum that the Flyers are a terrific team to back as an underdog for the entire season.

But the equation changes when the shoe is on the other foot and the Flyers are a chunky favorite.

In this instance you’d imagine that Chicago will try to do what Philadelphia has done to teams all season. The Hawks will do their best to remain compact and force the Flyers to break them down while they look for opportunities on the counter-attack or when Bedard is on the ice.

Chicago is in last place in the entire NHL and is 1-8-1 in its last 10 games, but the Hawks have shown some of improvements of late and should be up for a nationally-televised contest at home.

Flyers vs. Blackhawks prediction: Pick

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