{"id":460242,"date":"2025-01-07T09:29:11","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T14:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=460242"},"modified":"2025-01-07T09:29:11","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T14:29:11","slug":"nhl-predictions-january-7-toronto-maple-leafs-vs-philadelphia-flyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/01\/07\/nhl-predictions-january-7-toronto-maple-leafs-vs-philadelphia-flyers\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Predictions: January 7 Toronto Maple Leafs vs Philadelphia Flyers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to NHL Predictions. Each day, Last Word on Hockey<\/em> takes a look at the games that are scheduled and then offers insight and analysis to help predict who will be victorious in head-to-head matchups. Today we are looking at the game between the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Philadelphia Flyers. Be sure to check out more NHL Predictions as the 2024-25 season continues.<\/p>\n

NHL Predictions<\/h2>\n

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Philadelphia Flyers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Time<\/strong>: 7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)<\/p>\n

TV<\/strong>: SNO; ESPN+; HULU<\/p>\n

In the second game of a home-and-home series, the Toronto Maple Leafs (26-13-2) face off against the Philadelphia Flyers (17-18-5) for the only time in Philadelphia this season. Toronto beat Philadelphia 3-2 in overtime on a Morgan Rielly<\/a> goal Sunday night. The Flyers will be looking to return the favour tonight.<\/p>\n

Maple Leafs at Midway Mark<\/h4>\n

The Toronto Maple Leafs have officially hit the midway point of the regular season. They are currently on pace for 108 points which would be a six-point increase from the 2023-24 season. The Maple Leafs enter game 42 on a four-game win streak and saw Auston Matthews<\/a> return to the lineup Saturday night against the Boston Bruins<\/a>. In his two games back, he has scored a goal to go along with four assists. The biggest beneficiary of the captain’s return may be Matthew Knies<\/a>. The fellow Arizona-born winger looks rejuvenated with Matthews back as his centreman. Knies has four goals in his last two games including a hat-trick during a five-point effort Saturday.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t all good news for Toronto. During their game against the Flyers, Jake McCabe<\/a> took a hard fall during a fight with Garnet Hathaway<\/a>. Simon Benoit<\/a> and Oliver Ekman-Larsson<\/a> took on larger roles in his absence. They will have to continue to do so after McCabe was placed on injured reserve.<\/p>\n

Flyers Trying to Solve Toronto Riddle<\/h4>\n

The Philadelphia Flyers have really struggled against the Maple Leafs in their last ten games going 1-7-2. The lone bright spot in that record is that the one win came on home ice last season when the Flyers beat the Leafs 4-3. That night Owen Tippett<\/a> had a goal and an assist while being named the second star. Philadelphia would certainly take a repeat of that performance from Tippett as he has been struggling going goalless in six straight games.<\/p>\n

Tippett hasn\u2019t been the only one struggling. Rookie Matvei Michkov<\/a> has also been struggling scoring only one goal in his last 13 games. They aren\u2019t the only two to blame as the Flyers as a team went 2-3-1 on a six-game road trip sandwiched around the holiday break. Unfortunately for Philadelphia, they don\u2019t play better at home. They have a home record of 8-9-1 compared to an ever so slightly better road record of 9-9-4. The Flyers will need both Tippett and Michkov to be better tonight.<\/p>\n

Prediction<\/h3>\n

On paper, this game looks like a mismatch. The Leafs have dominated the series lately, and they have all of their superstars in the lineup up front. They will also have Joseph Woll<\/a> in net after Dennis Hildeby<\/a> faced the Flyers on the second half of a back-to-back. However, the Flyers were at the end of a long road trip and still played the Leafs tough, forcing the game into overtime. With many forwards struggling, whoever is in net for the Flyers will likely need a better performance than the team goals-against average of 3.55. That will be a tough ask against a Toronto top line that has been rejuvenated since Matthews’ return.<\/p>\n

Prediction: Maple Leafs win 5-2<\/em><\/p>\n

Prop Bets of The Night<\/h3>\n

Auston Matthews had four goals in three games against the Flyers last season. He didn\u2019t get one Sunday but he doesn\u2019t stay quiet for long. He is +105 to score in the game tonight. For the Flyers, Owen Tippett is due for a breakout performance. He had scored in two straight games against Toronto before not scoring Sunday. He is +270 to score.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Please play responsibly, check for your local rules and age restrictions, some jurisdictions require ages 21+. Gambling\u00a0problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to NHL Predictions. Each day, Last Word on Hockey takes a look at the games that are scheduled and then offers insight and analysis to help predict who will be victorious in head-to-head matchups. Today we are looking at the game between the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Philadelphia Flyers. Be sure to check […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5347,"featured_media":460269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4524,4547,4548,16,18],"tags":[6082,6062],"class_list":["post-460242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl-predictions","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-flyers","category-leafs","tag-philadelphia-flyers-predictions","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-predictions"],"modified_by":"Alec Roberson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5347"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460271,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460242\/revisions\/460271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}