Hopefully the staff at the Air Canada Center has the doors to the penalty boxes well oiled tonight because they’re going to get some use.
The Flyers visit Toronto as -135 faves (BetJamaica) and the Leafs are calling up their top goon, Jay Rosehill, from the minors for the bout, err, game.
There is some bad blood still boiling from when these two clubs met Jan. 6 when Philly’s resident psycho, Dan Carcillo, scored a goal and taunted the Leafs’ bench by skating by and giving mock high fives. (Pretty clever, I thought.) Later he gave the throat slashing gesture to Toronto assistant coach Keith Acton for which he was fined the NHL-maximum of $2,500.
There were 80 minutes in penalties handed out in that affair and the Flyers went 3-for-6 on the power play. They won 6-2 and the eight goals jumped the over/under by two.
Not surprisingly, the total is set at 6 goals again Thursday with -130 juice on the over. I’m taking the over despite the chalk because I’m expecting more penalties and Philly’s power play happens to be on fire right now. Both teams have serious goaltending issues too.
It’s also worth noting that the ‘over’ is 6-2 in games in which Carcillo has at least five minutes in penalties this season. In no small way, that’s because he has a knack for getting under the skin of the other team, which leads to more PIMs and power plays whenever he gets in a scrap.
He’s also sporting a filthy crustache, which really has to be getting on the nerves of his opponents.
Hopefully the NHL has some veteran refs slated for this one and it might be worth watching if you’re into hockey fights. Which you are.