Philadelphia Flyers vs Pittsburgh Penguins Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 04/18/26

The Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins will begin their best-of-7 first-round series in the Stanley Cup playoffs when they clash in Game 1 in Pittsburgh on Saturday night. Don’t be alarmed by the Penguins’ 3-game losing streak to end the regular season — they had already clinched a playoff spot and home-ice advantage in round 1 prior to that skid. The Pens had previously won 3 in a row before pretty much waving the white flag on the remainder of the regular season. When motivated, this club has been playing good hockey. The Flyers, on the other hand, emptied the tank with a late surge to clinch their first playoff appearance since 2019-20 earlier this week. Although plenty of days off helps, it’s still an advantage for Pittsburgh to have basically rested while Philadelphia was making an emotionally draining push for the playoffs. That’s part of the reason why my Flyers vs Penguins pick is Pittsburgh on the money.

It should also be noted that their split of the 4-game regular-season series hardly tells the real story. The Flyers picked up both of their wins in shootouts; the Pens dominated their 2 victorious contests by a combined 11-4 margin. For those counting, that means (not including shootouts) Pittsburgh outscored Philly by 7 goals in the 4 head-to-head encounters. Sidney Crosby heads into another playoff campaign having recorded multiple assists in 3 of his last 4 outings. In the series opener, I’m backing Crosby and the rest of the Penguins’ veterans to ride their experience to a hard-fought victory over an upstart Flyers squad.

Flyers vs Penguins prediction: Pittsburgh ML (-142) available at time of publishing. Playable to -150.

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