Bruins vs Canadiens NHL Spread/Handicapping
HeadLine: Original Six Battle Headlines Light Night in NHL
The Montreal Canadiens will attempt to continue their stellar early season play at home on Wednesday night when they take on the Boston Bruins, a team that they have had all sorts of trouble with the past couple of seasons.
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Montreal has won five straight at the Bell Center ahead of Wednesday night’s showdown but they have lost four straight overall to their Original Six brother – all of those losses however came with Tim Thomas in net.
Boston Bruins (6-1-1-0) at Montreal Canadiens (6-2-0-0)
When: 7:30 PM ET, Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Where: Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec
Broadcast: RDS, TSN, NBCSN
Bruins vs. Canadiens Betting Lines from Bovada
Boston Bruins -1½ +260 -110
Montreal Canadiens +1½ -310 +100
Over/Under: 5.5
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The Boston Bruins have lost just once in regulation all season long – an ugly 7-4 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday. However, they got back to Bruins hockey on Saturday beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 1-0 in a game that they outshot the Leafs 34-21.
The Bruins enter Thursday night’s contest averaging 2.75 goals per game but with a struggling power play – 3rd worst at 10% so far this season (3 for 30). During their four game win streak against Montreal they have gone 1 for 15 with the man advantage.
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The Bruins have been getting their chances however – the Bruins average 32 shots on goal per game. Boston’s offense has been a committee approach thus far making them difficult to hold down. 13 players have at least one goal in 2013 and 13 players have recorded multiple points so far.
Defensively, it has been Tuukka Rask that has made the Boston faithful forget all about Tim Thomas. He has one bad game this year but still has a 5-1-1 record this year with a 2.10 goals against average and .919 save percentage. Overall the Boston defense has given up two or fewer goals in five of eight games this season and the penalty kill is second in the NHL at 94.1%.
The Montreal Canadiens have been one of the pleasant surprises in the NHL so far this young season. The offense has been surprisingly good and the defense has been spectacular. So far this year the Habs are averaging 3.25 goals per game and are allowing just 2.12 goals per game – a good recipe for success!
The health of Andrei Markov has really made a difference to the Canadiens. He not only anchors what is the best defense in the NHL but he also lead the Habs in points and has allowed the Canadiens power play to clip along at a very nice 23.9% clip. The Habs, like the Bruins have scored by committee – 12 players have at least one goal and seven players have multiple goals in Montreal’s eight games so far. Somewhere along the line the Habs have found some depth and a scoring touch that almost nobody saw coming. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Make no mistake about it – the Canadiens are still Carey Price’s team. So far this year he is 6-1-0 with a 1.70 goals against average and a .938 save percentage. The defense has been strong ahead of Price and the recent resigning of PK Subban has only made this team stronger on the back end.
Betting Prediction: A few trends to consider
• BOS are 9-2 in their last 11 road games.
• BOS are 21-6 in their last 27 vs. Northeast.
• BOS are 29-10 in their last 39 Wed. games.
• Over is 18-7-1 in MON last 26 Wed. games.
• Under is 42-18-9 in MON last 69 vs. Northeast.
• Over is 5-2-3 in the last 10 meetings in Montreal.
• BOS are 11-23 in the last 34 meetings in Montreal.
The Boston Bruins had their mulligan last Saturday night – it is unlikely you see an effort like the one that cost them a game in Buffalo. Montreal’s wins have come against Florida, Washington, New Jersey, Winnipeg and a shorthanded Ottawa team so far this year – not exactly elite teams thus far. The Bruins are a different kettle of fish! While I love the way Montreal is playing, the Bruins are out to prove that the Habs aren’t quite ready to join the upper echelon just yet. Boston’s recent dominance over Montreal continues.
Pick: Boston Bruins -110
