The Boston Bruins are road favorites on Tuesday night, as they visit the Buffalo Sabres on NBCSN. It has been a miserable season so far for the Sabres, but they did break a seven-game losing streak in this series by winning 5-4 in Boston in late October. The situation on Tuesday does favor Buffalo, as they have not played since Friday, while the Bruins will be playing with no rest, as they hosted Columbus on Monday.
This war on the ice will go down Tuesday, December 19, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. ET at the KeyBank Center. The game will be televised live on NBCSN.
We'll have NHL odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the NHL Tuesday schedule.
Odds Analysis
The Bruins were rolling along, winning five of six, but then they ran into their nemesis, the Washington Capitals, and Boston has started to struggle. They lost 5-3 to Washington and then lost 3-2 in overtime to the Rangers. Boston will be coming off a game against Columbus on Monday. Boston has been getting strong play from Brad Marchand and David Pastranak, as Marchand has an eight-game point scoring streak, while Pastrank has had a point in 11 straight games.
Boston is 6-7 on the road this season, with six games going over the total and seven going under. The Bruins are scoring 2.8 goals per game and giving up 2.8 per contest.
The Sabres have lost eight of their last ten games and they are in last place in the Eastern Conference. They come into this game with a record of 8-18-7 and already they are virtually out of playoff contention. Current projections have them with just a .01 chance of making the playoffs. Buffalo has not made the playoffs since the 2010-2011 season and they are not going to make it this season. Buffalo has one marquee player in Jack Eichel and not much else. Buffalo doesn’t have enough scoring and they don’t have a marquee goaltender, as neither Robin Lehner nor Chad Johnson is the answer.
Buffalo is 4-11 at home this season, with four games going over, ten going under, with one push. The Sabres are scoring just 2.2 goals per game and giving up 3.3 per contest, so it is no surprise the team is in last place.
Special Teams
Boston is 13th on the power play at just under 20% on the season, while they are 9th in penalty killing at just over 83%. The Sabres have a terrible power play that is last in the league at just over 12%. They have been decent in penalty killing as they are 12th in the league at just over 82%.
Key Stat
The Sabres won in Boston by a score of 5-4 earlier this season. That win broke a seven-game losing streak for the Sabres in this series. The Sabres still have a long losing streak at home in this series, as they have lost the last six. The last win for Buffalo at home against Boston came in 2014.
Free NHL Picks
There is no question that Boston is the better team and they have pretty much owned the Sabres in this series, despite what happened earlier this season. The concern in this game is the situation for the Bruins, as they will be playing with no rest. I wanted to see how Boston has done playing with no rest and it has not been pretty. They have won just two of their last seven games playing with no rest. The interesting part to me is that five of the last six have gone under the total. Despite the situation that favors the Sabres, I still can’t back them against the Bruins. I think the better play is on the total, so I will go under the total in this contest.
NHL Odds: Bruins 3, Sabres 2
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