Stanley Cup Finals Head Back To Boston All Tied Up At 2-2

Credit to the St. Louis Blues for bouncing back from their Game Three blowout loss to the Boston Bruins. The teams now head back to Boston for Game 5 at the TD Garden on Thursday night. For the team that wins, they’ll try to wrap up the Stanley Cup at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis in Game 6 while their opponent will try to keep the series alive.

This has been an interesting series and one where public perception doesn’t match reality. Heading into the Stanley Cup Finals, the prevailing opinion was that the Boston Bruins were a vastly superior team. That hasn’t been the case. With the exception of the Bruins’ Game 3 blowout win it has been a very tight series. The 7-2 rout by Boston had more to do with a rare meltdown by Blues’ rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington than anything the Bruins did. They did go 4 for 4 on the power play but the lopsided final score helped conceal a problematic reality for Boston–they’re getting killed in a number of important statistical categories.

The Blues have controlled possession roughly 60% of the time throughout the series. A bigger issue–the Bruins haven’t been getting shots on goal. They did just fine in Game 1 holding a 37-20 shots on goal advantage but they haven’t put more than 24 shots on goal in a game since. They had 23 in Game Two, 24 in Game Three and 23 once again in Game Four. Were it not for Binnington’s rough start in Game Three this series might not be tied heading back to Boston.

Another issue for Boston–injuries to their defensemen. Matt Grzelcyk went out with a concussion in Game 2 and he’s listed as ‘questionable’ for Thursday’s Game 5. Zdeno Chara broke his jaw in Game Four and has been confirmed as being out for Game 5. These are two of the Bruins top six defensemen and their absence would be tough to replace. Boston head coach Bruce Cassidy has said that the team might go with seven defensemen for Game 5 if both Chara and Grzelcyk are sidelined. At the time of his comments, Chara’s status was still up in the air but he’s definitely out now and although there have been some positive reports on Grzelcyk’s status there’s not been any type of confirmation that he’ll be ready to play in Game Five.

Even with these extremely critical injuries, the NHL betting line on the game still has the Bruins installed as a solid favorite of nearly -150. That’s tough to justify given the shots and possession disparity and particularly now with the absence of Grzelcyk and Chara. For that reason, we’ll take the price with the visitor.

BET ST. LOUIS BLUES +133 OVER BOSTON BRUINS

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