NHL Hockey: Tampa Bay Lightning at Boston Bruins

By BetOnline October 16, 2019

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The Boston Bruins are off to an excellent start to the 2019-2020 season with a 5-1-0 record and 10 points in their first six games. Their only loss came to scorching hot Colorado and the Bruins are playing their style of hockey which means stifling defense and great goaltending. Tuukka Rask is 3-0-0 with a 1.33 goals against average and a 0.957 save percentage with one shutout. They’ve also been getting solid work from veteran Jaroslav Halak who has also started 3 games this season going 2-1-0 with a 1.69 goals against average and a .951 save percentage. This gives the Bruins the luxury of keeping Rask fresh which hasn’t always been the case in recent years where he’s been forced to carry the load for the team. The Bruins enter this matchup tied with Anaheim for the best team defense in the NHL allowing just 1.67 goals against per game.

The Tampa Bay Lightning didn’t exactly come roaring out of the gate this season though rumors of their impending demise are definitely overblown. Tampa is 3-2-1 on the season but they’re just 4 points off the pace in the Atlantic Division. Two of the three losses were against tough teams–at Florida and at Carolina. The loss to lowly Ottawa is ugly but that was a classic ‘sandwich spot’ off of road games at Florida, Carolina and Toronto and with Montreal and Boston on deck. The Bolts are playing 6 of their first 7 games on the road against tough opposition. They’ll return home this weekend for a three game home stand against Colorado, Pittsburgh and Nashville. Their schedule will be a bit tricky going forward–they’ll play three on the road against the NYC area teams before heading off to Stockholm, Sweden for games against the Buffalo Sabres on November 8 and 9th. They won’t play again until November 14.

Tampa Bay is tied for #13 on the team defense table allowing 3.00 goals per game. They’re doing fine on the other end of the ice and are ranked #6 in goals scored per game with 3.83. Both teams have been excellent on the power play and are currently tied for #4 in the league connecting on 31.3% of man advantage opportunities. Tampa needs to tighten up the penalty kill as they’re just #23 in the league. Boston is #11 killing off 83.3% of opponent power play chances.

Tampa’s edge could be their offensive potency. The Bruins are just #21 in goals scored per game at 2.67 and while they can get away with that as long as Rask and Halak continue to play well forcing goalies to stand on their head every night just to win is a dangerous game. Boston also has a big home and home series coming up with last year’s playoff rival Toronto on 10/19 and 10/22. Bolts have won 8 of 13 head to head and split the last 6 in Boston. They’re an underrated quantity at this point and we’ll gladly take them as short priced underdogs on the NHL betting odds board.