The Boston Bruins haven’t lost two games in a row in a fair chunk of the time and are also conscientious about getting the win in the first leg of back-to-back games.
The Bruins are a -200 moneyline favorite and the rival Montreal Canadiens are a +165 road underdog with a 5.5-goal total in their matchup on Wednesday night, according to sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
The Bruins, who are amid a busy stretch where they will also play the New York Islanders on Thursday, are also 7-3 in their last 10 games when they were also slated to play the next day. Seven of those 10 contests went over the total, with one push.
This is also the second of three games between the Original Six rivals in an eight-day stretch. Boston won at Montreal on January 13, and the teams will also play on Saturday.
The Canadiens are struggling with an 18-20-6 overall record that includes an away mark of 7-12-1, and a 4-7 record since star D Shea Weber (foot) was placed on injured reserve. There are some signs of life, though, as they are undefeated in regulation over their last four games, while LW Max Pacioretty and RW Alex Galchenyuk have shown strong form recently.
Montreal’s biggest issue has been down the middle, where undersized Paul Byron, Tomas Plekanec and Jacob de la Rose were the top centers at practice on Tuesday.
Montreal, which will need a strong game out of G Carey Price, is 6-1 in its last seven road games against Boston, according to the OddsShark NHL Database, but such trends are hard to sustain in the NHL. The Canadiens also haven’t made fools of the sharps, showing just a 3-11 record in their last 14 games as a moneyline underdog of +150 or higher
The Bruins are 24-10-8 on the season, including 14-5-4 at home and 7-3 in their last 10 games overall. The Bruins, who have scored at least five goals in each of the past three games that were the front end of back-to-backs, offer two solid scoring lines with the Patrice Bergeron-Brad Marchand-David Pastrnak and David Krejci-Jake DeBrusk-Ryan Spooner units.
Given their overall production in the last month, one would think that a team which lost 3-2 in overtime against the Dallas Stars on Monday – after being ahead early in the game – should come up with a focused performance.
Interestingly, Boston has not been a big success when it is deep into minus money, as it’s just 6-4 in its last 10 games as a moneyline favorite or -160 or lower.
The total has gone under in four of Montreal’s last five games as a moneyline underdog of +150 or more, with one push. The total has gone under in seven of Montreal’s last 10 road games against Atlantic Division teams. However, the total has gone over in seven of Boston’s last 10 games when it was in the front leg of a back-to-back, with one push.
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