The Boston Bruins can punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals with a win in Columbus on Monday night in Game 6, while the Blue Jackets look to force a Game 7 and are slight favorites to do so on the NHL Betting Lines.
How to Bet Bruins vs Blue Jackets 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs Odds & Game 6 Info
- When: Monday, 7 PM ET
- Where: Nationwide Arena
- TV: NBC Sports Network
- Live Stream: NHL.tv
- Radio: The Fan
- 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs Odds: Columbus Blue Jackets -125 (Total 5.5)
Why Bet on Boston?
The Bruins have won the past two in this series to take a 3-2 lead. The prevailed in a wild Game 5, 4-3. There were six goals scored in the third period — Boston blew a 3-1 lead, but David Pastrnak won it with his second goal of the period with 88 seconds to play. It was Pastrnak’s first career playoff game-winner, bringing him to six goals and 11 points in 12 postseason games this year.
Pastrnak now had 35 career playoff points in 30 games. His average of 1.17 points per game is the third-highest through 30 career playoff games in Bruins history, behind Barry Pederson (1.70) and Bobby Orr (1.20). In fact, only two active NHL players had a higher points-per-game average through 30 career postseason games (Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby).
Brad Marchand scored a goal and assisted on two others. Marchand took a cross-crease feed from Connor Clifton before Sergei Bobrovsky absolutely robbed him with the glove on his first attempt, but Marchand pounced on the rebound and beat the Russian goaltender seconds later. The Bruins are now 21-1 in playoff contests that Marchand scores in over his career.
Marchand (5-8—13 in 12 GP) is tied with Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon (6-7—13 in 10 GP) and Mikko Rantanen (5-8—13 in 10 GP) for the NHL lead with 13 points. Marchand, who established a career-high with 36-64—100 in 2018-19, is the highest-scoring player from the regular season remaining in the 2019 playoffs.
Tuukka Rask allowed three goals on 36 shots. Rask had a shutout going into the midway mark of the third period. The frenetic finish included a cross-crease stop by Rask and a sprawling shot block by Charlie McAvoy, both with less than 20 seconds on the clock.
Saturday was just the second time in Bruins playoff history that the club surrendered a multi-goal lead in the third period and won in regulation. They also did so in Game 3 of the 1989 Division semifinals at Buffalo.
The Bruins hold an all-time record of 13-3 (.813) when winning Game 5 after splitting the first four games in a best-of-seven series. When leading 3-2, they own an all-time series record of 21-5 (.808).
Team Stats
Offense- Goals: 3.15
- Shots: 33.14
- PP/PK Percentage: 26.32
Defense
- Goals: 2.59
- Shots: 29.93
- PP/PK Percentage: 19.86
Why Bet on Columbus?
Seth Jones was awarded a goal after a long review in Saturday’s loss. The Blue Jackets were down two goals when Jones sent a shot from a tight angle on goal that took a deflection off a Bruin before getting trapped between Tuukka Rask and the near post.
Ryan Dzingel scored his first postseason goal Saturday. Dzingel was involved in the wild six-goal third period when he buried a feed from Matt Duchene from a tight angle to get the Blue Jackets to within one goal with under eight minutes left in regulation. Dean Kukan tied things up 1:51 later. Kukan entered having never scored a goal in 44 career regular-season games or eight playoff games.
Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov played 14:17 in his NHL debut Saturday. Gavrikov played in the KHL this season and had five goals and 20 points with 60 penalty minutes in 60 games. He was a minus-one Saturday as he was the lone player back on a 4-on-1 when Boston scored.
With the goals by Dzingel and Kukan, 16 different Jackets have scored this postseason. The Blue Jackets avoided being shut out in a playoff game for the second time in franchise history (Game 2 vs. Detroit in 2009 first round). Sergei Bobrovsky allowed four goals on 36 shots. Bobrovsky has now given up four goals in back-to-back games.
Columbus had just four goals at 5-on-5 through the first four games and didn’t add to that total in the first 50 minutes on Saturday night. Then the Jackets scored three goals on four shots on goal in a span of 3:25, all at 5-on-5.
Columbus is 0-2 when trailing 3-2 in a best-of-seven series all-time.
Team Stats
Offense- Goals: 3.16
- Shots: 31.55
- PP/PK Percentage: 16.94
Defense
- Goals: 2.79
- Shots: 29.91
- PP/PK Percentage: 15.18
Bruins vs Blue Jackets 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs Betting Trends
- Home team is 9-4 in the last 13 meetings
- Over is 5-2 in the last 7 meetings in Columbus
- Under is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings
- Bruins are 5-2 SU in their last 7 games on the road
- The total has gone OVER in 5 of Boston’s last 7 games when playing on the road against Columbus
- Blue Jackets are 13-4 SU in their last 17 games
- The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Columbus’ last 5 games against Boston
Expert Final Score Prediction for Bruins vs Blue Jackets
Boston Bruins 2 – Columbus Blue Jackets 3
