Bruins, Lightning Renew Rivalry in Atlantic Division Battle

The Boston Bruins will look to turn around their recent struggles against the Tampa Bay Lightning in a Pick’em Game 1 and Pick’em series starting on Sunday.

Sportsbook Odds Analysis

The public is believing in the Bruins leading up to Game 1, and rightfully so. Boston took care of business against the Carolina Hurricanes in the last round, seemingly rallying around the absence of goaltender Tuukka Rask and playing without leading scorer David Pastrnak in three of the five games. This is a bigger step up in competition for the Lightning, who will also continue to be without Steven Stamkos due to a lower-body injury.

Boston News & Notes

How good was Boston in the first round against Carolina? Many skeptics wrote this team off after the Bruins went winless in round-robin play, dropping them down to the fourth seeds after they had the best record and most points in the NHL at the end of the regular season. Then Rask opted out to be with his family, leaving Boston to ride with Jaroslav Halak instead.

Halak has gone 3-1 with a 2.29 goals-against average in four starts while Rask went 1-3 with a 2.57 GAA in four as well. The return of Pastrnak makes the offense much stronger too, as he had two assists in the clinching Game 5, which was the first time he appeared on the ice since Game 1. Now he just needs to stay on the ice.

Lightning News & Notes

Tampa Bay has enough offensive firepower to overcome the loss of Stamkos, especially with Brayden Point emerging as a star. Point leads the Lightning with 10 points (five goals and five assists), and he has proven to be more invaluable, especially on faceoffs (8-of-12 in Game 5). He had four goals and three assists against Columbus alone, including two in the five-overtime series opener.

Stamkos has not played since the end of the regular season, and his teammates have learned to play without him. If he comes back at some point, it will be an added bonus, but Tampa Bay should not count on that. The difference in this series though could be the play of goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was solid but unspectacular against the Blue Jackets. Vasilevskiy needs to be better here.

Betting Pick: UNDER 5.5

Unlike Saturday’s Western Conference matchup between the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars, the Lighting and Bruins have not been involved in many high-scoring games lately, and they could struggle to score.

Boston edged Carolina 2-1 in Game 5 of their series to close it out on Wednesday and Tampa Bay went OVER the total in a 5-4 victory in Game 5 against Columbus on the same day. But the UNDER was 3-0-1 in the other four for the Lightning, so look for another low-scoring game between these two rivals.