The Boston Bruins won the President’s Trophy as the best team in the regular season with 100 points, but that does not guarantee them the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference for the NHL playoffs. Boston will have to earn that seed again in a round robin with the other three top teams in the East, starting Sunday against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers finished second in the Metropolitan Division this year with 89 points in 69 games, their best season by points percentage in nearly a decade.
Even though both teams will have one exhibition game to warm up for the real action, both teams are likely to be rusty in the early going as they tune up for the NHL playoffs. The Bruins were the best defensive team in the league this season, allowing 2.39 goals per game, and Philadelphia allowed a league-low 28.7 shots per game. Expect both coaches to try to make sure their defensive structures are sound in the opening 20 minutes. 0-0 SCORE AFTER FIRST PERIOD (+310) Staying on that theme, four of the Bruins’ last five games of the regular season featured less than five goals. Philadelphia was a little more offensive with 14 of its last 16 regular-season games featuring at least five goals. However, over the last five seasons, the matchups between these two teams have featured more than five goals only five times in 15 meetings. The NHL betting sites in New Jersey were spot on in setting the over/under on this one. UNDER 5.5 GOALS (-110) The Bruins were on a roll before the season was put on pause, having won 15 of their 19 games after the All-Star break. Boston won 12 of those games in regulation, including a 2-0 win over the Flyers on March 10 that snapped Philadelphia’s nine-game winning streak. Rask has been lights out against Philadelphia in his career with a 15-2-4 record, .934 save percentage and 1.97 goals against average. BOSTON BRUINS TO WIN IN REGULATION (+123)
Head to Head This will be the fourth meeting of the season between the Bruins and Flyers, who ironically also faced each other in the final game of the regular season. Philadelphia won the first two matchups in a shootout, but it was Boston that went to Philadelphia and won 2-0 on March 10. Stats The Bruins are 4-2-1 in Toronto since the start of the 2018-19 season, including winning two of three road games against the Maple Leafs in the 2019 playoffs. David Pastrnak is the first Bruins player to lead the NHL in goals since Phil Esposito in the 1974-75 season. Since the NHL went to four divisions in 2013-14, the Flyers have beaten the Bruins just twice in regulation. They have six wins in overtime or the shootout, have lost 10 times in regulation and twice in overtime. The Bruins had the second-best power play and ranked third on the penalty kill this season. The Flyers were 14th on the man advantage and 11th on the penalty kill.
Boston Bruins to win The Bruins might not score a lot during these seeding games, but their defensive structure travels well. Tuukka Rask will do enough and Boston will get some auxiliary scoring to start on the right foot in the round robin.
