The Columbus Blue Jackets and the Boston Bruins meet in NHL action from the TD Garden on Saturday afternoon.
The Columbus Blue Jackets will look to rebound from a 4-1 loss to Columbus in their last game. Johnny Gaudreau has a team-high 31 points with 10 goals and 21 assists while Boone Jenner has 21 points with a team-high 10 goals. Elvis Merzlikins has gone 4-8 with a 4.68 GAA and an .864 save percentage while Joonas Korpisalo is 4-5-1 with a 3.51 GAA and a .905 save percentage and Daniil Tarasov has gone 2-4-1 with a 3.14 GAA and an .910 save percentage in goal for Columbus this year.
The Boston Bruins will look to rebound from a 3-2 shootout loss to Los Angeles in their last outing. David Pastrnak has 40 points with team-highs of 19 goals and 21 assists while Patrice Bergeron’s also got 22 points with 10 goals and 12 assists. Brad Marchand has 22 points with 9 goals and 13 assists while Taylor Hall and Jake DeBrusk each have 23 points with Hall logging 12 goals while DeBrusk has 12 assists. Linus Ullmark’s gone 17-1-1 with a 1.83 GAA and a .938 save percentage while Jeremy Swayman’s gone 5-3-1 with a 2.80 GAA and an .897 save percentage this season.
Columbus is 0-5 in their last 5 games against the Atlantic division and 0-4 in their last 4 games when their opponent scores 2 goals or less in the previous game while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 road games. Boston is 7-0 in their last 7 games against the Metropolitan division and 55-20 in their last 75 home games while the over is 4-1 in their last 5 games against a team with a winning percentage below .400.
I get the case to be made for a decent sized underdog here, but I’m sticking with the Bruins here. The Bruins just by far play their best at home this season and against a Columbus team that has issues keeping the puck out of the net, I don’t see that changing here. The Blue Jackets just don’t have the horses to keep up so I’ll back Boston -1.5 to get this crazy ML price down.