With regulated online sports betting live in Massachusetts, the Boston Bruins are in the midst of a historically dominant campaign with a realistic chance to break the NHL record for most regular season points.
Boston is priced as the outright favorite to hoist the Stanley Cup this spring at +400 – and for good reason – which will be an extremely popular bet for new sports bettors in Massachusetts.
The Bruins made some excellent additions at the deadline, bringing in Dmitry Orlov, Tyler Bertuzzi and Garnet Hathaway to bolster their depth for what will hopefully be a deep run this spring.
The Bruins are essentially a lock to win the Presidents' Trophy as the top regular season team, which makes a look at how previous Presidents' winners have fared a point of interest.
Boston Bruins Frontrunners to Win Presidents' Trophy
The Presidents' Trophy has been awarded 36 times, and just eight of those winners went on to hoist the Cup. Boston won the trophy in 1989-90, 2013-14 and 2019-20, and none of those three campaigns ended with a Cup win.
So analyzing why the Presidents' Trophy winner has gone on to win the Cup only 22% of the time becomes an interesting debate. Is there too much pressure? Is the regular season meaningless? How much different is playoff hockey from the regular season?
Last season's Presidents' winner was the Florida Panthers. They're a good example of a regular-season team whose style did convert well to the playoffs, as many experts predicted.
However, that doesn't seem to be the case with this year's Bruins, who check all the boxes for what we have come to expect from Stanley Cup winners.
The Bruins play a sweltering defensive style in support of Linus Ullmark, who has been masterful in goal this season. And even if backup Jeremy Swayman were forced into game action, Boston would still have a realistic chance to win this postseason.
Boston has an extremely close-knit roster and with excellent leadership from captain Patrice Bergeron on down. The team's key members have made deep playoff runs together, so the experience factor is there as well.
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+400: Fair Price for Bruins to Win Stanley Cup?
Playoff hockey is high variance, and receiving some "puck luck" almost always becomes a key factor when two sides play hockey at an extremely high level.
True defensive breakdowns become rare, and the most closely contested NHL games often come down to a single mistake or possibly even just a fluky shot ricocheting into the goal in some fashion.
Even a team as dominant as the 2022-23 Bruins will likely still get into some closely contested matchups along the way as they try to fight through a deep Eastern Conference littered with elite sides.
Avoiding key injuries plays a massive factor, as well. Each time a team is eliminated from the postseason, the team releases a laundry list of ailments – outside of the more widely known injuries of those who are actually missing games.
Of the last 27 Stanley Cup winners, only two were listed at +400 or shorter to win it all prior to the beginning of the playoffs. One was last year's Avalanche. who had a significantly easier path to the finals in the West.
Ultimately, trends regarding previous Presidents' Trophy teams or the prices of previous Cup winners do not indicate much about what might happen this season.
It might be fair to say that this 2022-23 Boston team could just be that much better than an average Presidents' Trophy winner and, therefore, even +400 is actually a solid bet.
Even for a team as perfectly constructed as the 2022-23 Bruins, transitioning this regular season into a Stanley Cup victory will be a formidable challenge.
Only time will tell if Boston can dominate at this same level come the playoffs. But if you are a fan who feels inclined to get a little skin in the game, you could do a whole lot worse than backing the Bruins to win the Cup.
Pick: Boston Bruins to Win Stanley Cup (+400) |
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Red Wings vs. Bruins Odds
| Red Wings Odds | +300 |
| Bruins Odds | -385 |
| Over/Under | 6.5 (+104 / -128) |
| Time | 1 p.m. ET |
| TV | ESPN+ |
Boston will skate as a gigantic -350 favorite at home Saturday against the Red Wings, who have had a tough time keeping the puck out of their goal lately
Detroit has allowed three or more goals in seven consecutive games, with an average of 4.14 goals against per game over a 1-5-1 skid.
That automatically makes Bruins player props appealing today. Boston should be able to generate four or more goals from this matchup the vast majority of the time at home.
Some of the Bruins' top dogs, such as David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand, are appealing. But former Red Wing Tyler Bertuzzi is a name that really catches my eye in this matchup as he plays for the first time versus his former side.
Bertuzzi was elevated to Boston's second offensive line alongside David Pastrnak and David Krejci at practice on Friday, which puts him in a tremendous situation to generate some offense. This could be a great time to buy low on Boston's newest star.
Bertuzzi is priced at +260 to score a goal at anytime in a Boston win on FanDuel as of Friday night, which is a play I really like.
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Pick: Tyler Bertuzzi Anytime Goal Scorer + Bruins Win (+260) |
Playing Bertuzzi just to record a goal at around +225 is another strong option.
Pick: Tyler Bertuzzi Anytime Goal Scorer (+225) |
Anf finally, Bertuzzi is +108 to record a point in this matchup, which is also a great prop play for Saturday's contest.
Pick: Tyler Bertuzzi Over 0.5 Points |
