Bruins vs. Avalanche Odds
| Bruins Odds | -182 |
| Avalanche Odds | +150 |
| Over/Under | 6 (-102/-122) |
| Time | 9 p.m. ET |
| TV | ALT |
| Odds via FanDuel. Get up-to-the-minute NHL Odds here. | |
The Colorado Avalanche are the defending Stanley Cup champions, but the Boston Bruins are the team to beat this season.
To say the Bruins have been dominate would be an understatement. For some perspective, Colorado has lost four of its last six games, which is a slump, but not a big one. However, in those six contests, Colorado has suffered more regulation losses than Boston has through 24 games.
Boston is on pace to earn 68 wins this season, which would shatter the existing NHL record of 62. Still, even a team as good as the Bruins lose sometimes.
The Bruins did earn a 5-1 victory over Colorado on Saturday in Boston, but now that they're in Denver, can the Avalanche even the season series?
Everything Clicking For Bruins
Given the Bruins' 20-3-1 record, it probably won't surprise you to hear that Boston leads the league offensively with 3.96 goals per game and defensively with 2.17 goals allowed per game.
While Linus Ullmark wasn't a favorite to win the Vezina Trophy going into the season, he looks like a prime candidate now. Through 17 contests, he's posted a 14-1-0 record, 1.93 GAA and .936 save percentage. That's an extremely difficult pace to maintain, but he's been doing just that. In his last nine games, he's surrendered just 15 goals while recording a .940 save percentage.
Boston doesn't have the NHL's top forward, but David Pastrnak has nevertheless been an amazing offensive leader for the Bruins with 17 goals and 35 points in 24 games. He's backed by Patrice Bergeron, Taylor Hall, Brad Marchand, David Krejci, and Jake DeBrusk, who have all provided at least eight goals this season.
That puts all of Boston's top six goal scorers on pace to record over 25 goals this season, which roughly matches the level of depth the 2021-22 Avalanche had en route to their championship.
To top it all off, Boston's healthy. Matt Filipe (undisclosed) is on the non-roster injured reserve list, but he'd probably be in the AHL if he was able to play. Other than him, it's all hands on deck for the Bruins. That's in contrast to the start of the season when Boston was without some key players in Marchand (hip) and Charlie McAvoy (shoulder).
It also distinguishes Boston from Colorado, which has a long list of unavailable players.
Avalanche Ripped Apart By Injuries
The 2021-22 Avalanche boasted six players who scored at least 25 goals. One of them was Nazem Kadri, who had 28 goals and 87 points in 71 contests last season, but he now plays for Calgary. Meanwhile, Andre Burakovsky, who provided the Avalanche with 22 goals and 61 points in 80 contests in 2021-22, wears a Kraken jersey these days.
So going into this season, the Avalanche didn't have the same kind of embarrassment of riches up front that they did when they won the Cup.
That's made their current rash of injuries all the more difficult to endure. In terms of forwards, the Avalanche are without Gabriel Landeskog (knee), Nathan MacKinnon (upper body), and Valeri Nichushkin (ankle). With that, the Avalanche are missing another three of the six players who scored at least 25 goals last season. The only players left on the list who are both healthy and still with Colorado are Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar.
So the Avalanche are missing a bunch of their top forwards, but their injury woes don't even end there. They also are without forwards Darren Helm (abductor), Artturi Lehkonen (upper body), Evan Rodrigues (lower body), Jean-Luc Foudy (lower body) and Shane Bowers (upper body).
What does that even leave the Avalanche with? Their top-six against Boston could be Andrew Cogliano, Alex Newhook, and Logan O'Connor followed by Dryden Hunt, JT Compher, and Rantanen. After Rantanen, the highest scoring player on that top six would be Compher, who has three goals and 13 points in 23 games. So the Avalanche aren't exactly icing a scary offensive force at the moment.
Oh, but that's not the extent of the Avalanche's injury woes; all we've done is list their injured forwards. They're also missing defensemen Kurtis MacDermid (lower body), Bowen Byram (lower body) and Josh Manson (lower body). That doesn't leave the Avalanche's defense as devastated as their forwards, but it does thin out their blueline considerably.
But hey, goaltender Alexandar Georgiev is healthy, so there's that. He's had a great season too, posting an 11-4-1 record, 2.68 GAA and .920 save percentage in 16 games. Although, even there, there's some bad news. Georgiev is cold at the moment, having allowed 13 goals over his last three starts.
Bruins vs. Avalanche Pick
You never want to rule out the possibility that the defending Stanley Cup champions will win a game. That said, injuries have left the Avalanche in a sorry state. Rantanen, Makar, and Georgiev — if he bounces back — could give the Bruins some serious problems, but they won't have much backing them.
Unsurprisingly, the puck line is 1.5 goals in favor of Colorado, but even with that I like the Bruins' chances of bearing the spread. There's just too much stacked against the Avalanche on Wednesday.
Pick: Boston Bruins puck line +145 (play down to +130)
Pick: Bruins Puck Line (+130 or Better) |
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