Bruins Shouldn’t Miss a Beat Vs Canadiens

The Boston Bruins are at it again – but they might meet some resistance Tuesday night as they tangle with a Montreal Canadiens team that has won each of the previous two meetings between the teams. The Bruins enter with a comfortable lead atop the Atlantic Division on the strength of a three-game winning streak during which they’ve erupted for 13 goals.

Sportsbook Odds Analysis

The Bruins opened at -119 but can be had for as high as -130 at some books; it’s the fourth time in the past five games in this matchup that the favored team has been installed at -150 or lower. The total opened at 6, but there are 6.5s available.

Boston News & Notes

Boston will be short-handed Tuesday night, with one of its top forwards sidelined indefinitely. Center Patrice Bergeron is dealing with a lower-body injury and will sit out at least the next two games; Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy says that the injury is in a similar location to the one that sidelined Bergeron for a pair of games earlier this month.

The absence of Bergeron is a significant one for the Bruins, with his 16 assists ranking second on the team. David Krejci is expected to move onto the top line full time between star wingers Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak. That makes Krejci a sneaky value play on the player prop side, especially with him already enjoying a strong November with 12 points in 11 games.

Montreal News & Notes

Whatever the Canadiens are doing on offense against the Bruins is working marvelously. Montreal jumped out to a 3-1 first-period lead in their first meeting of the season on November 6, then held on for a 5-4 victory, kick-starting a Boston four-game losing skid during which the division leaders allowed 17 goals. It also marked the first time in five meetings that the home team prevailed.

But fast-forward to Tuesday and it’s the Canadiens who are having trouble keeping the puck out of the net. Montreal has dropped four consecutive games and has surrendered 17 goals over that span to see its season goals-against average balloon to 3.22, good for 20th in the league.

Montreal could also use a power-play boost, ranking fifth-last in success rate this month.

Betting Pick: Boston -1.5

The Bruins are catching Montreal at a great time – and even with Bergeron sidelined, they should have enough firepower to extend Montreal’s back-end woes.