The Boston Bruins take on the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Toronto.
According to the online sportsbook Betonline.ag the Bruins are favored by a goal and a half. The Hurricanes are +121 on the money line and the over/under is set at 5 1/2.
The game acts as the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for both sides. The Bruins enter the series as the No. 4 seed while Carolina enters as the No. 5 seed.
The teams come into Tuesday’s game playing very different of late. Boston comes in after a dismal 0-3 performance in the round robin format, saddling them with the four seed. The Hurricanes on the other hand come into the series on the backs of a three-game sweep of the New York Rangers to advance past the play-in round.
In the regular season, the teams met just once with the Bruins prevailing 2-0 in Boston.
The Bruins had entered the Eastern Conference’s bubble as the odds-on favorite to take home the No. 1 seed at +140 but faltered, losing all three of their games
The Carolina defense appears set to return Dougie Hamilton to the fray after the defenseman missed the Rangers series.
Prediction
The biggest question mark for the Hurricanes is their goaltending and with both Petr Mrazek and James Reimer playing well in the play-in round Carolina looks like a tough team to beat. In conjunction with the Bruins recent struggles to challenge netminders from high-danger areas of the ice, Tuesday’s matchup doesn’t favor a Boston team that has looked flat for large stretches since entering the bubble. Expect the Hurricanes to come out on top in this one and take the money line at +121.
Hurricanes 3 Bruins 2
