NHL Betting: Bruins Seek 2-0 Lead In Cup Final

Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final goes in Boston on Wednesday night as the St. Louis Blues try to avoid falling into a 2-0 hole vs the Boston Bruins.

Boston took the series opener 4-2 as a -165 home favorite at Bovada Sportsbook. St. Louis jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the game before Boston stormed back with four unanswered goals.

Sean Kuraly had a goal and an assist for Boston, while the Bruins received a pair of goals from the blue line, with Charlie McAvoy and Connor Clifton both finding the back of the net. St. Louis may be a little worried that it lost to Boston despite most of the Bruins’ top scorers (Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak, David Krejci) being held off the scoresheet. Tuukka Rask stopped 18 of 29 shots.

Brayden Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko gave St. Louis a 2-0 lead before Boston took over. Jordan Binnington had a busy night in net, stopping 34 of the 37 shots he faced.

Blues 7-3 as underdog in postseason

Boston has now won eight straight following the Game 1 victory. At home the Bruins have won four straight and they’re 7-3 in Boston during their playoff run. The Bruins have also posted four straight OVERs at home for totals bettors.

The Game 1 loss snapped a three-game winning streak for St. Louis. The Blues had been extremely successful on the road so far in the playoffs but dropped to 7-3 with the loss. St. Louis is also 7-3 as an underdog in the postseason.

Boston is now 2-1 vs St. Louis this season and at home has won three in a row against the Blues. Before the Bruins’ short win streak at home against St. Louis, the Blues had dominated this matchup in Boston, going 8-1 in their previous nine games.

Boston a -275 series favorite

After taking Game 1, the Bruins are heavy favorites to take the series and the Cup at Bovada Sportsbook. The latest series prices list Boston as a -275 favorite and the Blues as a +225 underdog.

The recent Stanley Cup Final trends agree with those series prices. In the last seven Cup finals, the team that has won Game 1 has won the series six times. The only outlier is the Washington Capitals last season. The Capitals lost Game 1 before winning four straight to take the series in five games.

Oddly enough, the last time the Bruins won the Cup in 2011, they lost the series opener. They needed seven games to knock off the Vancouver Canucks in that series.