NHL FINALS 2013

Week Preview – Stanley Cup Final Moves To Boston, Likely To Go At Least Six Games

The coming week will include the NBA Finals and a lot of Major League Baseball action, but lost in the middle of everything, one should not forget what’s happening in the world of professional hockey. Sport betting lines will be in flux this week, as the Chicago Blackhawks go on the road to face the Boston Bruins in Beantown for Games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Final. Game 3 is Monday in Boston, with Game 4 on Wednesday. Game 5 of this 1-1 series will be on Saturday night back in Chicago.

Online football betting students who want some variety in their betting plays will be living on the edge as they consider any potential hockey bet this week. This is a very hard series to pick for all the obvious reasons. These two teams have been separated by virtually nothing in two games, and actually, they really haven’t played two games – they’ve played enough periods to encompass three games. Game 1 consumed almost three full overtime periods before Chicago won in triple overtime. Game 2 lasted more than half of an overtime period before Boston squared up the series and stayed in the hunt. These teams have played nine periods, not six, to this point in time. The Blackhawks and Bruins are dead even at five goals apiece. Both goaltenders, Corey Crawford of Chicago and Tuukka Rask of Boston, have been exceptionally good. Chicago has carried the play in the first and second periods of the first two games, while Boston has won the third periods and the overtimes. Fans of both teams can say that their team should be up 2-0 in the series. Chicago got jobbed on a disallowed goal call in Game 2. Boston hit posts in overtime of Game 1 and very nearly won that game on several occasions.

There are some nuances for an online horse betting guru or a college football betting expert to explore here. A detail that leans in favor of Chicago is that the Blackhawks have been strong on the road in the 2013 NHL Playoffs when they’ve needed to call forth something special. Chicago trailed Detroit, 3-2, in the second round and had to win on the road in Motown in Game 6 to prolong its season. The Blackhawks came through and then polished off the Red Wings in seven games. In the Western Conference Finals against the Los Angeles Kings, the Blackhawks won Game 4 to take control of the series and grab a 3-1 lead. A loss in that contest could have ceded the upper hand to the Kings, the determined Stanley Cup champions who made Chicago work very hard to close out that series. Chicago should not be intimidated by going to Boston.

On the other hand, there’s a bit of history which points to a Boston surge in this series: In the 2011 Stanley Cup Final against the Vancouver Canucks, the Bruins won all three games at home in the series, and moreover, they won those three games by a combined margin of 17-3. Most of the current Bruins were on the 2011 team, and they’re going to gain confidence from that reality. It’s anyone’s series, and it seems as though this Original Six matchup – the first in the Stanley Cup Finals since Montreal fended off the New York Rangers in 1979 – will last at least six if not the full seven games.