Buffalo Sabres vs. Boston Bruins - 12/29/19 NHL Picks, Odds, and Prediction

Game: Buffalo Sabres vs Boston Bruins

Date: Sunday, December 29, 2019

Location: TD Garden in Boston, MA

TV: NESN/MSGB

Odds/Point Spread: Sabres (+205) Bruins (-230)

Total/Over-Under: 5.5

Tuukka Rask and the Boston Bruins (23-7-9, 1st in the Atlantic Division) play the Buffalo Sabres (17-15-7, 5th in the Atlantic Division) at TD Garden on Sunday, December 29, 2019. The Sabres open this contest at +205 while the Bruins are priced at -230. The over/under is set at 5.5. The Sabres cover 42.1% of the time, having gone 16-22 SU. The Bruins cover 59.0% of the time, going 23-16 straight up.

The Buffalo Sabres head into this game holding a record of 17 victories and 15 defeats, ranking them 5th in the Atlantic Division. So far this year, they have racked up a total of 114 goals which puts them at 11th in the East and 19th in the NHL. Their goal differential is -7, ranking them 21st in the NHL. The Sabres currently have a total of 41 points, which puts them at 21st in the NHL and 10th in the Eastern Conference. In terms of shots at the opposition, they currently have a total of 1,197 which puts them at 9th in the Eastern Conference and 17th in the NHL. As a team, Buffalo has earned a total of 678 hits which has them averaging 17.4 per game. They currently have a total of 373 blocks for the year. In goal for Buffalo is Linus Ullmark from Elmhurst, Illinois. He is 26 years old and has been on the ice a total of 1,377 minutes protecting the goal for the season. Kinkaid is conceding 2.79 goals against average which has him ranking 13th in the East and 24th among goaltenders in the NHL. Over the course of this season, he has allowed 64 goals. He holds a save percentage of .914 which has him ranking 12th in the East.

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The Buffalo Sabres were on the wrong end of the scoreboard with a 3 - 0 defeat to the Boston Bruins in their previous game. The Sabres had a rough night on the offensive side of the ice in this loss. In this outing, they converted 0 out of the 26 shots they tried. They also had 2 power play chances but didn't get a goal. Buffalo ended up with 10 penalty minutes in this game. The Corsi for the Sabres was 53 and the Corsi against was 39 giving them a Corsi percentage of 57.6%. Their Fenwick sat at 40 and the Fenwick against was 35, which tells us they had a Fenwick percentage of 53.3%. They took 20 face-off wins and were beaten on 27 tries to control the puck. The offensive zone starts for them were rated at 60.8% and they had a PDO of 90.9 in this game. Concerning opponent stats, the Boston Bruins tallied 25 shots. They ended the game with 6 minutes in the box and they notched 4 power play chances.

The Bruins are the team looking to add points to their total and for the campaign they have 23 wins and 7 losses. When looking at goal differential, they rank 1st in the Eastern Conference and 1st in the league with +38. They currently have a total of 133 goals for this year which ranks 3rd in the East. Boston has a save percentage as a team of .921 which has them ranked 2nd in the league, meaning scoring opportunities may be scarce. They are shooting 10.9% putting them at 2nd in the East. In net for Boston is Tuukka Rask who is having an average year by allowing 2.32 goals per game and that ranks him 6th among Eastern Conference goaltenders and 9th among goalies in the NHL. In the 1,395 minutes he's played this year, he has given up 54 goals. He holds a save % of .923, which has him ranked 4th among Eastern Conference goaltenders and 11th among goalies in the NHL.

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The Boston Bruins squared up with the Buffalo Sabres in an outing where the Bruins notched a victory by a score of 3 - 0. For this game, Boston earned a 42.4% Corsi rating. They got to that percentage by earning a Corsi of 39 and the other team having a Corsi of 53. Their Fenwick percentage was 46.7% by notching a Fenwick of 35 and the Sabres having earned a 40 Fenwick at even strength. This Corsi rating tells us the kind of game Boston played and we'd say they played an average game. They had a PDO of 109.1 and their percentage of oZS was 39.0%. The Bruins notched 3 goals of the 25 shots on goal they took. They had 4 power play chances in this outing and were able to notch 1 out of those opportunities. As for their opponent, the Sabres had 2 power play attempts but were not able to take advantage. Boston gave up 26 shots on goal and the Sabres ended up with 10 minutes in the box.

Who will win tonight's hockey game against the spread?

Josh's Pick: Take Buffalo (+205)

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