Chicago Blackhawks vs. Boston Bruins - 12/5/19 NHL Pick, Odds, and Prediction

Game: Chicago Blackhawks vs Boston Bruins

Date: Thursday, December 5, 2019

Location: TD Garden in Boston, MA

TV: NESN/NSCH

Odds/Point Spread: Blackhawks (+212) Bruins (-238)

Total/Over-Under: 6

TD Garden is the site where Tuukka Rask and the Boston Bruins (20-3-5, 1st in the Atlantic Division) will play the Chicago Blackhawks (10-12-5, 7th in the Central Division) on Thursday. The line on this matchup has the Blackhawks coming in at +212 and the Bruins are at -238. The total has been set at 6. The Blackhawks are covering 37.0% of the time, having gone 10-17 SU. The Bruins are covering 71.4% of the time, going 20-8 straight up.

The Chicago Blackhawks head into this game holding a record of 10 wins and 12 defeats, which puts them at 7th in the Central Division. So far this season, they have converted a total of 74 goals which is 13th in the West and 25th in the NHL. Their goal differential is -8, which puts them at 23rd in the NHL. The Blackhawks have earned a total of 25 pts, which is 27th in the NHL and 14th in the West. Regarding shots toward the net, they have earned a total of 846 which is 10th in the conference and 22nd in the NHL. As a unit, Chicago has compiled a total of 555 hits which means they are averaging 20.6 per game. They have earned a total of 264 blocks for this season. Protecting the goal for Chicago is Corey Crawford from Montreal, Quebec. He is 35 years old and has totaled 869 minutes in net this year. Crawford is giving up an average of 3.04 goals against average which has him sitting 22nd among Western Conference goaltenders and 37th in the NHL among goaltenders. So far this season, he's allowed 44 goals. His save % is .909 which has him sitting 17th among Western Conference goaltenders.

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The Chicago Blackhawks had a rough game after their 4 - 0 defeat against the St. Louis Blues in their last game. The Blackhawks offense left a lot to be desired in this defeat. For this outing, they finished 0 of the 38 shots they put on net. Moreover, they had 2 power play opportunities but weren't able to notch a goal in these power play chances. Chicago earned 4 penalty minutes in this game. The Corsi for the Blackhawks sat at 40 and the Corsi against was 35 which means they earned a Corsi percentage of 53.3%. Their Fenwick was 34 while the Fenwick against sat at 25, which tells us they had a Fenwick percentage of 57.6%. They won 19 face-off wins and were beaten on 26 tries to control the puck. Their offensive zone starts were rated at 57.1% and they had a PDO of 85.7 in this one. Regarding their opponent, the St. Louis Blues racked up 30 shots. They had a total of 4 minutes in the box and they tallied 2 power play opportunities.

The Bruins are the team looking to add points to their total and for the campaign they sit with 20 victories and 3 losses. When discussing goal differential, they are ranked 1st in the conference and 1st in the NHL with +40. They have a total of 101 goals for the year which puts them at 2nd in the conference. Boston has a save % as a team of .931 which has them sitting 1st in the NHL, which means scoring opportunities may be scarce. They have a team shooting percentage of 11.5% ranking them 2nd in the Eastern Conference. In goal for Boston is Tuukka Rask who is having a good campaign by allowing only 2.04 goals per contest and that ranks him 1st among East goalies and 2nd in the NHL among goaltenders. In the 1,030 mins he has been on the ice, he's surrendered 35 goals. He's earned a save % of .933, which has him sitting 2nd among East goalies and 4th in the NHL among goaltenders.

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The Boston Bruins played the Carolina Hurricanes in an outing where the Bruins ended up with the victory by a score of 2 - 0. While out there on the ice, Boston went home with a 48.5% Corsi rating. They got there by having a Corsi of 33 and their opponent having a Corsi of 35. Their Fenwick rate came in at 46.2% by earning a Fenwick of 24 and the Hurricanes having a 28 Fenwick. This Corsi rating is telling of the kind of game that Boston played and we'd say it was a below average outing in all. They had a PDO at even strength of 108.3 and they earned an oZS percentage of 61.3%. The Bruins netted 2 goals out of the 34 shots on goal they took. They had 2 power play opportunities in this one but didn't put one in the back of the net. As for their opponent, the Hurricanes had 2 power play chances but weren't able to take advantage of it. Boston gave way to 24 shots on goal and the Hurricanes racked up 4 minutes in the box.

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

Tony's Pick: Take Chicago (+212)

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