Almost 50 Years Later, The Blues and Bruins Meet Again In The Finals

Oh, Boston. We want to like you. We really do. You’ve given us Gronk and Bruschi. Big Papi and Mookie. Larry Legend and The Truth. Moog and Bourque. 

But, c’mon! Let some other cities have a turn already!

With a Bruins win in the Stanley Cup Finals, it would mark the city’s third major sports championship of the year (thanks for ruining it Celts) and the 13thNHL, NBA, MLB or NFL title since 2000. 

And then there’s the Blues, who’s last appearance in the NHL Finals was way back in 1970, when they were swept by these same Bruins, a defeat that was memorialized by the timeless photo of Bobby Orr flying through the air after scoring the Cup winning goal. Since then, they haven’t made it back to the Finals, and now exist as the oldest team in the league not to win the Stanley Cup.

Will that change this year? Not according to the initial line, where Boston is the favorite at -155 to the Blues +130. Let’s look at some of the factors that could tip the scales either way.

• Bruins Front 3 versus Blues blue line: In the Bruins playoff run so far, their front line of Marchand, Bergeron, and Pastrnak have combined for 22 goals already. And that has been against some rough and tough back lines in Toronto, Columbus and Carolina’s bunch of jerks. The Blues’ blue line of Bouwmeester and Parayko, however, are a bigger, more disciplined pair than any the Bruins have faced.
• Brad Marchand: Speaking of the infamous Bruins winger, will he be able to keep his antics intact for the Finals? He’s been steady and focused so far, but given the right lighting, those Blues jerseys look pretty lickable. If he finds himself in disciplinary trouble during this series, the Bruins will have a hrad time replacing his contributions.
• Goalies: Tuukka Rask, the Conn Smythe trophy front runner for most valuable player in the playoffs takes on rookie goalkeeper Jordan Binnington, who only got his first NHL start in January. Rask has been a wall, allowing a playoff low of less than 2 goals a game, while Binnington has been a revelation ever since he was inserted into the line-up, winning 24 out of 32 games with a league leading 1.89 goals against average.
• Momentum: While St. Louis has been on a run ever since January (when they sat in last place in the West and had just fired their head coach), winning 30 of their final 45 games before beating Winnipeg, Dallas and San Jose in the playoffs. Boston was going strong as well, but was it too strong? With their sweep of Carolina, and Game One of the Cup not until Monday, the Bruins will have had 11 days without a real game.
• Pat Maroon’s young son: Who would dare root against St. Louis native Pat Maroon, who took a lower paying contract to be closer to his son, who then proceeded to give us one of the most memorable moments of the playoffswhen dad scored the series-clinching game winner in overtime against the Stars.
• David Backes: The Boston veteran spent 10 seasons with the Blues, five of those as captain, faces his former team for which he battled long and hard to get their first Cup. Now he’ll try and keep them from getting it.

Now if you haven’t bet on hockey before, there are some interesting bets you can place that are purely hockey related. Here’s a few:

• More often than in other sports, hockey will head into overtime. Thus, a majority of bets are set at “60 Minute” (regular time) bets. So, for Game One,  you can make a bet on who will win (or tie) the game in 60 minutes (BOS is at +115, STL is at +200, and the tie is at +295) or you can bet the full game, where BOS is at 150 to the Blues +125.
• Puckline: The puckline is hockey’s version of the spread. Each matchup is adjusted according to the strengths and weaknesses of each team, and you can choose the spread you want to bet against. So to take Boston at +1, you only get -400 odds, but take St Louis at -1.5, you’ll get +340.
• Scorecast vs Wincast: Two different versions of the same thing, Scorecast, you choose who you think will score (either in the whole game, or first/last in the game) and then you choose what the final score will be. With wincast, you do the same selection of scoring, but simply choose who you think will win instead. For Scorecast,a bet that Patrice Bergeron scores and the game is tied 1-1 after 60 minutes comes in at +8000. For Wincast, a bet that Bergeron scores and Boston wins comes in at +320.

There are tons of exciting and fun ways to bet the Stanley Cup games. It should be a great series. Good luck!