The Buffalo Sabres will have their second crack at eliminating the Boston Bruins on Friday evening.
After coming up short in a 2-1 overtime defeat Tuesday, the series shifts back to Beantown for Game 6, which is priced as a coin flip.
The Sabres are slight -118 favorites on the road, but they’ll also be under quite a bit of pressure as they look to win their first playoff series since 2007.
Sabres vs. Bruins odds, predictions
It wasn’t a Picasso, but Boston did what it needed to do in Game 5.
After losing any semblance of structure in a blowout loss in Game 4, Boston did a much better job of remaining patient in its own end Tuesday night.
The Sabres still had the majority of the scoring chances at 5-on-5, but this wasn’t a barrage. The B’s were calculated and crucially got splendid goaltending from Jeremy Swayman.
It was no secret that Swayman would be the X-factor in this series.
The Vezina nominee stood on his head through the first two games of the series, allowing Boston to wrestle home-ice advantage away from Buffalo with a win in Game 2.
But the Sabres seemed to solve Swayman in the next two contests in Boston, leading to the Alaska native getting pulled, and subsequently yelling at his own bench, in an ugly Game 4 loss.
The team, and its goaltender, responded in Game 5, as Swayman didn’t allow a goal at 5-on-5, and was able to out-duel Alex Lyon at the other end of the ice.
It wouldn’t be a shock to see a similar pattern play out Friday night.
Betting on the NHL?
The best path to success for the Sabres is to turn this into an uptempo, high-event game and pull the Bruins into a track meet.
That’s not going to be an easy thing to pull off for Buffalo, as Boston will be committed to keeping the lid on this contest as much as they can.
And given that elimination games are usually tight, close-to-the-chest affairs, Swayman and the Bruins have a strong chance of sending this back to Buffalo for a Game 7.
The Play: Bruins moneyline (-102, DraftKings)
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Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.
