Hockey Betting – Eastern Conference Finals Begin Saturday. The Eastern Conference finals begin on Saturday night with the Boston Bruins favored in hockey betting in Game Both Tampa Bay and Boston have had to wait for a while because of the length of the Western Conference semifinals. The Bruins are a slight favorite in NHL hockey betting at Sbg global.com to win the series.
Series Schedule
Game 1 – Saturday, May 14th at Boston
Game 2 – Tuesday, May 17th in Boston
Game 3 – Thursday, May 19th in Tampa Bay
Game 4 – Saturday, May 21st in Tampa Bay
Game 5 – Monday, May 23rd in Boston
Game 6 – Wednesday, May 25th in Tampa Bay
Game 7 – Friday, May 27th in Boston
Series Preview
Both teams have been off a while with the Lightning having 10 days off since sweeping Washington. With each team coming off a sweep the layoff shouldn’t be an issue since they have both been off a while. Boston is the #3 seed in the East while Tampa is the #5 seed. In the regular season the Bruins won three of the four meetings. They lost the first one in late November by a score of 3-1 but then won the next three by scores of 8-1, 4-3 and 2-1. It is worth remembering in NHL hockey betting that Tampa Bay goaltender Dwayne Roloson did not play in any of those games. The Bruins are into the conference finals for the first time since 1992 while Tampa is in for just the second time ever as they won the Stanley Cup in 2004. The Bruins have been led in goals in the playoffs by Brad Marchand, Nathan Horton, David Krejci who each have five. Defenseman Zdeno Chara leads all of their players with a plus-minus rating of +11 while Tim Thomas has a .937 save percentage. Tampa has been led by Sean Bergenheim who has seven goals. Steve Downie leads the team with a plus-minus rating of +9 while goaltender Dwayne Roloson has a .941 save percentage. The Bruins will be without top playmaker Patrice Bergeron who is injured.
Game 1 Odds
The Bruins are a -150 favorite in hockey betting in Game 1 on Saturday night in this game that can be seen on Versus. The total on the game is listed at 5.5 under.