The Boston Bruins will be looking to close out their first-round playoff series with Toronto on Saturday when they host the Maple Leafs in Game 5 as -190 favorites on the NHL odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Boston ended a five-game road losing streak in Toronto with a 3-1 win as a -113 bet in Game 4 on Thursday, and takes a dominating 3-1 series lead into Saturday night’s Maple Leafs vs. Bruins betting matchup at TD Garden.
The Bruins eked out Thursday’s win despite producing just 21 shots on goal, which marks their lowest shot production since hitting the net 20 times in a 3-1 win in San Jose on November 18 as +136 underdogs. However, the club was buoyed by a Torey Krug goal just 28 seconds into the first period, as well as the stellar performance of netminder Tuukka Rask, who turned aside 31 shots to hold Toronto to a single goal for the second time in the series.
Thursday’s victory also enabled the Bruins to turn the page on a five-game road slide, during which they were outscored by a 20-11 margin, and marks their first win at the Air Canada Centre in six visits since March 2016.
Now clearly in the driver’s seat in the best-of-seven set, the Bruins have rocketed to -1600 favorites on the NHL playoff series odds, and remain perched among the favorites on the Stanley Cup odds at +675.
Perhaps the biggest question mark facing the Bruins ahead of Game 5 is the health and availability of Patrice Bergeron, who was sidelined in Game 4 by a nagging lower body injury. Bergeron almost was a point-per-game scorer this season despite missing 18 games to injury, and set up five goals over the first three games of the series.
However, the Bruins still managed to produce while missing their star center, going 11-5-2 without Bergeron during the regular season, including an impressive 9-2-2 run while he recovered from a late-season foot fracture.
The Maple Leafs have their backs to the wall following Thursday’s demoralizing loss, and enter Saturday night’s matchup as +165 underdogs. A middling road club throughout the regular season, Toronto is currently mired in a 4-8-2 slump over its past 14 away contests, and has scored just five total goals in three straight losses at TD Garden.
Thursday’s loss has also devastated the Maple Leafs at the sportsbooks, where they now sport +1050 odds to advance to the second round for the first time since 2004 along with being a lengthy +6000 bet to end their 51-year Stanley Cup drought.
