Vegas Bookmaker Still Big Believer In Bruins’ Blue Line, Goalies

The Boston Bruins are perfect through two tilts.

Obviously, a two-game sample size is tiny and the Bruins were naturally expected to regress after winning the President's Trophy en route to an NHL-record 65 wins and 135 points last season.

But even with future Hockey Hall of Famer Patrice Bergeron and longtime centerman David Krejci no longer wearing black-and-gold sweaters, Las Vegas oddsmakers still have plenty of respect for the B's.

"As we stand today, they're the second-best team in the Atlantic," Circa Sports assistant sportsbook manager Jeff Davis told NESN.

"A lot of that is due to Florida's injuries. (Aaron) Ekblad and (Brandon) Montour are out. They're missing Sam Bennett as well. With all three of those guys in the lineup, it's pretty close.

"The narrative-based people are going to think worse of the Bruins without 37 and 46 (Bergeron and Krejci). But it's still a really good blue line and they have one of the two best goalie tandems.

"Outside of the bottom six (forwards), which could become an issue, the Bruins are still a formidable hockey team that's going to battle every night."

Finally, we found a flaw.

"The worrisome part of the roster is the bottom six," Davis continued. "Morgan Geekie, (Milan) Lucic and (Jakub) Lauko. You're going to have to find 22 minutes out of the bottom six and it's not going to be pretty."

While Davis expects the bottom-six forwards to be the team's biggest bugaboo, he believes another Bruins player will take another big step.

"Charlie McAvoy is probably the best two-way defenseman in the NHL," Davis analyzed. "He doesn't put up the offensive numbers of a (Cale) Makar or Adam (Fox) or (Roman) Josi, but he's as good or better than any of them defensively.

"I expect a big year from McAvoy."

Star winger David Pastrnak's goal total is currently set at O/U 48.5 after he buried a career-high 61 last season. Playing without a true offensive center will hinder his production and it's not far off to say the Bruins will win fewer faceoffs and possess the puck less than last year.

If Pastrnak exceeds expectations, though, and the Bruins are a top-three team in a strong Eastern Conference, he'll get MVP love. I would consider betting 88 to win the Hart Trophy (20-1) before the Rocket Richard (10-1) as the league's top goal scorer.

At the end of the day, Davis believes the Bruins will be a tough team to play against most nights and their blue line and goaltending will keep them afloat. They won't be the best regular-season team of all time, but they'll undoubtedly rack up points.

"Carolina, New Jersey and the New York Rangers are all better than every team in the Atlantic, although Toronto is close," Davis concluded. "There are seven hockey teams that are head and shoulders better than everybody else -- four in the East, three in the West.

"But outside of Toronto, all of the Atlantic teams have major flaws or injury issues. We already talked about Florida's injuries. Take (Andrei) Vasilevskiy out of the Lightning net and that's a 35-cent dock to their power rating.

"The Bruins will play a lot of low-scoring games that are tough to watch at times, but teams that don't give up goals always have a chance."