Frank LorenzoOne of the most intriguing series in the NHL first round playoffs have the Detroit Red Wings and the Boston Bruins clashing to keep going; game one will be this Friday at 7:30 PM ET at the TD Garden.
Boston scores 3.1 goals per game, third best in the NHL, and the team is second in goals against; they don’t want to allow any kind of upset.
“I heard about 40 percent of the series are upsets in the first round,” Boston coach Claude Julien said. You have teams that have high expectations. You have teams that have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So that certainly makes that first round a challenge.”
“I feel comfortable with the fact that we have some depth at scoring this year, a little bit more than we did last year,” Julien added. “We really limited Pittsburgh to very few goals with a lot of goal scorers there.
Detroit’s numbers are not near close of what the Bruins have shown this season. “I think we’re complete,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “I think we’re way better than people think.”
The Red Wings are listed +169 in the NHL money line for game one; the Bruins are -186. The game total is at 5 goals.
Detroit has won eight of the last 10 games in the series against Boston, including three of the four matchups this season. Three of the last five games went UNDER the total, with one push and one over.
