St Louis (2-2) at Boston (2-2)
When: Thursday, June 6th, 2019
Where: TD Garden,
Boston, MA
Time: 8:08 ET | TV: NBC
Opening Odds: Boston -160/5.5
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The Boston Bruins seemed to have control of the Stanley Cup Finals after a convincing 7-2 win in Game 3, but the reslient St. Louis Blues responded with a must-win two nights later – and now we have a best-of-three series. The Bruins will host Game 5 Thursday night, then head back to St. Louis for Game 6. If the teams split the next two, Game 7 would be June 12th at TD Garden. The over is 3-1 so far this series after a Brayden Schenn empty-net goal sent it over 5.5 in Game 4. The Game 5 total is set at 5.5 again with the Bruins set at -150 favorites. St. Louis received a huge game from Ryan O’Reilly, who scored two goals including one 43 seconds into the game, that set the tone for the Blues to tie the series again. Goaltender Jordan Binnington posted his 14th victory this postseason after being scorched and pulled from a dismal Game 3. Vladimir Tarasenko scored his 11th goal of the postseason for the Blues, and now has points in eight of his last nine games. St. Louis brings an 8-3 road record this playoffs into Thursday’s contest and will need at least one more away from home to win this series.
O’Reilly’s goals broke an eight-game goal drought and the second goal was the game-winner in the third period. The Blues also got a boost from the fourth line of Oskar Sundqvist, Alexander Steen and Ivan Barbashev, who each logged more than 17 minutes and were matched up against Boston’s top line in Game 4. Since the beginning of the 2016-17 season, the Blues are 2-3 at TD Garden including the overtime victory in Game 2 of this series.
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The Bruins could be without captain Zdeno Chara on Thursday after he took a puck to the face in Game 4 that appears to have given him a broken jaw. Matt Grzelcyk could return to the line-up for this game after he was knocked out earlier in the series and is currently in concussion protocol. For the first time in the last eight games, the Bruins failed to score a power play goal, going 0-for-2 with the man-advantage Monday. They have 23 power play goals this post season, which is second in team post-season history, just behind the 24 they scored in 1991. Charlie Coyle scored goal number nine of the playoffs in Game 4 after scoring only 12 in 81 games this season while splitting time between the Wild and Bruins.
Head coach Craig Berube is doing a heck of a job with this St. Louis squad and has them believing again after a miserable Game 2 performance. This has been a hard series to predict – game by game – but I’m leaning towards the Blues again because they still have been the best team in the NHL since the beginning of January and they are terrific on the road. Give me the dog here.
Pick: Blues +135
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