Boston vs Seattle: The Bruins easily beat the league newcomer

The upcoming game will be the first-ever head-to-head encounter for Boston and Seattle. Who will emerge victorious in this contest? We predict that the Bruins will have no problem taking on the newcomer to the league.

Boston are having a surprisingly weak regular season. We're all used to the Bruins having no problem guaranteeing a place in the cup battles, but now they're still fighting for a playoff spot. At the beginning of 2022, it looked like Bruce Cassidy's men could find their game after a decent run, winning 10 of 12 games. Alas, at the end of January, the Black and Yellow were again in trouble, due to which they lost three of the four previous meetings. With their poor playoff record, Boston remain in eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings, with a full playoff battle still to come.

Seattle are a rookie in the NHL and would like to repeat their dream of making it to the final playoff spot, but they can't do anything like that. The Kraken have too many squad issues, which they will have to overcome over the next few years to make any real progress. In the meantime, David Hakstol's charges are only happy with one-off flashes, which are inevitably followed by a string of bad luck. In December and January, they were particularly weak, posting a nine-game losing streak, but they followed that up with a win in four of their last six games. Seattle now sit 15th in the Western Conference standings with no Cup ambitions.

Boston and Seattle are completely different teams. Suppose the Bruins have become a regular playoff participant in the last decade, who are struggling but have a chance of making it to the cup battles. In that case, the Kraken are still just getting settled into the NHL and have no serious ambitions in their debut season. Bruce Cassidy's side has been unsurprisingly prone to deficits in the regular season, but they've won seven of their last ten home games, which isn't too bad, while Seattle have lost five of their previous six away battles. As a result, a bet on Boston's victory with a handicap (-1.5) for 1.95 is in order.

Boston are not only losing too often in the current regular season, but they're also very shy offensively. In their 42 meetings played, the Bruins managed just 128 turnovers (3.05 average per game), which would be good numbers for most clubs in the league, but not for the Yellow and Black. The matchup against Seattle is a perfect opportunity to improve this statistic since the Kraken have serious defensive problems. In 44 meetings, they have already conceded 156 goals (3.55 average per game). Based on this, the best option seems to be Boston's Total Over 3.5 pucks for 1.83.

Boston this season are trying to play more than just the first unit, so the play of the centre forward in the second line is especially important. Charlie Coyle in the current regular season improved significantly in comparison with last year, as for 62 games, he scored only 19 points (8 goals + 11 assists). For 42 games, he already broke that mark, recording to his account 20 points (10 goals + 10 assists). Moreover, the day before, he assisted on the Bruins' only goal against Dallas, confirming his good form. Therefore, it is worth considering betting on Charlie Coyle's Total Over 0.5 points for 4.50.