Chicago vs Boston: The Bruins will justify their status as favourites

Boston have beaten Chicago in the last two straight head-to-head meetings. Will Derek King's men be able to avoid another defeat for the Bruins? We predict that the Yellow and Black will once again be closer to success!

Chicago are having another weak regular season and not competing for cup spots. It seemed that the return to the roster of Jonathan Toews after a year-long break should bring the Hawks closer to overcoming their crisis, but in fact, nothing of the sort has been seen. While the Red and Black still had something going for them in their opening game of the season, they've won just seven games and lost 15 in their last 22 games. Of course, with such poor results, there's no reason to expect to make the playoffs. Right now Derek King's team sits in 14th place in the Western Conference standings, only behind Seattle and Arizona, who are the league's hopeless underdogs.

Boston are one of the most consistent teams in the league of the last decade. Reaching the playoffs was never their objective for the Bruins since they made it very easy. Bruce Cassidy's men suffered a poor start to the regular season and now they have to fight for every game to improve. In the last 11 meetings, the Black and Yellow have gone just once without a point after a 3-4 loss to Anaheim and a 2-3 overtime defeat by Los Angeles, while the other nine have been wins. Despite such a strong run, Boston remained in seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings.

Chicago and Boston are very different teams at the moment. While the Hawks are among the underdogs in the West and have no contention for a Cup spot, the Bruins have all but secured a playoff spot and are closing in on the group of leaders in the East. The Red and Black have lost 15 of their last 22 games but the Yellow and Black have won 9 of their last 11. Bruce Cassidy's charges are favourites in this encounter, in addition, they were stronger in the last two meetings. As a result, we'd have to bet on Boston to win for 1.90.

Chicago and Boston have been playing a lot of fun and productive games of late. In the last nine meetings with the Hawks, 74 goals were scored (8.22 goals per game average), while the Bruins had 47 goals against (6.71 goals per game average) in the previous seven games. Both figures are very respectable, so we expect a high scoring activity in the upcoming game as well. Moreover, the only head-to-head encounter between the opponents in the current regular season also ended in a 4-3 victory, so Total Over 6.5 pucks for 2.44 would seem a good bet.

Charlie McAvoy is still a relatively young player, but he is in his sixth season with Boston. This regular season is turning out to be the best one in his career, as he has already set a personal record in scoring with 37 points (7 goals + 30 assists) in 56 games. There are still more than two dozen games left in the regular season, so there is no doubt that the 24-year-old hockey player will continue to raise his level of performance. If that's the case, then Charlie McAvoy's Total Over 0.5 points for 4.00 is worth a closer look.