The Boston
Bruins are an astounding 1-10 when playing at home on Saturday this
season. Can they reverse the curse
against the Atlanta Thrashers?
The question
is, do you continue to bet on or against a streak? Nothing sweeter than a repeater some say but
there are those who swear you can’t ignore the due factor. If any team in hockey is due to win a game at
home on Saturday, it is the Boston Bruins.
When wagering on sports, it’s important to focus on matchups, injuries,
historical data and trends. If you want
a trend, allow me to articulate this as academically as I possibly can…the
Bruins stink when playing at the Garden on Saturday this season. I mean how does any team go 1-10 at home on a
particular day of the week when their overall record is 19-13-6 at home? Is there a Boston barroom located somewhere
near Causeway Street that gives the Bruins an open bar every Friday night
before a game the following day? The
answer to these and other questions remain a mystery but let’s analyze the game
while remaining keenly aware of Boston’s spectacular failure rate on Saturdays
in front of the Bruins faithful.
Atlanta Thrashers
The Atlanta
Thrashers (33-32-12) have a streak of their own. Okay, streak is the wrong word, let’s call it
a pattern. Dating back to March 9th,
the Thrashers have alternately won and lost during a span of 11 straight
games. They started the trend with a win
over the Hurricanes and subsequently lost to the Devils, beat the Flyers, lost
to the Devils, defeated the Flyers, lost to the Sabres, beat the Islanders,
lost to the Canucks, beat the Senators, lost to the Canadiens and defeated the
Flyers again 1-0 on Thursday night. I
don’t think you need IBM’s Watson to figure out this pattern calls for a loss
against the Bruins on Saturday afternoon.
But what about the Bruins streak, an irresistible force meeting an
immoveable object?
Boston Bruins
The Boston
Bruins (43-23-11) had won 4 of five before their shootout loss to the Maple
Leafs on Thursday night and surprisingly dropped the season series 4-2 to their
Northeast division rivals who are on life support to make the playoffs. By collecting that point against the Leafs,
the Bruins are virtually locked in as the 3rd seed in the Eastern
Conference. If coach Claude Julien
tempers his desire for adding wins to Boston’s regular season record by
charting a safe course to avoid injury going into the playoffs, you may see Tim
Thomas and the other starters on the pine instead of on the ice.
The Bruins
have lost 2 of three this season against the Thrashers and though Atlanta will
not be making a playoff appearance this year it should be noted they have
defeated some impressive teams recently.
Well, make that one impressive team being beaten multiple times by the
Thrashers. The Eastern Conference
leaders, the Philadelphia Flyers, were beaten three times in the month of March
by these playoff starved Thrashers. Atlanta
has a penchant for rising to the occasion against the good teams and lowering
their quality of play against the bad.
The Bruins are a good team with a very bad record at home on
Saturday. It looks to me like the streak
continues but the pattern breaks.
NHL Pick: Play
Atlanta.