Giles: Best bets for Monday's Bruins-Flyers matchup originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
It was an eventful morning skate for the Boston Bruins, who placed Jaroslav Halak into COVID protocol following a positive test. With Tuukka Rask still out (upper body), that leaves Dan Vladar as the team's starting goaltender Monday night with Jeremy Swayman backing up.
"Jaro popped a positive test. We've got to follow up with more testing for him. He wasn't able to go out on the ice per protocol," said Cassidy. "Vladar was scheduled to start tonight. He's gonna stay in there and we'll worry about [Tuesday] when we get more info."
Get New England news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NECN newsletters.
Despite that news, the Bruins are still -1.5 (+150) on the puckline while the Flyers are +1.5 (-180) -- odds provided by our partner, PointsBet Sportsbook.
Bean: Time for Rask-less Bruins to face reality
PointsBet is our Official Sports Betting Partner and we may receive compensation if you place a bet on PointsBet for the first time after clicking our links.
U.S. & World
Boston leads the season series 5-0 and is projected to stay unbeaten against Philadelphia as the Bruins are -180 on the PointsBet Moneyline with the Flyers set at +150. The Flyers have been STRUGGLING lately, winning just twice in their last eight games. And those two wins were close calls against the Sabres and Rangers. But Philadelphia also has its back against the wall, trailing the Bruins by four points for the fourth and final playoff spot in the East division.
The Bruins are coming off an offensive outburst on Saturday in which they beat the Penguins 7-5. But Boston hasn't won back-to-back games since mid-March, so it's hard to believe that they've completely snapped out of this mediocre stretch (5-5 in last 10 games). I also wonder how Vladar will hold up in the starting role. He was solid in his first two starts, giving up three goals in two games, but he finally lost for the first time last Thursday after giving up three goals to the Penguins.
After crunching the numbers on NBC Sports Edge, the best value may very well lie in the total (5.5). The Bruins have played to the UNDER this season (21-12-1) but they've given up at least four goals in each of the last three games. The OVER has also hit in two of the last three for Boston.
As for the Flyers, they've played to the OVER pretty consistently this year (25-11). They've also seen the OVER hit in 7 of the last 10 and are coming off a month of March in which the OVER was 14-3.
A few more trends after using NBC Sports Edge:
- The OVER is 4-1 in the five matchups between BOS and PHI this year.
- The OVER is 29-6 in PHI's last 35 road games.
- BOS is 17-12 following a rest day this year.
- PHI is 12-17 following a rest day this year.
- BOS is just 3-3 at home vs. teams with a losing ML record.
- PHI has lost four straight with Carter Hart in goal.
The Bruins (19-10-5) will host the Flyers (17-14-5) at 7 p.m. ET Monday night at TD Garden.
