2019 Stanley Cup Finals Betting Preview

The Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues have met once before in the Stanley Cup Finals, all the way back in 1970, when Bobby Orr led the B’s to a four-game sweep with a goal in overtime to clinch the series. Since 1970, Boston has hoisted the Cup two more times, taking part in eight Cup Finals since then — while the Blues are finally back in the Final for the first time. Two of the best teams in the NHL in this calendar year, the Blues and Bruins are set for an intriguing series that will start on Memorial Day in Boston. We have your series preview right here, including our NHL betting prediction for the winner.

2019 Stanley Cup Finals Betting Preview

2019 Stanley Cup Finals Schedule

• Game 1: St. Louis at Boston, May 27, 2019, 8:00pm ET, NBC
• Game 2: St. Louis at Boston, May 29, 2019, 8:00pm ET, NBC Sports
• Game 3: Boston at St. Louis, June 1, 2019, 8:00pm ET, NBC Sports
• Game 4: Boston at Stl. Louis, June 3, 2019, 8:00pm ET, NBC
• *Game 5: St. Louis at Boston, June 6, 2019, 8:00pm ET, NBC
• *Game 6: Boston at St. Louis, June 9, 2019, 8:00pm ET, NBC
• *Game 7: St. Louis at Boston, June 12, 2019, 8:00pm ET, NBC

An interesting feature of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs this year was that all four division leaders lost to the four wild card teams. Boston calmly held its position as Atlantic Division runner-up, eliminating the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games and taking down the upstart Columbus Blue Jackets in six games before sweeping the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference finals. They had the third-best record in the regular season — and their goal differential in the postseason (+24) is the best of any of the sixteen teams that entered the playoffs. In St. Louis, the regular season looked like a disappointment from the beginning. They started out  7-9-3 before canning head coach Mike Yeo. Then, Jaden Schwartz and Alex Pietrangelo went down to injury, and the Blues had just 34 points on January 2, worst in the entire league. But then interim coach Craig Berube got his players to buy in to a philosophy of defense first, with some aggression, and he got a young goalie in Jordan Binnington to catch fire. After January 2, the Blues had the second-best record in the NHL. Then they knocked off Winnipeg in the first round before taking advantage of a perpetual underachiever in Dallas, winning in seven games in the second round, and then railroaded the injury-riddled Sharks in the Western Conference Finals. Boston has a line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak who are averaging 5.94 goals per 60 minutes, almost 3 ½ goals ahead of the top St. Louis line. However, it’s not just the first line that’s scoring. Marcus Johansson and Charlie Coyle can both grind and score off the third line, and Chris Wagner and Joakim Nordstrom have lit the lamp from the fourth line. What about the second line? David Krejci has more postseason points than any Bruin other than Phil Esposito or Ray Bourque — and the power play is scoring 34 percent of the time, unheard of for a postseason. The Blues have a grinding forecheck that just wears down the opposition, as we saw in Game 7 of their series against Dallas, when the Stars basically gave up on offense after the first 10 minutes of the game. Schwartz has 12 goals in this postseason already, one behind Brett Hull’s franchise record. Their fourth line has scored goals in five straight games, as Ivan Barbashev, Oskar Sundqvist and Alexander Steen kill off penalties and establish that forecheck. In goal, the Bruins have Tuukka Rask, putting up insane numbers: .942 save percentage, 1.84 goals against average and 13.49 goals saved above average, according to Natural Stat Trick. Teams are still waiting to solve that positioning game that he has put together. The Blues have Binnington, who has been slightly less even, but in the potential elimination or closeout games in this series, he has gone 4-0 with a .949 save percentage. 2019 Stanley Cup Finals Series Prediction: Boston in six