2011 NHL Stanley Cup Finals - Boston Bruins vs. Vancouver Canucks - Preview, Pick, Odds | Sportsbookbuzz.com

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2011 NHL Stanley Cup Finals Betting Preview & Prediction

Stanley Cup Finals Best of 7 Betting Line:
Boston Bruins +175, Vancouver Canucks -215

The 2011 Stanley Cup Finals get underway this Wednesday night with the Eastern Conference Champion Boston Bruins taking on the Vancouver Canucks in a best-of-seven series. The first two games will be at BCPlace Stadium in Vancouver with the series shifting 2200 miles east to the TD Garden in Boston for games three and four. The final three games, if necessary will shift back and forth with Game 5 and Game 7 in Vancouver and Game 6 in Boston.

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BetOnline.com has listed the series price at +195 for the Bruins and -235 for the Canucks. Boston is a 170 road underdog for Wednesday night’s Game 1 and Vancouver is a 200 favorite. The ‘over/under’ line has been set at 5.5. The Bruins are listed at 25/1 to pull off a four-game sweep, which are the longest odds in this series. The Canucks are listed at 15/2 to win the Cup in four games. The odds on a full seven-game series with Boston winning it all are listed at 15/2, while Vancouver is listed at 15/4 to win in seven. The shortest odds in this series have the Canucks winning in five games at 13/4.

Boston’s journey to the Stanley Cup Finals started with a seven-game series win over a stubborn Montreal Canadiens’ team in the first round. It took a 4-3 victory in overtime as a 175 home favorite to advance to the second round. The Bruins exercised the demons of last year’s historic collapse against Philadelphia in the conference semifinals with a four-game sweep of the Flyers this time around. The conference finals against the equally stubborn Tampa Bay Lightning also came down to a dramatic 1-0 win in Game 7 as a 153 home favorite.

The Bruins are 12-6 overall in this year’s playoffs. They are 7-3 at home and 5-3 on the road. Boston is 9-4 as a favorite and 3-2 as an underdog. The total has gone ‘over’ in 10 of the 18 games overall. It has been evenly split in 10 home games at 5-5 and gone ‘over’ in five of its eight games on the road.

Defense has been the name of the game for the Bruins this postseason. They are giving up an average of 2.50 goals a game while scoring an average of 3.22. Nathan Horton and David Krejci have led the way with a combined 34 points. Horton has eight goals and nine assists and Krejci leads the team with 10 goals, aided by a hat trick in Game 6 against Tampa Bay. Tim Thomas has gone the whole way in goal for Boston and has a goals-against-average of 2.29 and a .929 save percentage.

Vancouver ended the regular season with the best record and the highest goals scored and lowest goals allowed average in the league. After surviving a first-round Game 7 against the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks with a 2-1 overtime victory as a 165 home favorite, the Canucks took out Nashville in six games and San Jose in five.

Vancouver’s postseason record mirrors Boston at 12-6 overall; 7-3 at home and 5-3 on the road. The Canucks are 11-4 as a favorite and 1-2 as an underdog. The total is 8-8-2 overall in their 18 games. It has stayed ‘under’ in seven of their 10 games at home and gone ‘over’ in five of their eight road games.

Henrik Sedin leads Vancouver in scoring in the playoffs with 21 overall points; two goals and 19 assists. His brother Daniel is the leading goal scorer with eight. These two players along with Ryan Kesler have combined for the bulk of the scoring on a team that has averaged 2.78 goals a game. Defensively, the Canucks have given up an average 2.56 goals a game. Their goalie, Roberto Luongo has also been impressive with a 2.29 GGA and a save percentage of .922.

As is the case with most series in the playoffs, the goalies will have the biggest impact on which team wins this year’s Stanley Cup. Both Thomas and Luongo have come up huge at key times to get their team to this point, but they have also given up their fair share of soft goals over the course of the first three series. The slight edge goes to Luongo and Vancouver as they bring home its first Stanley Cup Title in franchise history in six games.

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