Boston Bruins @ St Louis Blues

It seems that finally we will see the Bruins as expected. Despite the 10-8 record, we have to add plus 4 losses on OT or SO. So, they are not with a good record and it seems incredible, as we all expected them to be one of the best teams at this point. The reason is simple. Last year, Boston overwhelmed the other teams during the regular season.

By far they were the best team and seemed the best contenders to Stanley's Cup. However, after an easy series against the Canucks, they were stopped in 7 games by Hurricanes. For this year the roster is basically the same. So, we all guess that Boston could once again had shown their power.

But after a weak start, they are a team with curious results. They start with a loss to win the next game. They kept on this system on the first 12 games of the season. Incredible, next to that system of 1 loss followed by 1 win, they got it deeper: 3 consecutive losses for 2 wins in a row. This new season was used in their last 10 games. So, can this time they start a new system?! I believe so.

The Bruins had struggled a lot on their offense. Where they were strong last year and maintaining their offensive players, we can figure that the problem is not lack of talent. Yet, their best center, Marc Savard, have been out for the last 15 games, where they went down in their offense. For today, we can expect him to return to lineup, as he says: "All I know is, I'm ready to get back and I'm glad about that. It will be great to get back in there with the boys.'' So, this is the news that Bruins fans were expecting last 5 weeks. Besides that, the team seems finally with confidence, as they continue strong on their defense and are improving their offense.

Saint Louis has not been reliable so far at home. They have a 5-7 record at home, 3-2 on their last 5 home games. Today they will have their last home game before the scheduled mini road trip. It is not clear yet if they are contenders for the playoffs. Last year they were not contenders, but a poor team until the last game, where they were magnificent, getting the last spot for the playoffs. But in the first series they had a blowout loss.

This year, they are being like the last season. An unreliable and poor team, despite it, they have good players on their roster so far. But even with that good players this is not a quite talented team. And that is easy to figure,as they had a streak of 4 games, where they scored 0.5 goal per game.

In their first 6 home games they seemed to improve their offense, with Kariya ending a 11 pointless games and Berglund scoring his first goal in 13 games. On that game they scored 6 goals, a season high, but then they had 2 straight games with only 2 goals. Despite they won their last 2 games, 3-2 and 4-1, this team is not reliable enough, and it's seems more safe to believe that they will cease this good moment, than continuing with the momentum.

So for this game, we have two teams coming from two wins. However, this match up is between two different teams. St. Louis is showing some weakness at home with a negative record. They are having difficulties to improve their offense as well and to be consistent. Boston showed in the past that same weakness. However, this can be a turning point for this season.

Savard will play again, and the team and coach are more confident than ever, enjoying a total day off yesterday, something rare, "Probably the first time in their careers they didn't have a game or a practice or a flight" coach Claude Julien said. The team showed last games a little bit of the team concept from last season and this should continue with the Bruins improving a lot their results and performance.

Pick: Boston Bruins 3Way (1X2) +135 (2.35) Bookmaker, +150 (2.50) Goalwin