NHL Best Bets, Score Predictions for Tuesday Mar. 30

VegasInsider Staff Sports Betting Expert

12 minute read

NHL Daily Free Picks & Predictions

VegasInsider.com NHL expert Matt Blunt provides his score predictions and best bets for one NHL game on Tuesday, Mar. 30, 2021.

New Jersey Devils vs. Boston Bruins

• Money-Line Odds: New Jersey +155; Boston -186
• Total (Over-Under): 5.5

Score Prediction: Boston 4 New Jersey 3

Best Bet: Over 5.5

The New Jersey Devils come into this game with the 7th worse xGA/60 overall in the league at 2.88 goals, and yet, if the Devils didn't own a 4-1 SU record against Boston that number would be a heck of a lot worse.

Boston's only victory over New Jersey came via a 3-2 shootout win in the first week of the season, and since then the Devils have piled up wins by 2-1, 3-2, 1-0, and 1-0.

Considering Boston is no bottom feeder in this league I think we see some regression to the mean with the Devils defense in their remaining games against the Bruins, starting with tonight.

Obviously not one of those previous Devils/Bruins games have cashed an 'over' ticket yet, and while styles do have a place in certain matchups, but when you're a basement dweller like the Devils this year, that kind of defensive play likely can't be sustained long term, even against a specific opponent.

Furthermore, that 1-0 win over Boston the other day was the third shutout win for the Devils this year. After the previous two, New Jersey's next games ended with 5-3 and 5-4 losses for the Devils. So it's not like we haven't seen this specific situation play out already for Devils games.

Granted, both of those high scoring losses following post-shutout wins for the Devils did come against a different opponent than they had just blanked, and Boston's 1-11-1 O/U run over their past 12 games will bring some hesitance to this 'over' play, on top of the fact that Boston hasn't scored (officially) against this Devils team in 120 minutes.

But the Bruins are well aware of the offensive futility they've had against New Jersey this year as well, and they can't keep expecting to try and win games with 3-2 type scores with their goalie situation being a bit of a question mark currently.

The pressure Boston's offense has been putting on their defense has started to bring too many negative results for the Bruins (7-11 SU last 18 games) and they've slipped to 4th place in the East division – just one point ahead of Philadelphia – because of it. Boston's now at least nine points behind the three teams ahead of them in the division, as it's gotten ugly in a hurry for this team.

Scoring goals against the Devils is something the rest of the division hasn't had nearly as big of an issue with as the Bruins have, and while it may or may not equate to a Bruins win tonight, opening things up when you are by far the better team like Boston is, generally isn't the worst option for a good team to try and get going.

That's the type of game I think we get from these two teams tonight as the goal judge finally earns his money in this matchup after cake-walking to a paycheck in those last two 1-0 results.

VegasInsider Staff

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