The Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings will face off tonight in Game 3 of their First Round NHL Playoffs series. The game is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. start time and it will be televised nationally on the NBC Sports Network. Currently the odds for the game have the Bruins as a slight favorite to get the win tonight.
Detroit got a sweet play from Pavel Datsyuk to win Game 1 in Boston. In the second game, the Bruins were dominant from the opening faceoff, beating up on the Red Wings and evening the series at one game apiece. Tonight, in Game 3, we expect both clubs to play well in what is going to be a very important contest for each team.
Boston wants to make this a bruising game and beat up on the Red Wings as much as possible. Brendan Smith and Zdeno Chara got into it a little bit on Sunday, but that is certainly not what the Red Wings want to happen again in this game tonight.
Detroit, historically a very good team at home, struggled at Joe Louis Arena this season, going just 18-13-10. Boston was a pretty solid team on the road this year with 23 victories. Tonight's came could come down to the power play, where the Bruins were very good in Sunday's game, scoring on two of their four chances. Detroit has not scored a power play tally this post season, but they can surely help their chances by taking advantage with the extra man if that happens tonight. Boston has been in the box several times this post season and have dodged the bullet as Detroit hasn't been able to get that special team mark. The Red Wings have scored only one power-play goal in 19 chances over the last five games overall
The Red Wings have scored just a single goal in both games. They've out-shot the Bruins but Tuukka Rask has been sharp, stopping nearly 97 percent of the Detroit shots in the series. Jimmy Howard has played very good as well for the Red Wings, but did have a less than stellar Game 2.
Detroit has a lot of youngsters on the ice and Gustav Nyquist has really helped pick up the slack from Henrik Zetterberg being out. Yet, he's got just one goal in his last eight games. He'll have to pick up some more slack tonight as Daniel Alfredsson won't be on the ice tonight for Detroit.
The Red Wings need to take advantage of being at home. Boston lost their home ice advantage when Datsyuk scored his magical goal in Game 1 and the Red Wings are in a premium position to take a big stance in this series. If they can get a victory tonight, they'll be in a great position.
Free Pick: Detroit 3, Boston 1
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