Boston Bruins NHL Playoffs: Can They Come Back?

The Boston Bruins avoided another premature postseason exit on Tuesday evening, thanks to a 2-1 road win in Dade County against the Florida Panthers to pull the series back to a 3-2 deficit ahead of Friday’s Game 6 in Beantown.

Behind 28 saves and a .966 save percentage from goalie Jeremy Swayman and a third period goal from defenseman Charlie McAvoy, the Bruins avoided another early exit, despite being outshot by the home team, 29-to-28.

Now, Boston’s odds have improved as the series returns home to TD Garden, with oddsmakers from Bet365 Massachusetts listing the Bruins as a +125 home underdog with a +1.5 spread in Game 6, along with +500 odds that the Bruins come back to win the series.

Those odds, while long, pale in comparison to the +1100 series odds that Boston faced ahead of Game 5, signaling how far the Bruins have come since falling into a 3-1 series hole against the Panthers in the second round of the playoffs.

Using Sports-Reference.com, BetMassachusetts.com wanted to see how often an NHL team wins a second-round playoff series when they’re down 3-2. Using the results of teams down 3-2 in the second round of the past 5 years of playoffs (2018-19-2022-23), we found that only 2 teams out of 12 teams won the series after being down 3-2.

That should give Boston hockey fans some reason for optimism on MA betting apps as the series moves onward this week.

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Bruins Backs To The Wall

Over the past half-decade, teams that fell into a 3-2 series deficit have had their fair share of struggles with 10 of 12 (83%) failing to advance, speaking to the tall task that still lies ahead of second year head coach Jim Montgomery and his staff.

Regardless of what history tells us, Montgomery and his players will look to tilt the ice in Boston’s favor at home Friday evening, building on the strong performance between the pipes by the 25-year-old Alaska native in Game 5 of the second round series.

NHL Teams Down 3-2

Won Series	Lost Series
17%	83%

Author

Christopher Boan

@cgboan

Christopher Boan has been covering sports and sports betting for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.