NHL Betting Preview - Northeast Division

• Boston Bruins -120
• Montreal Canadiens +450
• Buffalo Sabres +550
• Ottawa Senators +600
• Toronto Maple Leafs +600

The Favorite

The Boston Bruins came out of nowhere last year running away with the Eastern Conference with an amazing 116 point season. Unfortunately for the Bruins they ran out of gas in game seven against Carolina in the second round of the playoffs on home ice. Boston was able to move Phil Kessel in the offseason, moving the 21-year-old to Toronto for a package filled with draft picks. Milan Lucic continues to improve and the Bruins are very deep up front and solid up and down the line up and certainly worthy of being the favorite to repeat in the division.

The Sleepers

There is great value with the Ottawa Senators, who have been awful since losing to Anaheim a couple of years ago in the Stanley Cup finals. The Senators traded their disgruntled sniper Dany Heatley to San Jose for a solid package that makes Ottawa a more complete team. The Senators will finally have the number one goaltender they have been looking for with a healthy Pascal Leclaire between the pipes. Alex Kovalev should pick up the slack with Heatley gone and at six to one there is huge value with the Senators to upset Boston and win the Northeast.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have looked very solid in the preseason with a ton of young talent stepping up and scoring goals. The Maple Leafs have bolstered their blue line bringing in Mike Komisarek, Garnet Exelby and Francois Beauchemin and have a very solid unit on the back end. Toronto should also be solid in goal with a healthy Vesa Toskala and a key signing Jonas Gustavsson. The Leafs allowed the most goals in the league last year but that should not happen again with these improvements in goal and on defense. Toronto will finally be back in the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

The Long Shots

The Buffalo Sabres have been on the decline since winning the Presidents’ Trophy in 2006-07. Not being able to afford their super stars has been a major problem for this team the last couple of seasons. The Sabres have not been able to bring in any key names in the off-season and will need Ryan Miller to bounce back from a subpar campaign. Another problem for Buffalo is they do not have a capable back up to push Miller if he struggles again. The Sabres will once again miss the playoffs.

After getting swept by Boston in the first round of last year’s playoffs the Montreal Canadiens finished an embarrassing centennial season without a playoff victory. General Manager Bob Gainey saw enough and changed the face of the franchise. Gone are Alex Kovalev, Saku Koivu, Chris Higgins, Mike Komisarek, and Alex Tanguay. In are Mike Cammalleri, Brian Gionta and Scott Gomez, but how long will it take this new team to gel? Carey Price remains as a huge question mark. The Canadiens take a step back and miss the post season.

Outlook

Boston is clearly the best team in this division and it is not a heavy price to pay to pick them. It is certainly worth taking a look at Ottawa at six to one as they should establish themselves as the second best team in the division. Toronto is also much improved but probably not good enough to dethrone the Bruins.

Pick: Boston Bruins