NHL Thanksgiving Showdown Preview: Boston Bruins vs. New York Rangers

NBC has added one more marquee match up to go with your Thanksgiving weekend sports line up as the New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins hit the ice at TD Garden in Boston at 1:00 PM ET. [sc:NHL240 ]

The NHL teamed up with NBC and Hollywood director Bobby Farelly to create a multi-faceted marketing campaign to promote the match up, which launched on October 30. You can watch the Youtube video from that campaign below.

The two Original Six teams will go head to head in a game that could potentially be a low scoring affair as two of the league’s premier goaltenders will most likely be starting between the pipes on Friday.

Betting Preview for Bruins vs. Rangers: NHL Thanksgiving Showdown on NBC

Time: 1:00 PM ET

Date: Friday, November 29th, 2013

Venue: TD Garden, Boston, MA

Boston won the only meeting of the season the two squads on November 19th by a slim 2-1 margin. In that game, Rask outshone the veteran at the other end of the rink, Henrik Lundqvist, as he posted a .977 save percentage, allowing only one goal on 44 shots.

“King” Henrik allowed 2 goals on 22 shots, and looked to be struggling in October of this year. He has been better as the season has worn on, but it remains yet to be seen if he can return to perennial-Vezina candidate form. [sc:NHL250 ]

Rangers supporters and hockey fans in general would most likely agree that Lundqvist is in no danger of falling away from his All-Star level, and is simply experiencing minor struggles over what has been a small sample size in terms of judging NHL netminders.

That said, back-up Cam Talbot has come to play for the Rangers, winning five of his six games in the crease and managing a .949 save percentage in the process, good for third best in the league. Talbot is also tied for second in shut outs with two in only six games.

The Boston Bruins currently sport a league best goals against, allowing a stingy 1.78 per game on average, while the NY Rangers are also in the top half of the league with 2.35. Regardless of who gets the call for New York for the Thanksgiving Showdown, goaltending is the least of the team’s worries.

The two teams’ offensive outputs contrast quite strongly as the Rangers are struggling to score, putting up an average of 2.09 goals per game — a dismal third-worst in the league. Boston, however, has been respectable at 11th, scoring 2.74 GPG.

Betting Trends

Boston is 7-3 SU in their last ten against NYR, dating back to 2012.

The Rangers are 5-4-1 ATS against Boston over the same stretch.

During those ten games, the O/U record was 4-5-1.

The Bruins are 4-1 SU in their last 5 at home against NYR.

The video by Farelly, courtesy of NBC Sports Network:

Head over the sportsbook and place your bets on Friday’s game, as well as all of this season’s NHL action.

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