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It’s Friday, January 1st 2016 and welcome to the first sports betting tips of the new year.
Hopefully everyone had a fantastic new year and you’re not too hungover and ready to enjoy a day full of sports.
It’s a relatively quiet day in the world of sports but we’ve got a massive weekend ahead of us. Despite that, we have still been able to scrounge up enough betting tips for today for everyone so let’s get to it shall we?
We’re going to focus 100% on the Winter Classic in the NHL today which kicks off at 1pm EST.
The Winter Classic is the big one. It’s a historic event and a great NHL game to watch. Here are the results of the last Winter Classics:
2015: Capitals 3-2 Blackhawks
2014: Red Wings 2-3 Leafs
2013: Flyers 2-3 Rangers
2011: Penguins 1-3 Capitals
2010: Bruins 2-1 Flyers
2009: Blackhawks 4-6 Red Wings
2008: Sabres 1-2 Penguins.
So some interesting stats to look at there. Home advantage – whatever that may be – is never really a big factor with 7 Winter Classics, and 5 “road” teams winning. Also very interesting is the fact that the game has went Over 5.5 goals just once.
Despite that, the line is set at 5.5 goals. A lot of that is just looking at the Canadiens vs Bruins and their recent games, both in the NHL and against each other.
However while historically in this series the games go over – they haven’t been as crazy this season as previous seasons. 2 have went over but they were 4-2 games that were relatively tame considering the standards we are used to. The December 9th one saw a much tighter game – and we’re expecting something similar there.
So we are going to take Under 5.5 goals. The Boston Bruins are without Brad Marchand which will help with that. Marchand has 15 goals already this season – the most of an Bruin with Bergeron on 14 and Eriksson on 13. That’s a massive, massive loss.
The Canadiens do have Brendan Gallagher back and that’s going to be interesting because he has scored 9 in 22 with 10 assists as well. It’s his first game back from mid November so that’s tough.
So who will win the Winter Classic? It’s going to be incredible close but we think that the Montreal Canadiens are the team that can steal the victory. The Habs are struggling big time on this road trip but motivation can be a big factor for players like P.K. and with all eyes on them in the 2016 Winter Classic, we think we like the Habs to steal this one. It should be very tight but you can get the Canadiens as high as 2.25 which is a nice price.
Personally we’d recommend just betting the Under 5.5 goals however.
Enjoy the Winter Classic – it’s usually a fun affair and let’s hope this one is too. Jealous of everyone that is going to be there!
