Lightning Visit Bruins on Veterans Day

The Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning square off in a Veterans Day matinee.

The Eastern Conference-leading Tampa Bay Lightning make the journey north to face the Boston Bruins in the solitary NHL game taking place this Veterans Day.

Face-off is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET from TD Garden in Boston.

After finishing the strike-shortened 2012-13 season ranked 28th in the league, and opening this season with 33/1 odds of lifting the Stanley Cup (18th), Tampa Bay (12-4-0, 24pts) is a surprise at the top of the conference five weeks into the NHL season.

Boston (10-5-1, 21pts) meanwhile was expected to challenge for the cup this season, and sitting just three points back of the Lightning, the team is where it should be at this point in the campaign. A win on Monday afternoon would see the Bruins leapfrog the Detroit Red Wings (9-5-4, 22pts), Toronto Maple Leafs (11-6-0, 22pts) and Pittsburgh Penguins (11-6-0, 22pts) into second-place in the conference standings.

Tampa Bay picked up its fourth win in a row, and seventh in eight games, Saturday, defeating Detroit 3-2 in overtime. Teddy Purcell scored the winner with just 1:09 left in the extra frame, giving the Lightning a first win over the Red Wings since 2003, and a first win at Joe Louis Arena in nearly two decades.

Monday afternoon’s game in Boston marks the middle game in a three-game road trip that will conclude against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.

Boston defeated Toronto at the Garden on Saturday for a second straight victory. Prior to that, the Bruins had dropped four of the last five, but beating Tampa Bay hasn’t proved problematic for Claude Julien’s side this season.

The Bruins defeated the Lightning 3-1 in Boston on October 3, the season-opener for both teams, before running out 5-0 winners at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on October 19.

Tampa Bay will hope that Steven Stamkos can make an impact against the Bruins. Stamkos is tied for first in the league in goals (14) and points (23) after a hot start to the campaign, but he has faltered against the Bruins, failing to record a point. Lightning goalie Ben Bishop is tied with Chicago’s Corey Crawford for a league-best 11 wins in net, posting a 2.12 GAA in 13 games played. Bishop was in net for Tampa’s 5-0 loss to Boston last month.

Milan Lucic leads Boston’s 16 goal scorers with seven goals, while David Krejci leads the team in points with 15 (3 goals, 12 assists). Goaltender Tuukka Rask has recorded an Eastern Conference-best 1.63 GAA, picking up nine wins in the process, two of which have come against Tampa Bay.

Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Boston Bruins odds for 11/11/2013

Boston (-157) opened as the favorite over Tampa Bay (+143) on the moneyline, an unsurprising trend considering recent history.

Including a pair of wins this season, the Bruins have won six straight meetings against the Lightning. This dominance stretches further back than that though.

Since Tampa Bay last defeated Boston in a season series during the 2004-05 season, the Bruins have gone 22-8-0 against the Lightning during the regular season, and 4-3-0 during the postseason. During that same stretch, the Bruins are 13-3-0 at home against Tampa Bay during the regular season and 3-1-0 in the postseason.

To put it simply, Tampa Bay has struggled immensely against Boston.

The over/under is set at 5 for Monday afternoon’s game. The total has gone under in four of the last five meetings between the sides, and six of the last seven games played between the teams at TD Garden. Neither of the two earlier Bruins-Lightning games has gone over five goals, making the under the smarter bet.

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