Black and Gold Batlle for the NHL Eastern Conference
The Boston Bruins celebrate on the way to eliminating the New York Rangers.
The Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins will do battle in the Eastern Conference Finals. There will be a lot of black and gold in both venues for this one.
The Bruins won the Stanley Cup just two seasons ago ending a long drought without winning one. The Penguins won their most recent Stanley Cup in 2009.
These two teams were among the best of the Eastern Conference all season. The Penguins finished 38-12-0, which means in overtime games they were perfect. Boston finished 28-14-6, one point behind the Montreal Canadiens in the Northeast Division.
In the post season, Boston has beaten the Toronto Maple Leafs with a stunning rally in Game Seven in which they fought back from a three goal deficit in the third period and and a two-goal deficit with 1:30 left in regulation. The Bruins scored twice in 31 seconds to force overtime and then won it in the extra period.
They needed no such miracles in man-handling the New York Rangers in an Original Six match-up. In their first postseason meeting in nearly 40 years, the Bruins jumped out to a 3-0 series lead before winning it in five games to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Pens beat the New York Islanders in a six game series. Fittingly, they won the clincher in overtime where they had been perfect all season.
In the next round, they did finally lose an overtime game when the Ottawa Senators beat them in 2-1 in double overtime to win Game Three. That would be the only game the Senators would win in the series.
So both teams come into the conference finals on a roll. This one will be a great battle.
has Boston +160 and Pittsburgh -190 in the series. As of this writing, 72% of the money was on the Penguins. We tend to agree that the Penguins should win, but we think it will go seven games.
Either way, black and gold will be represented in the Stanley Cup Finals.
