Bruins vs Sabres Odds & Picks – Best Bet for Sunday Afternoon Hockey

• The NHL-leading Boston Bruins head to Buffalo to take on the Sabres on Sunday afternoon
• Despite playing on Saturday, Boston opens up as -178 favorites
• See the Bruins vs Sabres odds ahead of puck drop from KeyBank Center at 1:00 pm ET

Despite some recent scuffles, the Boston Bruins (52-11-5) continue to sit comfortably atop the NHL.

Even with losses to the Red Wings and Blackhawks, the Bruins are locks to take top spot in the Atlantic Division. With 14 games left, Boston’s main concern is staying healthy.

The Buffalo Sabres (33-29-6) are still in the playoff picture, but they haven’t been doing themselves any favors lately. Friday’s loss to the Flyers was the latest setback. Buffalo has lost six of their last seven, with an OT win over the Maple Leafs the only bright spot.

With a chance to inch closer to a Wild Card spot, the Sabres host the Bruins on Sunday afternoon.

Bruins vs Sabres Odds

The Bruins head into Saturday as -178 favorites, which isn’t surprising considering there’s over a 30 point difference between the teams. Boston’s results have been a little out of character lately, however. Not only do they have two recent losses against NHL bottom feeders, but both games totaled over eight.

Boston are favored in the Stanley Cup odds, but they’re followed closely by the Avalanche, Hurricanes and Maple Leafs. The Sabres NHL playoff odds still see them as long shots to make it with four teams to pass.

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Odds as of March 18 from FanDuel Sportsbook. Be sure to check out the FanDuel Sportsbook Promo Code before puck drop!

Defense Headlines Sabres’ Struggles

Scoring goals isn’t the problem in Buffalo. Entering Saturday’s action, the Sabres had scored the third-most goals (248) in the league.

The issue is that they’re one of two teams in the top 18, and the only team in the top 10 in the league in that category with a negative goal differential.

Tage Thompson this year in stats. 📈
⁦@BuffaloSabres⁩ ⁦@HockeyAnalytics⁩ pic.twitter.com/f7EtKgjjB1

— Meghan Chayka (@MeghanChayka) March 13, 2023

According to Natural Stattrick, the Sabres are 13th in scoring chances against and seventh in high danger chances against. They’ve allowed the fifth-most goals off of high danger opportunities.

While they don’t generate a ton of high danger chances, the Bruins sixth in high danger chance percentage, and have scored the fourth-most goals in that category.

Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak Continue to Click

The Bruins seem to have put those slight stumbles against Detroit and Chicago behind them. On Thursday Boston shut out Winnipeg 3-0, and then they downed Minnesota 5-2 on Saturday.

And the entire time the B’s big guns have continued to click.

The NHL-leading Bruins (48-8-5, 101 points) become the fastest team in NHL history to reach 100 points in a season as they beat the Sabres 7-1.

— BucciOT.Com (@Buccigross) March 3, 2023

David Pastrnak scored his 47th goal of the year, putting him one shy of his career high. He also added an assist to give him 91 points, four shy of his career high. Brad Marchand had been running a bit cold with just one assist in his last four games, but notched three helpers on Saturday.

Bergeron continues to hum along as well. He snapped a three game pointless drought on Saturday, and has a chance at his first 30-goal season since 2019/20. The defensive wizard should be in line for a second-straight 60-point season.

Bruins vs Sabres Pick

The Sabres lack the kind of consistency needed to hang with the Bruins. Could they pull off an upset? Sure. But do you really want your Sunday to ride on that?

Plus it seems like the Bruins have tightened things up again.

Bruins vs Sabres Same Game Parlay

After an afternoon full of assists, Marchand bounces back on the second half of the back-to-back with a goal.

And while the Sabres offense is good enough to come away with a couple, the Bruins capitalize on a porous Buffalo defense. That’s good enough to get things to the over.

The Pick: Over 6.5 (-124)