The Vancouver Canucks played one of their best games of the season Thursday, as they earned a shutout victory over the Florida Panthers on the night JT Miller returned from his ten game absence. They will look to build on that performance Saturday as they host the Boston Bruins, who are 7-4-0 since appointing Joe Sacco as head coach.

One of the Bruins’ four losses under Sacco was to the Canucks, who won 2-0 in Boston on November 26th thanks to a 33-save shutout from Kevin Lankinen.

I’ll detail the relevant game notes, as well as outline my favourite betting angle below.

The Bruins have benefitted from a ‘new-coach bounce’ under Sacco, and their 7-4-0 run now has them sitting third in the Atlantic Division. There are some signs that this team still may be far worse than in years past however, which is easy to say right now given the Bruins enter this matchup off of back-to-back blowout losses in Winnipeg and Seattle.

All seven of the Bruins’ wins under Sacco have come against teams currently outside of the playoffs based on points percentage, and they hold a -2 goal differential in that span. They do hold an excellent expected goal share of 56.83% throughout Sacco’s tenure, but that mark has surely been aided by an extremely soft schedule.

Looking away from the Bruins form under Sacco and their recent underlying results, their roster does look somewhat flawed, and I continue to question how the 2024-25 team would be viewed if the Bruins’ had not found so much success in the seasons previous to this one.

Their offensive upside looks fairly limited, as David Pastrnak leads the team with 28 points. Elias Lindholm has not performed as intended, which leaves the Bruins’ with a very modest group of centre’s.

Jeremy Swayman has also struggled to find his game after a contract negotiation which got quite ugly entering the season. Swayman holds a save percentage of just .885 and a -11.6 GSAx rating, which is the worst mark of any goaltender in the league. He is expected to get the start tonight as Joonas Korpisalo started Thursday in Seattle.

The Bruins have been without a key defender in Hampus Lindholm, who has missed the last 14 games and will remain out of the lineup in this matchup. Elias Lindholm is also considered day-to-day after suffering an upper-body injury versus Seattle.

Thursday’s win could prove to be an important moment in the Canucks season, as they played three strong periods to earn a victory of the defending Stanley Cup Champions. J.T. Miller made a strong return to the lineup, recording two assists in just 14:17 of time on ice.

Miller’s return slots centres Pius Suter and Teddy Blueger into more appropriate roles in the lineup, and boosts the upside of the Canucks top powerplay unit considerably. Miller skated with Brock Boeser and Nils Hoglander Thursday, and they held an 87.2% expected goal share at even strength, and combined for three points.

Quinn Hughes was fantastic once again, as he recorded two assists and did an excellent job shutting down helping his side shutdown the Panthers top offensive stars. I outlined why Hughes was a good bet to win the Norris prior to that game, and though the number has come down, I believe there is still value at today’s price of +145.

Yesterday Stephan Roget wrote a great piece breaking down why Hughes should be the Norris favorite at this point in time. It feels like observers outside of the Canucks’ market are beginning to see that Hughes has been more impactful than Cale Makar thus far, and I continue to believe Hughes’ price will continue to tick down in this market.

Thatcher Demko is expected to make his second start of the season in this matchup. Demko stopped

It’s going to be really interesting to see how the Bruins’ perform over a larger sample under Sacco, as it’s entirely possible this small surge revolved mainly around the quality of competition. I was low on the Bruins entering the season and even bet them to miss the playoffs, and I’m not entirely sold that they have turned the corner.

The Canucks enter this matchup off of one of their best performances of the season, and you can feel the positivity surrounding the group right now with Miller and Demko back. At -135 Vancouver would be my lean in terms of a side.

This does look like a good spot to target a possible resurgence from Miller, who looked good in his return to the lineup on Thursday. Not only could Miller’s time away from the team prove beneficial, he will also likely benefit from playing alongside Boeser once again, who was sidelined in the final five-games before Miller’s hiatus. And even though things have been rocky at times for Miller this season, he’s still been a point-per-game player once again.

Even at -154, I believe Miller’s chances of recording a point in this matchup are underrated. Particularly as due to Swayman’s struggles the Bruins have allowed 3.23 goals against per game this season.