- 1 Boston Bruins vs Chicago Blackhawks: the Atlantic leaders host a team still without a road point
- 2 Boston Bruins: 5-1-0 at TD Garden and a .921 save percentage from Swayman
- 3 Chicago Blackhawks: 21.4 shots a game and the league’s last-ranked power play
- 4 Free NHL Prediction: Boston Bruins vs Chicago Blackhawks
- 5 About our free predictions
- 6 No commitment from us
- 7 Information changes
- 8 Your responsibility
- 9 Responsible gambling
- 10 Legal age
- 11 About visuals
Boston Bruins vs Chicago Blackhawks: the Atlantic leaders host a team still without a road point 
Chicago has played four road games this season and lost all four of them in regulation. The fifth comes on Saturday, 31 October, at TD Garden, with puck drop at 1:00pm ET, against a Boston team that went into Thursday’s games first in the Atlantic Division at 9-3-1.
The gap between the two shows up in almost every column. Boston has scored 49 goals, sixth in the league, and allowed 28, the second-lowest total in the NHL. Chicago scores about 2.2 goals a game, 31st, and gives up 4.0, also 31st.
Both teams play on Thursday night, the Bruins in St. Louis and the Blackhawks in Detroit. Neither plays Friday, so this isn’t a back-to-back for anyone, but Chicago has the longer day: a flight from Detroit and a matinee start against a team that’s 5-1-0 on home ice.
Recent history doesn’t help the visitors either. Boston won both meetings last season, 4-3 on 9 October 2025 and 5-2 at the United Center on 17 January 2026. Across the last ten games between these franchises, Chicago has won twice.
The Blackhawks did stop a three-game slide on Tuesday, beating Los Angeles 2-1 at home. That result closed a seven-game homestand at 3-4-0. The trip that starts in Detroit and continues in Boston is exactly the setting where their record has been worst.
The second and final meeting of the season is on 1 January 2027 in Chicago.
Boston Bruins: 5-1-0 at TD Garden and a .921 save percentage from Swayman 
Jeremy Swayman has carried the Boston start. He’s 7-2-1 with a 2.19 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage, and the team as a whole is stopping .923 of the shots it faces. Michael DiPietro has been even sharper in a smaller sample: 2-1-0, 1.69 and .941.
David Pastrnak leads the team with 7 goals and 18 points. Elias Lindholm has 11 points and Fraser Minten 10, which gives Boston scoring beyond the top line. The projected first unit is Peterka, Zacha and Pastrnak, with Minten centring Khusnutdinov and Geekie behind them.
The home numbers are the ones I’d lean on. Boston is 5-1-0 at TD Garden, and the last two home games were a 6-0 win over Nashville on 22 October and a 6-4 win over San Jose two days later. Both losses on the current stretch came away from Boston: 3-2 in overtime in Dallas on 20 October and 2-1 in Carolina on Tuesday.
Special teams are solid without being spectacular. The power play runs at 21.95% and the penalty kill at 80.4%. Against a Chicago power play converting somewhere between 8 and 10 percent, last in the league, the kill shouldn’t be asked to do much.
Boston has no injuries listed. Charlie McAvoy took a stick in Carolina on Tuesday and came back into the game, and he’s paired with Hampus Lindholm on the projected top defensive pair. The Bruins are also 11-2 against the spread this season, which says they haven’t just been winning, they’ve been winning by margin.
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Chicago Blackhawks: 21.4 shots a game and the league’s last-ranked power play 
Chicago’s trouble starts with volume. The Blackhawks average 21.4 shots per game, 31st in the NHL, while allowing 30.3. They win 42.3% of their faceoffs, the lowest rate in the league, so they spend long stretches chasing the puck before they can even try to attack.
The power play converts between 8.3% and 10.3% depending on the count, 32nd either way. Boston’s kill sits at 80.4%, beatable for a competent unit, but Chicago hasn’t been able to punish anyone with the extra man.
There are bright spots up front. Rookie Ilya Kantserov has 5 goals, the most among NHL rookies, and scored on the power play against Los Angeles on Tuesday. Patrick Kane has 8 points, 7 of them assists, and his helper on Tuesday’s winner by Kaiser was the 899th of his NHL career. Connor Bedard returned on 13 October from shoulder surgery in July and has 5 points, level with Teravainen and Bertuzzi.
Spencer Knight is the goaltender most likely to see TD Garden. He was 3-6-0 with a 3.48 goals-against average and a .890 save percentage before making 25 saves against the Kings. Arvid Soderblom is 0-2-0 with a 4.58 average and a .820 save percentage, so the drop-off behind Knight is steep.
The blue line is thin. Bowen Byram has been out with an upper-body injury since 15 October and missed Tuesday’s game, listed day-to-day. Ryan Ellis remains on injured reserve with his back. The defeats that came before the Kings win, 4-0 to Dallas, 4-1 to Montreal and 3-2 to Florida, were all at the United Center, where Chicago is 4-4.
Probable lineup Boston Bruins: Peterka, Zacha, Pastrnak; Khusnutdinov, Minten, Geekie; Mittelstadt, E. Lindholm, Hagens; Jeannot, Poitras, Kastelic. Defense: H. Lindholm, McAvoy; Zadorov, Borgen; Brunet, Lohrei. Goalie: Swayman (not confirmed).
Probable lineup Chicago Blackhawks: Moore, Kane, Nazar; Kantserov, Bedard, Teravainen; Greene, Greenway, Smith. Goalie: Knight (not confirmed). Full lines not announced at time of publication.
Free NHL Prediction: Boston Bruins vs Chicago Blackhawks
Our prediction: Boston Bruins -1.5 puck line (1.88)
Boston’s moneyline sits around 1.41 in early markets, too short to back on its own, so I’m taking the puck line at 1.88. A team scoring 2.2 goals a game, firing 21.4 shots and converting barely one power play in ten has to have something go very right to keep this to one goal at TD Garden, where Boston is 5-1-0.
The case against is simple enough: both teams play Thursday, and a matinee start can produce a flat first period from the home side. Chicago also beat Los Angeles on Tuesday with exactly the kind of low-event game that keeps margins tight. I still think Boston’s depth, with Pastrnak, Lindholm and Minten all in double figures, outlasts a Chicago roster that has lost every road game it has played.
The empty net adds value to the -1.5 as well. If Boston leads by one late, Chicago will pull Knight, and a team averaging 3.77 goals or more doesn’t usually waste that sort of gift. These are early prices and they may move once goalies are confirmed.
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