The Boston Bruins and Colorado Avalanche meet Wednesday in NHL action at the Ball Arena. The Boston Bruins have won 7 of their last 9 games. The Colorado Avalanche have split their last 8 games.

The Boston Bruins are averaging 4 goals per game and are scoring on 29.3 percent of their power play opportunities. David Pastrnak leads Boston with 17 goals, Hampus Lindholm has 15 assists and Jake DeBrusk has 76 shots on goal. Defensively, the Boston Bruins are allowing 2.2 goals per game and are killing 84.6 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Linus Ullmark has given up 31 goals on 486 shots faced, and Jeremy Swagman has allowed 19 goals on 188 shots.

The Colorado Avalanche are averaging 3.3 goals per game and are scoring on 32.5 percent of their power play opportunities. Mikko Rantanen leads Colorado with 15 goals, Nathan MacKinnon has 26 assists and Cale Maker has 64 shots on goal. Defensively, the Colorado Avalanche are allowing 2.8 goals per game and are killing 76.5 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Alexandar Georgiev has allowed 43 goals on 535 shots faced, and Pavel Francouz has given up 21 goals on 226 shots.

The Bruins are 5-2 in their last 7 road games and 47-18 in their last 65 overall. The Avalanche are 64-18 in their last 82 home games and 81-34 in their last 115 overall. The over is 11-4 in Bruins last 15 road games. The under is 7-3-1 in Avalanche last 11 overall. The Bruins are 0-4 in the last 4 meetings in Colorado and 3-7 in the last 10 meetings. The home team is 7-1 in the last 8 meetings. The favorite is 5-2 in the last 7 meetings.

The Boston Bruins continue to look like the team to beat, and they’re going to be favored more times than not regardless of whom they play. However, getting the Colorado Avalanche at home and big plus money is hard to turn down. Even with hit or miss play, the Avs are still a very talented team capable of beating anybody on any given night, and their defense still brings it nightly. I’ll gladly take the home dog here.