At the beginning of the season the sportsbooks did not give the Buffalo Sabres much of a chance to make the playoffs. When the season ended, the Sabres had won the Northeast Division and secured the third seed in the conference ahead of the fourth seeded defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins. Now the Eastern Conference quarterfinals finds the Sabres with home ice against the Boston Bruins.

With the Bruins, the sports betting experts are looking more at what they do not have as opposed to what they have. Their top playmaker Marc Savard is gone for the playoffs thanks to a concussion induced by an elbow to the head as the season was winding down. Three of the starting six defensemen are out for the Bruins with two of them probably missing the entire series.

The Sabres have added offensive speed with rookies Tyler Ennis and Nathan Gerbe. These are not game-breaking players, but they are two speedsters that the Bruins have very little experience with.

In goal the Bruins have Tuukka Rask who leads the league in goals against average and save percentage. Following closely behind Rask in the Vezina Trophy race is U.S. Olympic hero, and Buffalo goaltender, Ryan Miller. The difference is that Miller has played almost 30 more games this season than Rask, and has shown a durability that Rask has not had a chance to display.

The Bruins still have forwards David Krejci, Marco Sturm and Milan Lucic along with defenseman, and team captain, Zdeno Chara. The Sabres counter with Tim Connolly, Thomas Vanek and Derek Roy on offense and rookie-of-the-year candidate Tyler Myers on defense.

This should be a grinding and low-scoring series with goaltending making the difference. Even though it looks like Rask and Miller are one-two in the race for the Vezina, Miller has shown a steady hand all season long.

Pick: Buffalo Sabres in 5