Sports betting on the Boston Bruins could take a downturn now that Boston is without top scorer Marc Savard. He is considered Boston’s top offensive threat and it is possible they may not get him back this offshore sports betting season. He was knocked unconscious by a hit from Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke on Sunday and suffered a concussion.
Online sports betting had the Bruins fighting to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference and the loss of Savard could be what keeps them from making it. Boston is not a high scoring team to begin with so the loss of Savard really hurts. “The only update I’ve had is that today, he’s definitely not feeling better,” head coach Claude Julien said to a newspaper. “It’s been a little hard on him. So obviously it’s a pretty serious concussion.”
Boston has said that Savard suffered a Grade 2 concussion. He will be evaluated over the next offshore sports betting week and then a determination will be made whether he can return at all this season. Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli said that with only five weeks left in the regular season it is possible that Savard will not return. “I’m just really tired right now,” Savard said to a Boston newspaper, “[I have] headaches. My head’s been pounding all morning. I just want to get back to Boston and get in my bed.”
The hit that knocked out Savard has been considered a cheap shot by some in the league. Cooke raised his shoulder and blindsided Savard with a hard hit. Savard can’t really say because he can’t remember much. “I don’t even remember taking the shot,” he said, “I remember generally most of the game, but up around that point I totally don’t remember any of it.”
General Managers in the NHL have met about hits to the head but the NHL has really not been at the forefront of doing anything about them. “What I saw was … [Savard] was in a position of vulnerability,” Chiarelli said. “That’s not a criteria right now for supplemental discipline. But I think you need to look at the repeat offending. These are things we talked about all this morning. We may lose the guy for the rest of the year, I don’t know.”
Only five points separates 7th place in the standings from 11th place so the Bruins could easily miss out on the playoffs. Losing their top scorer when they were scoring just over two goals per game is definitely not going to help their online sports betting chances.