Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Bruins vs. Canucks: Stuff To Look Out For

- Letdown. The Bruins played an exciting, fast-paced, emotionally gratifying overtime game in Edmonton last night. While it should do wonders for their love of the game, it might not be so great for their focus. Expect confidence and sloppiness to characterize the first period.

- Breakthroughs. Chara, Bergeron, Ryder, and Sturm are all painfully overdue for a big game. Lucic was in that boat until he put up a hat trick on the Thrashers. Eventually your stars have to be your stars.

- Offense. The Bruins had some of their best puck control of the season last night, and it led to the shutout over a very offensive-minded Oilers team. On the road, extra risks are a bit more acceptable because they can take a crowd and a team out of the game. I'd expect to see the Bruins continue to pinch the D, crash the net and take as many shots as possible.

- 4th-liners. The Canucks get a lot of traction from their 4th line of Alex Burrows (7 pts), Ryan Kesler (9) and Jannik Hansen (4). The Bruins have gotten some fine defensive games from their 4th line of Shawn Thornton, Stephane Yelle, and Petteri Nokelainen. In the second of back-to-back road games, depth is a key factor.

- Goaltending. Thomas vs. Luongo... should be the best matchup in the league tonight.

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1 comment:

raventalon40 said...

Apparently Thomas > Luongo