![]() ![]() Western Conference Final Chicago Blackhaws vs. He takes his fair share of penalties, but he also causes an awful lot of them, too. He's a disturbance, a physical annoyance every time he's on the ice. Pittsburgh: Matt Cooke: Or as the Senators call him: " Matt Cooke". Can he repeat against the Penguins? Watch for him to get knocked around a bit. He was on fire against the Rangers, becoming the first defenceman to score four goals in his first five playoff appearances. We'll see how they measure up.īoston: Torey Krug: Krug – or "Freddy" (after Freddy Krueger), as Thornton has christened him – is that playoff surprise every team hopes will appear. So, with Boston, there's lots of potential and still that Thing they call Zdeno Chara at the back-end, keeping things in check. ![]() These guys are a tough line to deal with, and have offered Boston an extra gear while the Jaromir Jagrs and Tyler Seguins of the world stay relatively quiet. Gregory Campbell, Shawn Thornton and Daniel Paille have not only brought the goals at key moments, but have been filling their shifts with plenty of physical play. Over in Boston? While Milan Lucic, Nathan Horton and David Krejci have stepped up their play of late, the Bruins biggest goals – the ones that have either tied games or put them ahead – have been coming more often from the "Merlot line," the energy squad. Paul Martin is also producing, grabbing two goals and nine points so far. He also has 16 points – three goals and 13 assists so far. Kris Letang is contributing just as impressively. Jarome Iginla's racked up 12 points this campaign, and Pascal Dupuis and James Neal each have 10. ![]() Sidney Crosby has 15 points through two rounds, and Evgeny Malkin has one more than that. Whereas the Bruins have been relying on some of those unsung heroes we talked about, the Penguins have been getting good output from their top guys. But also rare for Rask, so let's call this goaltending battle as being pretty even, overall. There is one moment from Rask's last series that tends to stick out, though. Both are equally capable of being the difference, of pulling off that game-changing save. For the Bruins, Rask is looking at similar numbers, with a 2.22 goals-against and a. Vokoun is now 6-1 since Game 5 against the Islanders and has posted a. So what could be the difference? In goal, it's a tough call whether there'll be much that will separate Tuukka Rask and Tomas Vokoun (We're all assuming Marc-Andre Fleury is done? Yes? Ok, just checking). If you were worried that maybe they did not look, they totally did. So I don't think in three games that's a big thing to worry about." There's only three goals difference at the end of the day. So we're certainly not hanging our hats on the fact that our record wasn't good against them this year. But the regular season is one thing, playoffs is another. "There's not much that doesn't get looked at. "We'll look at our games and things that we did well, things that we need to be better at. ![]() Bruins coach Claude Julien said Monday during a news conference at TD Garden: If you ask the Bruins (which someone at the Associated Press did), they're not that troubled by their record against the Pens this year. To state the obvious, that also means they were close games, with only one goal deciding each. Both fought tough Round One battles against teams most figured they'd pretty much cruise past, stepped up their game in their respective Round Two match-ups, showed off some depth and scoring ability, and strode into the conference final with lots left in the tank (probably not something that can be said for their ultimate Western opponent).įirst, to the season series, which the Penguins took 3-0, outscoring Boston 8-5 in the process. It's likely that even if you hate both these teams, at some level you would have to grudgingly admit that this is a great matchup, given what we've seen this season and in these playoffs. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |