The last time these guys met on the "ice" the Bruins put a beating on the Lightning despite playing in a bowl of soup with ice cubes in it. When we talked on our pregame show about this game Justin, Pizz and I were so worried about the Lightning power play and Boston completely shut them down. They owned the game. Shit, they owned the enitre state of Florida. It was a glorious and magical thing to witness.
Just cut the whole state away from America and let it float to Cuba…or do the logical thing and move those teams to Canada. Hamilton and Quebec will happily support NHL franchises, plus it creates INSTANT rivals with Toronto and Montreal. Think about it: the Nordiques and Canadiens face off and 12 players, at any time, could be floudering on the ice like they're Abe Lincoln watching a play. Hamilton and Toronto, battling it out for 14th place in the North-Central-East part of Conference 1A.2. It'll be absolutely amazing.
(Thanks to Dooby over at cblog)
I can't even fake hatred for the Florida teams though. Tampa has a legit shot at being a good hockey team, which is exciting because we will get to see Steven Stamkos 6 times a year. The guy is awesome to watch. I would liken it to the Atlantic division (and soon to be Atlantic Confernce, I guess) getting to watch Crosby or Malkin for 6-8 games a year. Yeah, you may not like the Penguins, but getting to watch them live is something else. Other than Stamkos (and maybe St. Louis, but he's probably going to be thrown in the tar pits soon) though there's not much to get excited about with the Lightning. The Panthers…next.
Stamkos is on a fucking tear right now. He leads the NHL in goals (14) and points (31) and scored against the Bruins last week in the game down in Tampa. He's a disgusting talent on an okay team in a shitty market that's made up of other team's transplants. With that said, Tampa is still doing work on offense. They still lead the NHL is goals per game (3.55) and they're top 10 in power play (21.2%). Basically, they still have a good power play but suck on defense.
Shocking right?
Hopefully the Bruins have their legs underneath them because team speed murders this team. If this becomes a track meet on ice, Boston is going to be for a world of hurt.
Let's finish the preview off like DiPietro's career…
DOYLive
There will be NO DOYLive this weekend because two guys will be going to each game and Greg will be hammered at Foxwoods for his buddy's bachelor party. We should be back in action on Tuesday.
Media
TV: NESN
Radio: 98.5 The Sportshub
Online Feeds: Here
Projected Line-up
Milan Lucic – David Krejci – Nathan Horton
Tyler Seguin – Patrice Bergeron – Brad Marchand
Chris Bourque – Chris Kelly – Rich Peverley
Shawn Thornton – Greg Campbell – Dan Paille
Zdangles Chara – Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg – Dougie Hamilton
Andrew Ference – Adam McQuaid
Tuukka Rask
Anthon Khudobin
Game Day Video/Image
Steve Downie is Mr. Lonely.
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