A NOTE FROM DAYS OF Y'ORR GENERAL MANAGER PATRICE PURRGERON ESQUIRE THE III: GREG'S PREVIEW IS UPLOADED EARLY BECAUSE HE WILL BE AT THE BACON AND BEER FEST IN BOSTON.
Man, what a game on Wednesday. The Bruins brought it for 58 minutes, the best effort they've put together in since early March. When Toronto scored early in the first period, you could feel the energy filter out of the TD Garden, but then the switch was flipped and it was on.
It was amusing to see how bad the Leafs were. One could chalk it up to a lack of playoff inexperience by Toronto. One could chalk it up to their incredibly bad breakouts. Seriously – go back and watch that game. Toronto's breakout was Bruins April-esque bad.
I mean – WADE FUCKING REDDEN.
But that was Game 1, we're on to Game 2 and whatever happened in Game 1 doesn't matter. Except for the fact it's the same arena and James Reimer has to get used to the color of the seats, apparently. He should be embarrassed at even mentioning that – like when Tim Thomas complained about the lights at Madison Square Garden.
Congrats Reimer – you're busch league.
And then there's Phil Kessel. Can we talk about Phil Kessel for a minute? I have a big problem with Chris Gasper writing that the Boston Bruins are in the head of Phil Kessel because it's not true. You know why Phil Kessel doesn't produce against the Bruins? It's because every time he turns around, there's a Norris Trophy winning, 7'0" monster in his face.
I mean, we can say how much Kessel sucks and all that shit, but when you get right down to it – Zdeno Chara is a fucking monster who can virtually shut down any winger he needs to, including Kessel. That's why Phil Kessel can't produce against the Bruins. Boston isn't in his head, Zdeno Chara is in his head.
Stick to something you know Gasper, like football.
If Boston continues to take it to Toronto the way they did in Game 1, there's no way that Toronto can survive. They can't hang with the Bruins. Their captain is an oversized oaf with the brain of a pea and the chin that looks like it was left over from Mount Rushmore. Have you ever watched a player get rattled as easily as Dion Phaneuf?
He has skin as thick as tracing paper – as the obvious slash to Tyler Seguin in Game 1 proved. You can get in his head and when you get in his head, he fucks things up. He's TERRIBLE. I hated him when he played for Calgary and I thought the Leafs made a terrible decision by trading for him and then giving him the C.
They should give him the C U LATER but Toronto's management can't manage to order a pizza, let alone evaluate talent at a major league level.
(Stick tap to @Camfan81)
And in case you have been living under a rock, Andrew Ference will not be playing in this game. He's been suspended because he clearly elbowed Mihkal Grabovski in the head. People are making a big deal out of this – like losing Andrew Ference for a game is going to magically destory this team. Have you watched Andrew Ference this year? He's been awful.
Andrew Ference has been so bad, his glass groin has contemplated breaking itself just so he doesn't play.
I guess when you have Aaron Johnson and Dougie Hamilton sitting on Level 9, losing Ference is a big deal but it's only for one game. I would like to see the Bruins call up Matt Bartkowski, but I have a feeling he's not coming up here for one game. If it were an injury or a longer suspension, there's a probably a better chance you see him here.
Anyway, DJ Bean tweeted earlier that the defensive lines in practice look like: Chara-McQuaid, Seidenberg-Boychuk and Redden-Hamilton.
After the jump, the rest of the preview…
Projected Lines
These are from today's practice, which could change tomorrow.
Milan Lucic – David Krejci – Nathan Horton
Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – Tyler Seguin
rich Peverley – Chris Kelly – Jaromir Jagr
Shawn Thornton – Greg Campbell – Dan Paille
Zdeno Chara – Adam McQuaid
Dennis Seidenberg – Johnny Boychuk
Wade Redden – Dougie Hamilton
Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin
Media
TV: NESN
Radio: 98.5 The Sports Hub
Online Feeds: HERE
Game Day Video
Dafoomie always brings it on YouTube. Guy is clutch. Bruins Game 1 highlights
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z0R0AApq9fw?list=UUOETXQi9q23hXMAwib3vTNg
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