Game 73 Preview: Devils Shipping Up To Boston

TV: MSG PLUS (HD)  RADIO: WFAN 660 AM

Last 10 Games: New Jersey 7-3-0; Boston 4-3-3

Know Your Enemy:  Days of Yorr

What Days of Yorr is saying about the Bruins:

Bruins have looked like ass recently. Claude says the team seems “too comfortable” which makes us scratch our heads. How can a team feel comfortable when playing like shit and when the Habs are a point behind them? Absolutely mindblowing.

What we think of the Bruins:

If you were to ask me a few weeks back, I would have picked Boston as one of my front runners for the Cup. With the addition of Kaberle to their blue-line, I thought Boston was a team destined to many great things. After watching them Saturday night against the Leafs, I don’t believe that anymore. The Bruins seem lost, nothing is really clicking expect maybe the Lucic/Krejci/Horton line but that’s not enough. Their powerplay has turn to complete crap as has Kaberle’s game. Tim Thomas didn’t look comfortable Saturday night and apparently it wasn’t right for Rask to get upset at his own player screening him. There just isn’t a lot of positive things to say about Boston at this point. The whole team kind of reminds me of the Claude Julien Devils which ended with Julien being shown the door with 6 games to play in the season. With that said, Boston needs to change and somehow I believe that starts tonight.

Season Series: Boston leads the season series 2-0. Bruins have pushed the Devils around this season, outscoring them 7-1 so far.

Last Meeting: November 15, 2010 – Bruins won 3-0

Tonight’s Game: The rest of the Devils games are so critical. After leaving 4 points on the table last week, the Devils need to basically win all their games from this point on. Boston, looking to redeem a terrible performance in Toronto on Saturday is going to make it tough for NJ.

While the Bruins haven’t been doing that well as of late, they are an incredibly deep offensive team. I’ve already mentioned the Lucic/Krejci/Horton line but the other lines that the Bruins roll aren’t easy to defend so the NJ blueliners are going to have to be on top of their game tonight. As a team, Boston puts up 33.1 shots per game, the fourth most in the league.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Bruins so here are a few quick notes about the team.

• Tim Thomas has returned to the Vezina kind of goalie he was. He’s had a lot of work this season and lately he’s been struggling but I still consider him to be playing out of this world hockey.
• The team acquired forwards Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley as well as defenseman Tomas Kaberle. The Bruins front office means business and has given the coaching staff the tools neccessary to bring home the cup.
• The Bruins won a whole bunch of games this season but are battling for the Northeast Division title with their hated rivals, the Montreal Canadiens.
• Oh yea, did we mention Zdeno Chara literaly broke a guy in half?

I don’t have a good feeling about this game. For one it is in Boston and they need to get ready for a big game on Thursday against Montreal. Head coach Claude Julien skated them hard in practice yesterday I wouldn’t count on Boston taking this contest too easy.

Playoff Race: Devils currently sitting in 11th with 72 points. Toronto sits in 10th with 74 points, Carolina sits in 9th with 76 points and Buffalo in 8th with 79 points. All four teams are in action tonight so there could be a lot of movement in the playoff picture or a complete stand-still. However you look at it, the Devils must win tonight.