25. Boston Bruins at Anaheim Ducks. Get Your Caffeine I.V.s Ready!

In the words of Timon

“It starts.”

It was only a matter of time before the annual West Coast road trip starts and boy is it a doozy this year. The Bruins start in Anaheim tonight, then travel to Los Angeles to play the Kings. That alone is a torture chamber of sorts but throw in San Jose and ~~Phoenix~~ Arizona and it has the makings of a rough week. This trip is sort of like the stomach bug – the worst of it comes in the beginning and after that it eases up. Arizona and San Jose aren’t much to deal with this season. Shockingly the Sharks are pretty bad at home (3-4-2) after being fantastic last year (26-7-2).

Boston has a shit draw to start their road trip. Anaheim is a legit contender in their conference who has some injury problems (sound familiar?) and their game plan revolves around Corey Perry. As Corey goes, the Ducks go. Perry is currently sitting 5th overall in goals scores this season and considering he missed time with ~~Ebola~~ the Mumps, it is surprising to see him so high up.

The dude can play but Anaheim has one glaring weakness: their goaltending.

John Gibson was a high mark for the team but since his injury the duo of Frederick Andersen and Jason Labarbera have struggled. Andersen is posting a SV% of .915 and a GAA of 2.37. Labababababababeraba is even worse. He is posting a .909 SV% with a GAA over 2.60. These numbers aren’t terrible, but when a team has a goal differential of +2 when they were a +57 a year ago, you know some things aren’t clicking the first two months of the season. (Side note: The Bruins were a +84 goal differential and this year they are currently sitting at +3. Just something to think about).

If there’s anything Anaheim really excels at it is their penalty kill and they shoot a lot. I know it is pretty stupid to say that a team shoots a lot but they are 9th in the NHL in shots per game, averaging 30.8. For context Boston is 20th in the NHL at 29.8. That’s not a huge difference but you never know what one shot can do. Unless you’re the Bruins then you know it is probably going into the goalie’s chest.

I agree, I hate that shit too and it drives me fucking crazy.

But hey, Boston is coming off of a good, gutsy win against Winnipeg. Stop laughing – Winnipeg is actually pretty good this year. I wrote about it on Friday.

If you told me that the Bruins and Jets would have similar records at US Thanksgiving I would have told you lay off the drugs but here we are. Both are sitting with 27 points, the Bruins with a 13-9-1 records while the Jets rock at 12-9-3 record.

If you account for Winnipeg’s road record (8-4-3 [8-4-2 at the time]) and the hotstreak former Providence Bruins goaltender Michael Hutchinson is on, you had to think it was going to be a tough one. That’s what these next two games are, tough ones.

WARNING: PRO MILAN LUCIC TALK AHEAD. PLEASE DO NOT PANIC. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

One can only hope that the Lucic-Söderberg-Eriksson line continues to click. I don’t think it is a shock that Lucic’s offensive game has somewhat picked up now that he’s playing with a real center and not a mish-mash of Chris Kelly and Providence Bruins player A or players B. You know my feelings on this player and that I ultimately think he isn’t worth the $6M he is making (this season and next) but if he continues to score goals, I’ll continue to say nice things about him.

Ultimately that’s all I want from a top paid guy. I want him to score goals and not act like a child when things don’t go his way. That’s all this kinda gay, circle jerking nerd wants.

Projected Lines

Chara and Krejci didn’t make the trip so I don’t see the lines changing.

Milan Lucic – Carl Soderberg – Loui Eriksson
Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – David Pastrnak
Reilly Smith – Chris Kelly – Seth Griffith
Dan Paille – Greg Campbell – Simon Gagne

Dougie Hamilton – Dennis Seidenberg
Joe Morrow – Torey Krug
Matt Bartkowski – Kevan Miller

Tuukka Rask

Know Your Enemy