DOY GAMEDAY: New Jersey Devils at Boston Bruins

If I had to describe the Boston Bruins this season I would akin it to starting your car in negative degree weather. Sometimes it sputters and coughs and you get very frustrated. You think about writing the eulogy as you try again and still it coughs and sputters. Finally, after dealing with the immense frustration, it kicks on and for a single moment there is nothing but glory.

Last night the Bruins had their sweet moment of glory.

Please note: I am trying really hard not to make a glory hole joke.

Anyway, the Bruins had their sweet moment of glory last night as they battled the Penguins and basically stole 2 points in Pittsburgh. You can agree or disagree with that statement all you want, but not many were giving the Bruins a puncher’s chance. Add to the fact that the Pens hit the pipe like they were in a Rob Ford council and a questionable OT goal by Bergeron, it looks more and more like a “stolen game”. That’s okay too. It doesn’t diminish what the Bruins did last night by any stretch of the imagination.

The good part? Lots of Pens blogs complaining about the Bergeron goal.

The shitty part? They now have to play back to back for what feels like the umpteenth time this season. Boston hasn’t been great in back to backs this season and Tuukka Rask has been downright dreadful. If I’m Claude, I’m starting Niklas Svedberg tonight. I’m sure Claude as a nice list of things he wants the team to do tonight.

The good thing is that New Jersey ranks lower than Boston in most of the important categories. New Jersey is 27th in goals per game at 2.19. They’re also 20th in goals against per game, giving up 2.63. Basically, this game is ripe for Boston to get two points. The problem? It is game two of a back to back where the Bruins usually ride the suck stick.

In game 2 of a back-to-back, Boston is currently 1-5-1 with 10 goals for and 20 goals against. They were also shut out twice (in LA and home vs Montreal). That….that’s bad. I guess you can use the argument that a few of those were early this season but only parsing things to fit your argument isn’t gonna work here. You need to look at the whole body of work. The two shut outs are fairly recent too.