The Bruins man. Maaaaaaaaan. Dem Broons. Despite being 14-3-3, the Bruins haven't been able to hold many leads this season, but somehow have found a way to come through and win those games. Except on Sunday. And Tuesday. A two goal lead against the Canadiens was wiped away when Zdeno Chara wiped Alexei Emelin's face off of his head then against Washington scored 4 unanswered goals as Eric Fehr split #seidofham like it was Kim Kardashian's legs at an NBA game.
Fucking disgusting.
But hey, the Bruins are facing the Maple Leafs so it should be okay right?
You damn right Charlie.
Toronto is riding a three game winning streak where they've scored a total of 14 goals. Yeah, 14 goals in 3 games! That's a crazy amount of offense coming from the Leafs, a team that's currently 5th in the East. This isn't your typical Leafs man. I don't think Boston is going to steamroll them like we're used to seeing them steam roll the Leafs. I just don't get that feeling.
Yeah we can all grab microphones and say "Thank You Kessel" and be stupid dickbags about the whole thing, but the last time these two teams played Boston squeaked away with a 1-0 victory. While two points is two points, that game was a dog fight.
It's funny, someone will more than likely come on here and call me negative. Shit, we already had one person bitch and moan that we're "writing the team off" because we put a picture of the third line as the Three Stooges.
Can we talk about the third line for a minute?
How fucking bad is this line? The biggest argument that dickbag had for me was that Peverley and Kelly won a Cup two years ago so we can't shit on them. I'm sorry, but have you shit on Tim Thomas since he's won a Cup? Probably, which makes your argument invalid.
Claude's system breeds a good plus/minus. You could step on the ice for 5 seconds and you're looking at a +5 for the night, unless you're the third line. This line is currently a -21 with 15 points in 57 games…combined. 15 points! You're paying this line around $7,000,000 dollars this year and they only have 15 points? Why is this acceptable?
What the fuck is going on on 100 Legends Way where they believe that this is a solid line? What's even is worse is where do you go from here? Who is in the AHL that could replace what this line is(n't) doing? From all I've heard, Jordan Caron fucking blows, Ryan Spooner (I think) and Jamie Tardif is hurt and Jared Knight can't walk from his bedroom to the bathroom without shredding his hamstring into a million bits. Lane MacDermid doesn't really fill a role for you unless Shawn Thornton gets hurt.
Is Carter Camper really the answer? No.
You could move Dan Paille up to the third line, play Jay Pandolfo and scratch Chris Bourque but what's the point? Chris Bourque isn't the problem on that line – the whole line is the problem on that line. Chris Kelly can barely stay on his feet, Rich Peverley can't hit the net and Chris Bourque is well…there.
To fix the line you need to completely re-tool the bottom of the roster. I think what we're seeing is that Chris Kelly had a career year in a contract year and the real Chris Kelly is here to stay – for another two years at $3M per year. The same goes with Rich Peverley. He was a guy that you could count on to move between the first and third line and now you cringe when he takes a wrister in the slot because it goes anywhere but the net.
I'm getting way off track here.
Team speed murders this defense and that's what the Maple Leafs are made up of. I think the days of 6-2 whoopings are over, I really do. While the Leafs goaltending is still a mess, you never really know what Boston team is going to show up lately and the 2nd/3rd periods int he Washington game prove that.
I'm not using one game to justify my concerns with the Bruins but that game was a microcausm of how Boston has played this year. Think about all the 2 goal leads they've blown so far this year, even the ones where they pull out the win. Five times this season Boston has had a 2+ goal lead and blew it. They did it vs Carolina (W), vs Buffalo (L), vs Tampa (W), vs Montreal (L) and vs Washington (L). So about a 1/4 of the time they can't hold a two goal lead.
Scary.
After the jump, the rest of the preview…
DOYLive
Work has been taking each Days of Y'Orr staff member and bending it over their respective pinball table and banging the shit out of us. Because of it we did not have a pregame show for Tuesday's game but we're hoping to get one going tonight. The show will start around 6:00pm tonight and we'll be giving away some good stuff.
How to Watch:
Blog: Come back to the pre-game post at 5:45pm
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Zdangles Chara – Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg – Dougie Hamilton
Andrew Ference – Adam McQuaid
Today we are honoring two great men who passed away yesterday.
Paul Bearer:
The other is Stompin Tom Connors, best known for the amazing song "The Hockey Song"
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