Friday, November 14, 2008

Peepin' Foes: Boston Bruins

Ah, nothing like a little old time hockey! An Original Six matchup at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. Wow, can't wait!

Where We Are: There are few better feelings than spanking one of your biggest rivals in their own building, so the Rangers are coming off of a real high. It will be a huge test to see if they can keep the momentum up ...

Where They Are: The good thing is that the Bruins will be doing pretty much the same thing after dismantling the Canadiens 6-1 Thursday night. Their power play clicked to the tune of three goals in four tries and their goaltending held the line when pressed.

Who To Watch For: Milan Lucic. He is definitely one of the most exciting players in hockey not named Ovechkin. I was impressed with him the first time I watched him play last year and he only has gotten better since then. His bout last night, if it can be called that, was out-freakin-standing to watch if you are a Bruins fan. Aside from him, Patrice Bergeron is finally healthy, Marco Sturm has seven points in his last five games, Marc Savard is shamefully underrated and Zdeno Chara always hurts the Rangers.

What To Watch For: It is really hard to judge if this will be a goaltender battle between two guys who will sit side-by-side at the All Star Game (Thomas and Lundqvist) or if it will be a sloppy shootout between two teams coming off big games where they spent most of their energy. Flip a coin and tune in!

What We'll (Hopefully) See: Orr vs. Lucic, center ice Madison Square Garden. That would prove to be better than last Saturday's Jones/Calzaghe bout and more people would be there to witness it ... Beyond that, we would hope for a continuation of the Ranger power play success (no Gomez!), the Betts line to successfully keep the Savard line in check and Nik Zherdev to turn Chara inside out with some slick stickhandling.

Also Check Out: Hub Hockey - fan sites don't get much better than that.

As always, I recommend people check out Sam Weinman's Ranger Report for up-to-the-minute updates on our boys. Sam really is the best of the beat guys covering the Blueshirts.

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