Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Peepin' Foes: Boston Bruins

The Rangers will wear their Heritage sweaters for the first time this season as they face their Original Six rivals, the Boston Bruins. It is the second of four meetings this season between the teams, the first being the 3-2 win a few weeks back.

Where We Are: On a three-game win streak? No, that can't be right, can it?? It is! The Rangers beat Buffalo and Edmonton to finish a four-game homestand with a split and followed it with the wild win in Pittsburgh on Monday. Sure two of the victories took overtime and one came over a glorified AHL squad but the emotional boost picked up from them will serve the Blueshirts well going forward.

Where They Are: To keep moving forward, the Rangers will have to go through Boston, a strong side that has played three less games and has accumulated a 9-5-1 record. The B's bounced back from a pair of losses with a 3-0 win over the sad-sack Devils on Monday.

Who To Watch For: Wunderkind Tyler Seguin has no goals and just one assist in his last seven games but while the youngster struggles, the vets are getting things done. Mark Recchi and Mike Ryder both have 11 points and Timmy Thomas has been astounding - 9-1 with a .960 save percentage, a 1.32 goals against average and four shutouts. Milan Lucic has remembered what it is to be a Big Bad Bruin and offseason acquisition Nathan Horton is making the most of his new surroundings and is pacing the team in goals and points. David Krejci had been racking up points but he is out with injury, as is Marco Sturm and Marc Savard.

What To Watch For: That beautiful new Blueshirt in action. Any kind of emotional letdown or exhaustion by the Rangers. Patrice Bergeron dominating the Rangers in the faceoff circle. Zdeno Chara doing everything Zdeno Chara does - not that you could miss him. While I don't think anyone will go after Brandon Dubinsky for his slash on Johnny Boychuk last game, it is possible. Greg Campbell getting away with murder, because you know who his dad is.

What We'll (Hopefully) See: Cally and Dubi to be able to keep the magic going. Arty not to get physically intimidated by the big Bs. Boyle to step up against his hometown team. Hank to outperform Thomas. Avery to smack Thomas in the back of the head again. If Boogey is still bitching out with a bum hand, Brandon Prust to keep Shawn Thornton in line. Mike Sauer to do better than Mark Stuart in the shutdown/tough defenseman role.

Also Check Out: Something's Bruin, Stanley Cup of Chowder, Cornelius Hardenbergh and the Hockey Blog Adventure and the Boston Globe's Bruins Blog.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hello there thanks for your grat post, as usual ((o: