Boston Bruins Weekly Predictions: Dec 14th to 20th
By Jay Peterson
The Boston Bruins have four games to play this week and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The Bruins are playing well in all positions and are challenging in the standings as well. After their final game of the season against the Edmonton Oilers, Boston will play the Pittsburgh Penguins twice and then the New Jersey Devils next Sunday. You’ve got to believe that there is going to be a lot of confidence within the Bruins dressing room going into these games. Hopefully that confidence can transfer onto the ice like it recently has.
Dec 2, 2015; Edmonton, Alberta, CAN; Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron (37) and Edmonton Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (93) face-off against each other at Rexall Place. Mandatory Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports
Bruins v Oilers
In an awful beginning to a mediocre road trip through western Canada, the Edmonton Oilers beat the Bruins in overtime. Look for the Bruins to be determined to take the full two points this time around and dominate the play. The Oilers have been playing better as of late and have also managed to defeat some of the league’s best teams.
Coach Claude Julien never takes any team lightly and so it is vital that he gets his shutdown lines to make quick work of the talented youngsters on the opposing side. For these games, and the ones against Pittsburgh, I would like to see Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand play with either Loui Eriksson or Jimmy Hayes and focus primarily on defending against the other team’s top unit. For Edmonton, I say that the Bruins will take the game 4 to 1, with two late third period goals.
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Bruins v Penguins x2
For a few years now, the Boston Bruins, for the most part, have known how to handle the Pittsburgh Penguins. Zdeno Chara and company have always done a fantastic job of keeping the superstars from taking over games. The addition of Phil Kessel makes the Penguins an even larger threat offensively, but, thankfully, Chara and the Bruins have handled him pretty well throughout his career as well.
I look to Marc-Andre Fleury as the biggest factor in these games. I feel that the Bruins have an opportunity to win both of these games if the first game goes really well for them. However, if Fleury has a game where he stands on his head and allows the Penguins to steal two points, that could throw the Bruins off their game.
I do not like how this Bruins team is so easily rattled and can collapse and let in a bunch of goals in minutes, but it has happened enough this season that it has now become a part of this team’s identity. If Fleury can hold he Bruins offense back long enough for his Penguin teammates to score, I could see the Bruins getting frustrated and taking bad penalties and making bad decisions forcing turnovers.
Mar 14, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins right wing Patric Hornqvist (72) and Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) compete for the puck during the third period at the CONSOL Energy Center. Boston won 2-0. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
All in all, I stand by what I said before. The Bruins have done well against Pittsburgh in the past and will continue to do so this week. They will win their first game against them easily, with a score of 3 to 0. Then, in a better game from Fleury, the teams will go into overtime with Pittsburgh taking the game 2 to 1.
Bruins v Devils
Much like the game against the Florida Panthers last Saturday, this is a game that the Boston Bruins have to win. Yes, they have moved up in the standings and are looking fairly decent. However, if they let the teams that are chasing them catch up in games like this, it won’t be so easy to stay in the playoffs in April.
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These games are extremely important and Claude Julien will let his team know that. This game will be a test for the Boston Bruins to show that they are an elite team. They need to be the type of team that beats every other team that is worse than them. In my opinion, the New Jersey Devils are a worse team than Boston, and if the Bruins cannot win this game, it will be very disappointing to say the least. Like Fleury, Cory Schneider will have a good game and may frustrate the Bruins offense. However, the Bruins will find a way to win, like they have been doing, with a final score of 3 to 2.
Four games and eight potential points later, the Bruins could distance themselves greatly from most of the competition. So far, this NHL season has been one of the closest standings races I’ve ever seen. Everyone is still in it and could climb up just as easily as another team could fall down. If the Boston Bruins can continue to become a more consistent team with the results that we have been witnessing, the rest of the season looks promising for them.
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