Jun 12, 2013; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford (50) makes a save as left wing Brandon Saad (20) and Boston Bruins right wing Nathan Horton (18) look for the rebound during the third period in game one of the 2013 Stanley Cup Final at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Scott Stewart-USA TODAY Sports

He’s one of the Bruins best players in a clutch situation. He pulled off two seperate game seven miracles for us during the 2011 Stanley Cup run. Now, after a rough collision during the first overtime Bruins power play, Boston forward Nathan Horton is listed day to day and may not be able to play in game two tomorrow night. As of this afternoon, Coach Claude Julien has him as a ‘maybe’. If Horton feels good, then it is likely that he’ll take his place on the Bruins premier scoring line.

Horton has been amazing for the Bruins so far in the post season. At present, he has seven goals and eleven assists. We were all worried about Horton’s health at the beginning of the season, since we lost Horton to post-concussion syndrome at the beginning of last year’s playoff run. The Bruins got taken out in seven games by the Washington Capitals.

This information comes from WEEI.com. They report that Horton has been dealing with ‘chronic left shoulder subluxation’. In other words, his shoulder is partially dislocated. Speaking from the viewpoint of a man with a partially artificial left knee, I know what sort of pain a sudden aggravation of the old injury can bring. That collision in the first overtime period probably tweaked the shoulder again. Claude Julien was absolutely right to pull Horton off the ice.

If Horton is out for game two, then we’re going to see a few changes again in the Bruins lines. During the second and third overtime periods, we saw Tyler Seguin bumped up to the first line with Milan Lucic and David Krejci.  The Bruins will probably keep that line that way, and likely bring up Jay Pandolfo to reinforce the often depleted third line. (Chris Kelly was pulled from the third line to center the Merlot Men, and Kaspers Daugavins was brought in. This leaves Rich Peverley as the only original third line player left.)

The Bruins have always had four deep lines and they can count on any player on any line to score. It’s part of the Bruins strength, and we know the Bruins will give the Blackhawks the same intense fight they gave on Wednesday.

Jun 1, 2013; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Boston Bruins left wing Milan Lucic (17) congratulates center David Krejci (46) after Krejci scored a goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins during the third period in game one of the Eastern Conference finals of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the CONSOL Energy Center. The Boston Bruins won 3-0. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

I just so happened to be watching NHL tonight on the NHL Network this afternoon when they were talking about last night’s game-2 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins.

As we all know by now, the Bruins dominated the Penguins on Monday night and prevailed with an impressive 6-1 win. Which helped them to take a commanding 2-0 series lead back to Boston.

Everything is going the Bruins way right now and in-large part because of the play of Bruins goaltender, Tuukka Rask. He’s been a wall between the pipes up to this point and has stopped 55 of 56 shots through the first two games of the ECF. He’s playing like a man possessed, however fortunately for the Bruins there is another man playing like he’s possessed and his line-mates are coming along for the ride.

David Krejci is not only the leading points getter for the Bruins so far this playoffs, but he also leads the entire NHL in playoff points (20) and is currently tied with Chicago Blackhawks forward, Patrick Sharp, for the lead in goals (8).

Krejci is no stranger to playoff success, he lead the Bruins and NHL in scoring during Boston’s Stanley Cup run in 2011 and he appears to be back at it again in 2013. Even with all his talent, points and his aforementioned success, Krejci is not considered a superstar in the NHL and you won’t hear his name spoken a lot unless its playoff time.

[ LINK: David Krejci Inching Closer To Becoming A Playoff Legend ]

There could be many reasons for this, his game just looks so effortless or he’s a soft-spoken guy with a funny accent who comes off overly humble and well, he just doesn’t really put up the kind of numbers in the regular season that guys like Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin do.

Whatever the reason one thing is certain, when it comes to playing under the bright-lights of the Stanley Cup playoffs, very few excel like Krejci and speaking of those “very few that excel like Krejci”, thankfully the Bruins have another one on their roster in Nathan Horton.

Horton came to Boston in 2010 having zero playoff experience in his 5-year career spent entirely with the Florida Panthers. You could tell from his day of arrival that Horton couldn’t be happier to be in a hockey-crazed town like Boston and on a team that appeared to be headed in the right direction after a few years of disappointments. But many still questioned if he could thrive under the microscope and if he could handle the pressure that comes along with performing in the playoffs.

All Horton did was go out and score some of the most memorable goals in Bruins playoff history on his way to becoming the first player in NHL history to score two game-7 game winning goals in the same playoff season. Like Krejci, Horton is back at it again this playoffs and is second in the NHL for points (17) and is currently tied for second in the NHL in goals (7). Horton is also the league-leader in +/- with a ranking of +19.

The 3rd guy on their line, Milan Lucic, has been solid as well, creating time and space for Krejci and Horton with his bruising style of play. He’s no slouch in the points department either with 12-points in the playoffs, 3 goals and 9 assists.

This line accounted for all 3 of the Bruins goals in game-1 and factored into two of the 6 goals from game-2. Needless to say, this line is getting it done individually and as a whole.

Photo & stats courtesy of NHL Tonight on the NHL Network.

On the other side, for the Penguins we have Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis. Slouches by no means, as Crosby is easily the best player in the world and is currently 5th in playoff scoring with 7 goals and 8 assists, good for 15 points. Dupuis has 7 goals so far in the playoffs, while Kunitz has 9 points (5 goals, 4 assists).

However, none of these 3 have done anything overly positive through the first two games, in fact they’ve done quite the opposite.

Versus the Bruins, Crosby has 0 points and is a -3, he also committed 4-giveaways Monday night and one of them led directly to a Brad Marchand goal. Dupuis also has 0 points and is a -3, while Kunitz is a touch better, he has 0 points but is only a -2.

Now, to be fair to the Penguins, like the Bruins, they basically have two”first-lines” but that second line isn’t doing much better. Evgeni Malkin, arguably the second best player in the world, also has 0 points and a -3 rating. Jarome Iginla? Take a guess… (I’ll give you a hint, it’s the same as Crosby and Malkin’s). James Neal on the other hand is easily doing the worst of the six, he has 0 points and is an even uglier -5 for the series.

Needless to say, the Penguins haven’t been very good and its easy to see why they are in an early 0-2 hole. If they wish to get out of it, their first line needs to get a whole lot better and so does the rest of the team, especially the goaltending.

But it starts with your stars and your top players, and right now, only one team’s stars are playing. How does that saying go? “Hardwork beats talent, when talent doesn’t work hard.”

May 19, 2013; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins left wing Milan Lucic (17) and Boston Bruins right wing Nathan Horton (18) celebrate a goal during the third period in game two of the second round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the New York Rangers at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

Since the Boston Bruins don’t drop the puck on their Eastern Conference finals matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins until Saturday night, I figured we would look back on some of the best moments from Nathan Horton‘s run as a Bruin to commemorate the day on which he turns 28-years old. (I know my title is a tad bit more morbid than that, but we can get to Horton’s future with the Bruins later.)

Horton came to Boston in June of 2010 via trade along with current 4th line center/cult hero Gregory Campbell. Much maligned defenseman, Dennis Wideman was sent to the Florida Panthers, as well as the Bruins first round pick (15th overall) in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, and their third round pick in 2011 in exchange for the two forwards.

Horton had never scored less than 20-goals in an NHL season and was a former 3rd overall pick, so it wasn’t too high a price to pay for a guy who would go on to score some of the most memorable goals in Bruins history. Speaking of those goals, now would be a good time to go back to game 7 versus the Montreal Canadiens in the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Bruins had stumbled out to an early 0-2 hole in the first round series against the Canadiens. But they rallied and were able to turn the series around and force a game 7 in Boston.

The sting of 2010′s epic playoff collapse was still fresh on everyone’s mind and the Bruins recent game 7 history just didn’t make anyone feel overly confident about their chances. Horton had already scored an overtime winner (double-OT to be exact) in the series and was back at it again after the Bruins blew a late one-goal 3rd period lead in game 7 and the game would be headed to OT.

I get chills still just watching that goal, don’t think I’ve ever jumped off my couch any higher either. It was pure elation, but Horton wasn’t done just yet in the 2011 playoffs. The Bruins went on to sweep the lifeless Philadelphia Flyers in the next round and would face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference finals. The two teams were evenly matched and for the 2nd time in the playoffs, the Bruins were headed to a game 7 in Boston.

Now I just have to say, that the game 7 between the Bruins and Lightning was arguably one of the greatest hockey games I’ve ever had the pleasure to witness. The game had no penalties and I feel like there weren’t any whistles, just back-and-forth hockey all night. As the game wore on and both goalies looked like they would never give up a goal, Horton made it 1-0 a little past the halfway mark of the 3rd period and it was all the Bruins would need to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Once in the finals, Horton took a big blow to the head courtesy of Vancouver Canucks defensemen Aaron Rome in game 3. Horton was knocked out on the ice and you knew his playoff run was over. However, Horton’s injury sparked the Bruins and they overcame another 0-2 series deficit and went on to win the Stanley Cup. Even on the sidelines Horton did all he could to help the Bruins, check out a pretty cool montage here. Not shown in the video is Horton dumping a bottle of water on the ice in Vancouver before game 7, in the bottle was water from the Boston Garden ice surface because the home team had never lost a game in the series, until that game 7 of course.

Horton is set to be an unrestricted free-agent at the end of this season and with a cap hit of $4 million, it may be tough for the Bruins to resign him. I said tough, not impossible so hopefully the two sides can reach an agreement because when it comes to big/timely goals, their aren’t many guys that have gotten in done for the Bruins like Nathan Horton.

I believe Horton will resign with the Bruins and that his cap hit will be about $3-3.5 million a year. This may make it hard to resign a veteran defensemen like Andrew Ference, but with the emergence of Torey Krug that may not be as big a deal as initially believed.

So like I said, I fully expect Horton to resign with Boston and I think the man once dubbed “Mr. Money” by former goaltender Tim Thomas, still has a big goal or two up his sleeve.

Do you think the Bruins can resign Horton? Should they even bother? Let us know in the “comments” section below or join the conversation on Twtter or on Facebook!