Claude Julien’s final thoughts going to game one tomorrow.
May 12, 2013; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien (left) behind the bench against the Toronto Maple Leafs in game six of the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Air Canada Centre. Toronto defeated Boston 2-1. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
Tomorrow is game one. We’re all excited. Some of us are nervous, the rest of us are confident. We know that the Penguins will certainly be no cake walk, and if the Bruins do not play to their strengths and execute a sixty minute game, it could be a very short and disappointing series for the Black and Gold.
The Bruins will need to make a sincere effort to take one of the first two games away from the Penguins. An early away win could shift the momentum of the series. Coach Claude Julien discussed that after yesterday’s practice.
“We have to win games on the road, and we’ve done that in both series so far. We know we can win games on the road. I guess the advantage you want to take from that is you hope to come out of there with at least a win, right?” This is the first time this year the Bruins have given up the home-ice advantage in the playoffs. ” You come out with at least a win, you’ve got home-ice advantage. It’s always been a goal of every team, I’m not telling you a big secret or something that will reveal something of our plan to go down there, but that’s basically what it is. You start on the road and you hope to come out of there with at least a win.”
The Bruins have two great and one outstanding lines in their forwards roster, and that depth will keep them in this series. Don’t get me wrong, Pittsburgh has the best two forward lines on the ice right now, but we’ve got them in an endurance race. “I think it’s about a lot of depth.” offered the Bruins head coach, who has taken the Bruins to the playoffs every year he has been there. “We said that. When you look at how they finished, they’ve got a guy by the name of [Brendan] Morrow on their fourth line, [Jussi] Jokinen. There’s definitely some depth there. We feel we’ve got the same thing. It’s going to be a lot of head-to-head here and see who’s going to outplay the other team’s line and so on, so forth. I think that’s what you’re looking at, a really good matchup here, which to me should be a really entertaining series.”
Entertaining, well that’s one way of putting it coach. Nerve-wracking could be another. Either way, all the pre-game hype (and BS) can finally be put to rest as our Boston Bruins go to Pittsburgh to play in the Eastern Conference Finals.