Boston Bruins Weekly Predictions: All Star Break
Heading into the All Star Break, the Boston Bruins remain in a wild card position and are more than capable of climbing even higher than that. The only games the team will play this week will be back to back against the Philadelphia Flyers and the Anaheim Ducks. Those games are on Monday and Tuesday so the team will get a nice long rest afterwards. It is always effective to finish on a high note prior to an extended amount of time off, so hopefully the Boston Bruins can succeed in this respect.
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Bruins v Flyers
Considering how the Philadelphia Flyers are doing this year, it is disappointing that the Bruins have not defeated them yet. The Flyers are by no means out of the playoff race, but their situation is certainly more dire than Boston’s. The team itself is underperforming, except of course when they play against the Bruins. Boston needs to play much better than they did against the Columbus Blue Jackets, despite the two points, and put together a big game.
It was a surprise to see Jonas Gustavsson sneak into the starting role on Saturday so late before the game, but I am going to say that Tuukka Rask will get the start this time around. I will go as far as to say that if Rask has a good game against Philadelphia that he will play the next game as well. Having said that, I feel that, like their game against Columbus, this game will go into overtime and Philadelphia will once again take home the win, this time with a score of 4 to 3.
Bruins v Ducks
With the week off only a game away, Coach Julien will be expecting his team to give it everything they’ve got in this matchup. The Anaheim Ducks have improved since their horrendous start to the season. The team had not looked impressive, but now that they are playing closer to their potential they are difficult to handle.
This is not the kind of team the Boston Bruins want to face after playing the night before and it will show. Secondary scoring will be the story for both teams in this game and my feeling is that Anaheim will get more of it. I am truly hoping that the Bruins can generate something in their game against Philadelphia because I don’t think they have much of a chance going into this one. I’ll say that the Ducks take this game 2 to 0, with the Bruins coming up with limited scoring chance and no execution.
Puck Prose
All Star Break
Congratulations to Patrice Bergeron for representing the Boston Bruins at the 2016 All Star Game in Nashville. I won’t say much about the proceedings because I have gradually grown frustrated and disinterested in how the NHL has gone about celebrating the greatest players in this league.
Ever since the fantasy drafting, fan voting and car winning, the All Star Skills Competition and Game have turned into more of a circus attraction than anything a fan should take seriously. When the Eastern Conference use to go up against the Western Conference, the games were fierce and meant something. How great would it be to see that again? Even more so, what if the winning team, East or West, was awarded home ice advantage in the Stanley Cup Finals?
That kind of incentive, like in Major League Baseball, is what the NHL needs to come back to. Hopefully, with the recent tomfoolery of voting Jon Scott into the All Star Game shining a light on certain issues, the NHL will realize their mistakes and go back to more mature selection strategies. Needless to say, I will not be watching any of the All Star proceedings and truly feel that the label of NHL All Star does not mean half of what it meant only half a decade ago.
Next: Jonas Gustavsson Remains Undefeated In 2016
For the Boston Bruins, the All Star Break is, more than anything else, a time for them to catch their breath, look in the mirror and at the standings. It is always been said that a team’s future is in their own hands and I tend to agree with that. However, we are also entering the time of year where fans begin to look a little closer at the games that feature conference teams that are also in the playoff race. The race this year has been like no other and the finish should be much the same. Hopefully, this year the Boston Bruins will end up on the right side of things.
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