Causeway gameday! Boston Bruins in a New York state of mind

Bust out your best Frank Sinatra vinyls, because the Boston Bruins are on to New York, New York.  Coming off a solid victory against a tough opponent, can the Bruins win their first set of back-to-back games?

Jeremy Jacobs may be Chairman of Board when it comes to the Boston Bruins.  But in music fans’ hearts, there’s only one Chairman of the Board, and that is Ol’ Blue Eyes.  But, setting music aside for the moment, there’s some life in the Boston Bruins!

The Bruins are coming off a victory against the Minnesota Wild, a respectable Western Conference opponent with a Vezina-caliber goalie.  The Bruins played tough, physical hockey.  They used their unique combination of size, speed, and skill to score 5 goals en route to a 5-3 win.

The Bruins now find themselves at 6-4-3 (15 points).  For a team so depleted by injuries to still be keeping their heads above water, it’s starting to become impressive.  Now, if only the team can string together performances like they had on Monday night against Minnesota, that will be something to get really excited about.  The Bruins have 2 or 3 games in hand over most of the teams in front of them in the standings, and at 15 points, they’re right in the mix.

The Bruins opponents tonight are the Blueshirts from Broadway, the New York Rangers.  Another team like Minnesota that has all the talent in the world, yet is off to a disappointing start to the season.  Sitting at 7-7-2 (16 points), the Rangers are another team that have failed to gain any momentum from game to game.  Questions have arisen as to whether the window has closed on the Rangers and the Henrik Lundqvist era.  The undeniably elite goalie’s crown has tarnished a bit over the past few seasons.

Schedule

The curtain goes up on this show at 8:00 pm tonight at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY.  The game will be featured on NBC Sports Network as their national Wednesday Night Rivalry game.  You can listen on 98.5 The Sports Hub if you’re so inclined.

What to watch for

The players in the Bruins lineup appears to remain the same from the Minnesota game on Monday.  However, the lines have a slightly different look about them:

All of the forward line combinations remain the same.  However, the 3rd and 4th lines appear to be flipped.  That may just be nothing, or it could mean Jake DeBrusk, Jordan Szwarz, and Frank Vatrano are in for less minutes tonight.  A lot of people were praising Matt Beleskey’s performance in the last game.  If you read our page consistently, you know I’ve taken a different approach to #39.

The Bruins need to be on the lookout for speedy and skilled players like Mika Zibanejad, Mats Zuccarello, and J.T. Miller.  All of them can easily get past the defense at any moment.  Given the Bruins proclivity for giving up breakaways recently (4 in the last two games, 2 of them shorthanded), it’s a growing concern.  However, the two Zs also sport some hefty minus ratings, meaning the Bruins could take advantage of them on the ice.

Next: Bruins should waive Beleskey

Three or four years ago, a match-up between King Henrik and Tuukka Rask would be a battle of elite goalies.  However, King Henrik’s crown doesn’t fit so well anymore, and people constantly question whether Tuukka is an elite goalie (hint:  he is).  However, even with both getting longer in the tooth, this could still be an epic goaltending match-up.