Boston Bruins: Key match-up that we must win against Dallas

The Boston Bruins need to come out all guns blazing against the Dallas Stars on opening night; key to doing so will be one particular match-up.

While they don’t necessarily meet out on the open ice, the match-up that I think will play the biggest role in the outcome of the Boston Bruins’ season opener is that of the two goalies.

For Boston, it’s highly likely that Tuukka Rask is the starting goaltender on opening night. Why wouldn’t he be, really? For the Dallas Stars, you’d have to expect it’s Ben Bishop between the pipes over former Bruins number-two, Anton Khudobin.

We’ve seen in years gone by that Tuukka Rask doesn’t necessarily get rolling straight away on opening night and given the offensive firepower of Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, Alex Radulov and Joe Pavelski to name a few, it’s absolutely imperative that the Finn is able to settle in early and get his game going from puck-drop.

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Equally though for the Dallas Stars, they need Ben Bishop to start on time. Last year, he ended the month of October with a save percentage of 0.925%, managing a shut-out in his first game of the season against the Arizona Coyotes.

That will be exactly what his team wants from him versus the Boston Bruins, however he will be facing the likes of David Pastrnak and Jake Debrusk, who are both coming into the game off the back of hat-tricks in the final pre-season clash with an admittedly under-strength Chiacgo Blackhawks line-up.

Either way, the final pre-season outing should have given them a definite confidence boost, whilst the likes of Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron will look to remain as consistent an offensive threat as ever.

It’s an odd match-up maybe, but whichever goalie settles into his rhythm and gets it going is going to end up on the winning side. There’s too much firepower for there not to be a few goals, so it’s going to be saves that prove the true difference-maker on the night.

My money is on Tuukka Rask showing up on time this year for the Boston Bruins and once again silencing any critic that suggests he’s over the hill or needs to be traded.