The Boston Bruins head to Vegas with a matching two games, two wins record to the Golden Knights, though it’s far to say their opponent’s form has been more impressive.
The Boston Bruins will arrive in Sin City having taken four points thus far, but having been made to work for them in both games. The Vegas Golden Knights, on the other hand, have met the same opponent in both their opening games and picked up 4-1 and 5-1 wins over the San Jose Sharks, in addition to besting them in pre-season twice.
Whether that says a lot for the Vegas Golden Knights or says more about the San Jose Sharks’ start to the season is anyone’s guess, but safe to say that this should prove the stiffest challenge yet for the Boston Bruins.
Arizona certainly didn’t give a 1-0 victory up easily, nor did Dallas allow us to just waltz into town and leave with the points, but in Vegas, we’re facing a team with a real array of offensive riches.
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Thus far, they have four players all with more than one point; Mark Stone, Tomas Nosek, Reilly Smith and William Karlsson making up that group with a combined 13 points, while 8 more players have a single point so far. It really is a strong group of players that they have managed to put together.
For the Boston Bruins, it’s going to be absolutely key to limit the time they spend on the penalty-kill. Though the stat may be an outlier given how fiery the Sharks double-header to start the year got, the Golden Knights have already tallied 3 short-handed goals this season.
The San Jose Sharks, in both games, struggled immensely to beat Marc-Andre Fleury in net and unless he sits for some reason, we imagine that Boston will face the same challenge. Luckily, if they can squeak one past him, we have equally strong goaltending and could potentially hang on for a win, as was the case in Arizona.
It seems crazy to think that less than five years ago, we wouldn’t even have been talking about such a fixture, heading to Vegas and all that, but here we are and they’re like no expansion franchise the league had ever known prior – they’re a genuine challenge to play against. Boston will want to make sure they’re bringing their A-game if they don’t want to lose this one.
Last year, this fixture played out in February with the Boston Bruins taking their winning streak at the time to seven games with a 3-2 shoot-out victory with Jarsolav Halak in net. Whether or not he starts on the back of a shut-out or whether Tuukka Rask gets the nod is genuinely anyone’s guess.
Viewing Information
Date: October 5th, 2019
Time: 22:00 EDT
Where: T-Mobile Arena
TV Broadcast: ESPN+, ATTSN-RM, NESN
Live Streaming: NHL.tv (subscription required)
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What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, let’s hope what happens in Vegas is that the Boston Bruins win and that actually, the points don’t stay there!!