The Boston Bruins will finally host a team at TD Garden in the fifth fixture of the year – that team; a struggling New Jersey Devils.
Given the manner of the Boston Bruins’ defeat in Colorado, with two goals called back, safe to say they’ll be hungry to go back to adding numbers to the wins column. Four games in, they’ve only been beaten once; highly competitive compared to tonight’s visitor.
The New Jersey Devils have started the new season about as bad as you can. Despite big summer additions in Jack Hughes and PK Subban, they’ve been on the losing side in all four of their games and haven’t looked to have quite gotten it all together yet.
Of course, a team on a four game losing streak may actually be one to fear moreso than one on a winning streak; it could very much go either way with the Devils.
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Either it’ll light the fire under the likes of Hughes, Subban, Taylor Hall and company and we’ll see care-free play, that given the offensive talents of that trio alone is actually a little concerning.
Or on the flip side of that, the four losses already will lead us to seeing an opponent that is devoid of confidence and thus bereft of the killer touch that you’re sure their offensive talent should be able to provide.
You’d expect the strength of the Boston Bruins’ line-up down the middle to easily be able to handle the likes of Nico Hischier and Travis Zajac. Jack Hughes is a slight wildcard, especially having seen the way he made such effortless plays in the pre-season. The challenge there is whether to roll Charlie Coyle or David Krejci against him.
Looking at the overall make-up of the New Jersey roster, it doesn’t elicit much by way of fear. Guys like Wayne Simmonds and Kyle Palmieri are talented, no doubt, but they’re not exactly world-beaters and there’s only so much players like Hall can do to bring them up to his level.
In net, Cory Schnieder has had a dreadful start to the year, averaging 3.5 goals against with a 0.891 save percentage. His backup, young Mackenzie Blackwood is even worse, with a 0.821 save percentage and dropping 4.9 goals a game on average.
Whichever one is starting, you’d hope the Boston Bruins take advantage by simply turning the offensive zone into a shooting gallery. With numbers as poor as that, even if that’s the result of at least one blow-out scoreline, you’d hedge bets that any good shot could go in. With David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand starting to pick up some form, you’d be looking for a couple of points each from them both.
You’d imagine that Tuukka Rask returns to the net tonight in Boston, with Jaroslav Halak having been given the start in Colorado. So far, we’ve seen them share games; one takes one night, the other takes the next.
Last year, at TD Garden, we split it one game apiece with the Devils. Brad Marchand scored the only goal in a narrow 1-0 win in March, whilst Blackwood had his first win in the Devils’ net in a 5-2 post-Christmas rout.
Viewing Information
Date: October 12th, 2019
Time: 19:00 EDT
Where: TD Garden
TV Broadcast: NESN, MSG
Live Streaming: NHL.tv (subscription required)
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Let’s hope we can start the home campaign as well as we started the year on the road. Here’s going for four Boston Bruins’ wins out of five.