The Boston Bruins welcome the San Jose Sharks to TD Garden, as we wrap up what, by all accounts, has been a memorable October.
While the Boston Bruins have only lost one game in regulation this month, their opponents have lost all but one game in their five-game Eastern swing. They started their trip in decent enough fashion, only losing to the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 in over-time and then beating the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 in Montreal.
However, the past two games have been dire for them; first losing 4-1 to the Toronto Maple Leafs despite taking an early lead, before losing 5-2 to the re-building Ottawa Senators this past Sunday.
There clearly is strength in the San Jose line-up; scoring is spread among their players with Brent Burns leading the way from the blue-line with 12 points, while Evander Kane, Tomas Hertl and Logan Couture all have double figures, with 10 points each.
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The key for the Boston Bruins is going to be absorbing the waves of attack; while these guys lead the way in scoring, there is plenty of depth with Erik Karlsson, Kevin Labanc and a returning Patrick Marleau all able to put up points when called upon.
Not only that, their penalty kill is elite thus far this year, pushing up to the blue-line and limiting any entry opportunity. They have a league leading 93.18% penalty-kill, though of course, the Boston Bruins’ second-best in the league power-play at 32.35% may challenge them somewhat. It’ll certainly make for an interesting battle if nothing else.
It would appear though that defeating the San Jose Sharks may be as simple for the Boston Bruins as putting shots on their goalie, especially given that Karlsson and Burns both have a penchant for joining the rush, leaving them somewhat open defensively.
Neither Martin Jones nor Aaron Dell sport a save percentage of above 90%; Jones’ 0.892 being marginally better than Dell’s 0.891. Likewise, goals against averages; Jones’ is a miserable 3.39 while Dell is even worse at 3.53.
Given they’ll be facing the league’s leading goalscorer and point scorer in general, David Pastrnak; you’d likely be fearing how much of a white-wash this result could prove to be, if you’re a San Jose Sharks fan.
The Boston Bruins meanwhile come into this game on a three-game winning streak, riding high with wins over the Maple Leafs and St. Louis Blues as well as an emphatic routing of a young New York Rangers’ side.
Coming into this game on the back of a 7-4 win, with 5-point nights for Pastrnak and Brad Marchand, as well as a Patrice Bergeron hat-trick though could prove a double-edged sword. Such a strong win could leave the Boston Bruins susceptible to a bit of complacency seeping in, equally though, it could just result in another dominant display, a continuation of that form.
This fixture last season saw the Boston Bruins extend their point-streak to fourteen games, this time around it’s only a seven-game point streak thus far but they’ll be hoping for an equally emphatic 4-1 win as last time to extend that to eight games.
Viewing Information
Date: October 29th, 2019
Time: 19:00 EDT
Where: TD Garden
TV Broadcast: NESN, NBCSCA
Live Streaming: NHL.tv (subscription required), ESPN+ (subscription required)
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The Boston Bruins should easily come away with the win in this encounter, but it’s early days and there is always a high risk that we get complacent, given our recent winning form. all things said though, in the past the Sharks were a far scarier prospect than the ones we’ll face tonight.