The Boston Bruins are currently making a big mistake and must correct it or risk being an early elimination from the Stanley Cup Playoffs in a month.
The mistake the Boston Bruins are making is that they’re playing too hard right now with basically nothing on the line. Granted, a President’s Trophy would be nice as would an Eastern Conference wild-card opponent, but they shouldn’t be pushing as hard as they are.
Just look at the most recent match-up with the Tampa Bay Lightning; that one got physical fast. Yes, it was a contest for top spot in the Atlantic Division basically, but why are we risking any of our players getting injured this close to the ‘second season’.
Rest assured, the Boston Bruins made their point in that match-up; they’re not going to be pushing around, they’ll answer strength and skill with strength and skill and not give a care to who they upset, but it all seems foolish.
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While you can look at Tampa and say it was purely a divisional rivalry that blew out of control on the night, it’s not been the only recent fixture that the team have played such a rough-house, physical brand of hockey.
It surely could end up hurting us if we run out of steam before the play-off season even begins.
Right now, we sit top in our division and are all but assured to remain top three in the absolute worst-case scenario. That means, we’d draw a team like the Columbus Blue Jackets and then likely Tampa Bay or if we dropped down a little, likely the Toronto Maple Leafs and then Tampa.
Honestly, the play-off bracket doesn’t shift a great deal for us; if we’re playing that hard just to secure home-ice or to face a slightly easier first-round opponent, it seems a bit crazy.
Watching the way our players were harassed and crowded and in some cases goaded into places where they were risking serious injury (look at how they were handling Brad Marchand and Zdeno Chara) you have to wonder whether that was actual a tactic of the Lightning.
Were they indeed trying to weaken the Boston Bruins line-up they’ll most likely be facing come play-off time?
Plain and simple, it’s a mistake to play as hard physically as we are right now. We can play a skill game and win without risking injury and without wearing ourselves out before the most important part of the year.
Such is the make-up of the Boston Bruins roster, we can out-play teams and not get caught up in the other nonsense. Even if it is proper old-school Bruins hockey. Let’s just wait one more month to welcome back old times!