Saturday Night Special
By Bookiekiller.com's NHL Guru, Rink Rat
First meeting of the season
Last year: 3-0-1-0 for Bruins
Maybe Robbie Ftorek has learned a thing or two. He's the coach of the Boston Bruins. Years ago he was the coach of the L.A. Kings when Wayne Gretzky arrived in California. Ftorek beaked off to the press as to how he planned to treat the Great One just like any other player. Ftorek was fired. Now he has the Bruins competing for first overall in the NHL. Not bad, considering every year Boston starts the season with a depleted line-up, caused by a parsimonious upper management.
Whatever, the Bruins are ticking along, with a fat 10-2-1-0 record on home ice. Their last ten games have been strong, although they nearly dumped one on Thursday night to the Atlanta Thrashers. Maybe they were doing a favour for new Thrasher goaltender and old team-mate, Byron Dafoe. Bruins lead the conference in home scoring, are third in goals against, second on the power play and seventh killing penalties. Their goaltending tandem of John Grahame and Steve Shields is getting the job done, with a home save percentage of .924. The club's heavy hitters, Joe Thornton and Glen Murray, have four game winning goals between them and Brian Rolston has three in his eleven goals on the season. Thornton is third in league scoring with 13-20-33 and is rapidly developing into a premium power forward. Sergei Samsonov has been in and out of the line-up lately with injuries and will likely miss this game. Other than that, the Bruins have no complaints.
Tampa Bay played the Bruins tough last season - the series was 3-0-1-0 in Boston's favour, but two of the wins were in overtime. They'll have to play hard this time if they expect to stand a chance of winning. The Lightning are wobbling a bit after storming out of the gate. Their road record is a middling 5-5-3-1, however every one of those games has been played in the eastern time zone. With little travel they should have done better. They have scored 40 goals on the road and conceded 39 - which explains their .500 record. Their road power play is a weak 10th and the penalty killing a feeble 14th. Thornton and Murray are going to love these guys, especially considering the Bruins odd-man differential is a healthy +7 and Tampa's is -4. Nik Khabibulin has been decent, if not spectacular, in goal for the Lightning with a road save percentage of .904. He's an untidy goaltender but can get on a roll and stay there almost indefinitely. So far this season that hasn't happened. Against Edmonton on Thursday, Tampa looked shaky but hung in and had a good third period. They can skate and the line of water-bug Martin St. Louis, Brad Richards, and Fred Modin can buzz. Centre Vincent Lecavalier throws in his shake and bake and this team can be tricky. However, Dave Andreychuk is on the shelf and his absence will unsettle the Lightning, a team very much early in the learning to win phase.
Tampa won't find an answer to Joe Thornton and the Bruins goaltender, whichever one gets the nod, outplays Khabibulin. Boston takes the beans. Take Boston on the PUCK LINE !!!
the Rat can be reached via email @ rsbookiekiller@hotmail.com
By Bookiekiller.com's NHL Guru, Rink Rat
First meeting of the season
Last year: 3-0-1-0 for Bruins
Maybe Robbie Ftorek has learned a thing or two. He's the coach of the Boston Bruins. Years ago he was the coach of the L.A. Kings when Wayne Gretzky arrived in California. Ftorek beaked off to the press as to how he planned to treat the Great One just like any other player. Ftorek was fired. Now he has the Bruins competing for first overall in the NHL. Not bad, considering every year Boston starts the season with a depleted line-up, caused by a parsimonious upper management.
Whatever, the Bruins are ticking along, with a fat 10-2-1-0 record on home ice. Their last ten games have been strong, although they nearly dumped one on Thursday night to the Atlanta Thrashers. Maybe they were doing a favour for new Thrasher goaltender and old team-mate, Byron Dafoe. Bruins lead the conference in home scoring, are third in goals against, second on the power play and seventh killing penalties. Their goaltending tandem of John Grahame and Steve Shields is getting the job done, with a home save percentage of .924. The club's heavy hitters, Joe Thornton and Glen Murray, have four game winning goals between them and Brian Rolston has three in his eleven goals on the season. Thornton is third in league scoring with 13-20-33 and is rapidly developing into a premium power forward. Sergei Samsonov has been in and out of the line-up lately with injuries and will likely miss this game. Other than that, the Bruins have no complaints.
Tampa Bay played the Bruins tough last season - the series was 3-0-1-0 in Boston's favour, but two of the wins were in overtime. They'll have to play hard this time if they expect to stand a chance of winning. The Lightning are wobbling a bit after storming out of the gate. Their road record is a middling 5-5-3-1, however every one of those games has been played in the eastern time zone. With little travel they should have done better. They have scored 40 goals on the road and conceded 39 - which explains their .500 record. Their road power play is a weak 10th and the penalty killing a feeble 14th. Thornton and Murray are going to love these guys, especially considering the Bruins odd-man differential is a healthy +7 and Tampa's is -4. Nik Khabibulin has been decent, if not spectacular, in goal for the Lightning with a road save percentage of .904. He's an untidy goaltender but can get on a roll and stay there almost indefinitely. So far this season that hasn't happened. Against Edmonton on Thursday, Tampa looked shaky but hung in and had a good third period. They can skate and the line of water-bug Martin St. Louis, Brad Richards, and Fred Modin can buzz. Centre Vincent Lecavalier throws in his shake and bake and this team can be tricky. However, Dave Andreychuk is on the shelf and his absence will unsettle the Lightning, a team very much early in the learning to win phase.
Tampa won't find an answer to Joe Thornton and the Bruins goaltender, whichever one gets the nod, outplays Khabibulin. Boston takes the beans. Take Boston on the PUCK LINE !!!
the Rat can be reached via email @ rsbookiekiller@hotmail.com
