Monday, March 3, 2008

Washington Preview

Tonight's expected lineup:

Axelsson-Savard-Murray
Sturm-Metropolit-Kessel
Lucic-Krejci-Kobasew
Reich-Sobotka-Thornton

Chara-Wideman
Ference-Ward
Stuart-Hnidy

Thomas

Of Note: Kessel and Kobes flip flopped as Julien says he is doing some minor "tweaking. "So much speed...You've got a double whammy on the wings" Metro said about the new second line.

McKeon's Take: From now (March 3rd) until March 16 the Bruins play nine games. They have 4 on the road and five at home. The Bruins need to remain playing as if tomorrow is not a guarantee in order to continue flying high. Now, do I think the Bruins will continue to win and take the next 9? No, but, I do expect them to perform well. This team needs to put as much room as possible between themselves and teams like Buffalo and Philadelphia.

For tonight, Z and D-Wide (I just made that up, not sure how I feel about it) have another big test in shutting down a very hungry Alex Ovechkin. The young gun broke a goal scoring drought last game against Toronto after not putting the puck in the net for 6 or 7 (i forget which) games. However, when Ovechkin was not scoring, he was still setting guys up. Ovechkin is leading the league in goals with 49.

The Bruins will likely face the newly acquired, Cristobal Huet, who beat the Bruins in all three attempts this season with a 1.67 goals against average and a .943 save percentage. The Bruins seem to struggle against Huet as they alway seem to struggle with guys like him, Johan Hedberg and Cam Ward.

For those who gamble, go with the under in this game. Ironically, the last time the Bruins lost, I chose the score with the Bruins coming out on top. When they won the following game I decided it would be good luck (sorry, it's the goaltender's superstition in me) to no longer predict the Bruins to win. The winner of this game will win either 2-1 or 3-1.

PS. I just noticed the top of the Capital building in the Washington logo. Props to the folks in Washington who came up with this new logo and going with colors that should be represented by a team in this nation's capital and changing the logo for a team that is trying to turn a corner. Also, I want to send out props to Head Coach Bruce Boudreau who has done a phenomenal job since "coming in for relief" (I'm so excited baseball season is here). Boudreau is also a fellow product of the Manchester Monarchs AHL hockey club.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

LET'S GO BRUINS! Sturm pots 2, Chara on the PP, Kessel and Lucic - BRUINS 5 CAPS 2! I like the Julien head game calling Huet a great goalie! Maybe we can sign him in the O/S. Have Thomas, Fernandez, Rask and Huet. I had too much coffee. LUCIC! LUCIC! LUCIC!

McKeon said...

haha, i love the intensity big-e!

Anonymous said...

I think it was more the Habs Style with Huet between the pipes that gave him so much success. I would not be surprised at all if he falters tonight with a sub-par defense in front of him.

Anonymous said...

I'm going with a 4-3 Bruins win. 2 for Kessel, Metropolit with a goal and 2 assists and An Aaron Ward PP goal.

Alex Ovechkin hat-trick with 3 assists to Mike Green. I've got Green in my pool, so...

McKeon said...

i apologize to anyone who took the under bc of me. I didn't know the Junior Bruins squirt team was going to show up in the first period...

Unknown said...

two psuedo words for all ya. WOW and WTF. thats all i got for yall tonite.

Anonymous said...

good call on the under tonight man. i owe u one.

Anonymous said...

Im changing the channel to "Flavor of Love," it's not as ugly

Anonymous said...

I did call an Ovechkin hat-trick...


wow. wake up call.

Anonymous said...

HAHAHAHA......That's all you can do about tonight !! Thomas sucked...but hey, he's earned a shitty game ! That was awful, but if you look at it as one of the games in hand, then no biggie. Now a must win tomorrow !!!