Bruins Rested, Ready for Ducks

by

Oct 8, 2009

Bruins Rested, Ready for Ducks After three solid and hard practices, the Bruins take to the TD Garden ice Thursday against the Anaheim Ducks in the third game of their five-game season-opening homestand.

After falling flat against the Capitals in a 4-1 loss a week ago, Boston bounced back in a big way with a superb effort against Carolina in a 7-2 win Saturday. Now the key will be for the Bruins to repeat that 60-minute effort against a winless but strong Anaheim team.

Head coach Claude Julien expects a tough game, despite the fact the Ducks haven’t won yet. He knows his team is going to need another strong performance because the Ducks will be desperate.

“The team that we’re playing is 0-2, but they’re always a character team,” Julien said. “They’ve got a real great coaching staff that won’t let them put their heads down. They’re going to bounce back. I expect a real tough game and they’re going to come out hard wanting to redeem themselves. They’re probably going to be a lot like we were after our embarrassing loss in the opener.”

The Ducks had a similar run to the Bruins’ in the playoffs, coming within one game of the conference finals. They’re a proud, disciplined team as Julien stated earlier this week, and this will be another early season test for the Bruins.

“I know [coach] Randy Carlyle has been very demanding of his players and it’s paid off for him — he’s won himself a Stanley Cup,” he said.

When and Where

Thursday, Oct. 8, 7:05 p.m. ET (NESN)
TD Garden, Boston, Mass.

Records

Bruins (1-1-0), 2 pts. 2nd in the Northeast Division, 7th in the Eastern Conference
Ducks (0-1-1), 1 pt. 5th in the Pacific Division, 14th in the Western Conference
 

Head to Head

This is the first game of the season between the Ducks and Bruins. Last season, the Bruins won the only game against the Ducks 6-0 at the TD Garden on February 26.

The Bruins lead the all-time series against the Ducks 11-7-2 and are 6-4-0 at home against the team formerly known as The Mighty Ducks Of Anaheim.

The Bruins play the Ducks again on January 13 at Anaheim.

Skinny

The Bruins once again need a 60-minute effort against what promises to be a pesky yet talented Anaheim squad with solid goaltending.

After going 0-for-5 on the power play in the season opener against Washington, the Bruins found their groove against Carolina Saturday, going 4-for-8. They are scoring at a 38.8 percent clip on the man-advantage and rank 12th in the NHL.

The Bruins’ penalty kill was solid as well against Carolina, killing off eight of the Hurricanes’ nine power plays. The Bruins PK. is at 78.6 percent and ranks 15th in the NHL.

The Ducks are scoring at a 22.2 percent clip on the power play and ranked 19th in the NHL.

Anaheim has killed off 63.6 percent of the power plays they’ve faced and ranks 22nd.

Projected Lineups


Bruins
























Left Wing Center Right Wing
Milan Lucic Marc Savard Marco Sturm
Blake Wheeler David Krejci Michael Ryder
Mark Recchi Patrice Bergeron Chuck Kobasew
Shawn Thornton Steve Begin Byron Bitz















Defenseman Defenseman
Zdeno Chara Derek Morris
Andrew Ference Dennis Wideman
Mark Stuart-Matt Hunwick Johnny Boychuk









Goaltenders
Tim Thomas
Tukka Rask


Ducks
























Left Wing Center Right Wing
Bobby Ryan
Ryan Getzlaf
Corey Perry
Joffrey Lupul
Saku Koivu
Teemu Selanne
Todd Marchant
Andrew Ebbett/Erik Christensen
Mike Brown
Evgeny Artyukhin
Ryan Carter
George Parros















Defenseman Defenseman
Scott Niedermayer
Luca Sbisa
Ryan Whitney
James Wisniewski
Steve Eminger
Nick Boynton/Sheldon Brookbank









Goaltenders
Jonas Hiller
Jean-Sebastien Giguere


Goaltender Matchup


Bruins

Tim Thomas is 1-1-0 with a 3.00 GAA and a .902 save percentage

Ducks
Jonas Hiller
is 0-1-0 with a 4.00 GAA and an .892 save percentage

J.S. Giguere is 0-0-1 with a 3.81 GAA and .875 save percentage.

Stat Sheet

Bruins
Center Marc Savard has a goal and two assists in his first two games this season.

Center Steve Begin has three assists in the first two games.

Forwards Patrice Bergeron (one goal, one assist), Michael Ryder (one goal, one assist), Marco Sturm (one goal, one assist), and defenseman Derek Morris (two assists) all have two points each.

Ducks
Defenseman Ryan Whitney has a goal and two assists in his first two games.

Defenseman James Wisniewski has two helpers in two games.

Forward Ryan Getzlaf has two assists in two games.

Black and Blue


Ducks

Former Bruins forward Petteri Nokelainen is day-to-day with a groin injury.


This Date In Bruins History

Cam Neely scores the game-winning goal with 2:05 left in regulation in a 4-3 win over Washington on Oct. 8, 1987.

Overheard

“Yeah, you know Randy [Carlyle’s] pretty [methodic], actually he’s really methodic, about line matching, which you’ll probably end up seeing. No matter what, he’s going to put whatever line he wants against ours.

 We like to use all four of our lines and roll through those, and I think it’s served us better. But as far as their style of play, it’s a lot like ours: very aggressive forechecking and they play hard in the neutral zone, they force you to dump pucks in and you can’t make the pretty plays in the neutral zone.”
-Claude Julien on what he expects from the Ducks


Press Box

Bruins
It was all Milan Lucic the last 48 hours as the rugged winger signed a $12.25 million, three-year extension with the Bruins. Lucic has been compared to Cam Neely plenty of times, and Julien thinks the comparison is justified.

Kathryn Tappen believes old-time hockey is back for the next four seasons with Lucic around.

The Lucic contract is “lockout proof” for Lucic.

Tuukka Rask and Johnny Boychuk are patiently waiting their turns.

Bruins defenseman Mark Stuart is the Bruins’ new player rep with the NHLPA after Andrew Ference stepped down.

Ducks

Former Boston University defenseman and Massachusetts native Ryan Whitney is shooting the puck morethese days.

Ducks captain Scott Niedermayer is the sole defenseman left from the 2007 blue line corps that helped Anaheim win the Stanley Cup.

Former Bruins forward Petteri Nokelainen is battling a groin injury.

NHL

Who will become captain of the Leafs?

The Red Wings have signed Brad May, who won the Stanley Cup with Anaheim three seasons ago:

The Leafs are in some trouble for potentially tampering.

Ilya Kovalchuk, the Thrashers’ sniper and captain that the Bruins may target at the trade deadline in March, may be closer to re-signing with Atlanta and avoiding free agency next summer.


Outlook


The Bruins can climb above .500 Thursday, and if they are to do so, they will need to give another solid effort and feed off one of their greatest attributes: passion. Obviously they had extra incentive to beat the Hurricanes after the 4-1 season opening debacle against Carolina and also after being eliminated by the Hurricanes in last year’s playoffs. But they must learn to feed off their passion and emotion every game.


That’s a lot easier said than done, and it is harder against Western Conference teams that they see once or twice a year, but somehow they have to find that drive in this game and in every game.

As always, special teams will be another huge factor. If the Bruins are clicking on the power play and penalty kill as well as avoiding trips to the sin bin, there is always a good chance they will win.

Between the pipes, look for Thomas to continue to get better in his third start. He is notorious for slow starts, but he wasn’t horrible in the 4-1 loss and looked great in a game that could have been tough for any goalie facing minimal scoring chances from the opponent against the Canes.

If the Bruins channel their emotions properly, look sharp on special teams and solid between the pipes, expect them to come out with a win.

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