Bruins Must Overcome Home Woes, Tame Martin Havlat to Subdue Wild

It’s been over 13 months since the Bruins last faced Minnesota, and exactly two years to the day since the Wild last visited TD Garden.

That’s been a good thing for the Bruins, who have never beaten the Wild in Boston since they joined the NHL in 2000. It’s a small sample size, with Minnesota playing just five times in Boston, but the margin of victory has been anything but small. The Wild hold a 16-5 edge in scoring in those five games, including a 1-0 victory in their last visit here on Jan. 6, 2009.

Overall, the Bruins are just 2-8-0 against Minnesota regardless of the venue, having been outscored 30-15 in 10 meetings. That’s not an encouraging sign, especially considering the fact that Minnesota has only made the playoffs in three of its first nine seasons.

“We’ve had a tough time with them,” Bruins forward Blake Wheeler said of the Wild. “They’ve always played tough defensively. That’s kind of the style we like to play too, so I don’t think it’s going to be a shootout, but you never know.”

It is usually a low-scoring affair when the Wild are involved. Jacques Lemaire coached the team for its first eight seasons, bringing his trapping style west from New Jersey. New coach Todd Richards has tried to open things up a bit in the last two seasons, but a lack of high-end skill often forces Minnesota back into its stifling defensive ways.

But those methods can still be effective, as the Wild have proven of late. They are 6-3-1 over the last 10 games, the second-best mark in the Western Conference behind only Vancouver, which has pulled even with Detroit for the most points in the league on the strength of a 9-0-1 run in its last 10 games.

“I was watching that game [Minnesota’s 2-1 win in New Jersey on Tuesday] and saw a stat that over the last 10 games they have the second-best record in the conference,” Wheeler said. “They’ve been playing good hockey. They’ve put themselves in a great position to compete for a playoff spot. For us, it’s going to a huge challenge, especially coming back from the road and playing at home. It’s going to be a grind-it-out kind of game. I don’t expect it to be very high scoring, but two points is two points no matter how you get it.”

Facing a team they have not seen in so long creates some uncertainty in exactly how to beat it. In an era when so much preparation goes into every game with advance scouting and video work, facing an unfamiliar foe can be a daunting challenge.

“It’s a little tougher,” Wheeler said. “[Against conference rivals] you know tendencies, you know players, you know faces and you know what to expect whenever you play teams you play four or six times. It’s definitely a different challenge, but it’s a challenge for them too. It’s a two-way street and we just have to do the best we can when we watch video and try to pick up those tendencies and keep things simple for the first little bit. Then once we feel them out, try to expose those weaknesses.

“They’re playing good hockey right now,” Wheeler added. “Whenever a team is playing with confidence like they are now, they’re tough no matter what they do systematically.”

Bruins coach Claude Julien is less concerned with any surprises the Wild may throw at the Bruins than with how well his own team sticks to its game plan.

“We always talk about how we need to play our game and that’s going to be the case [Thursday] night,” Julien said. “I’ve watched them play a few games. They’re a real hard-working team. They’re battling for a playoff spot and they’re right there in the hunt, so I think we should expect them to be at their best and playing desperate hockey. Coming back from a road trip, the challenge of that first game back is always a big one, so we need to respond to that as well. [Keeping] the focus on us would probably be the wise thing to do right now.”

The Bruins are coming off an impressive road trip that saw them collect eight of 10 possible points in a five-game journey around the Eastern Conference. They took over first place in the Northeast Division during their run of six straight games with at least one point, but now must find a way to replicate that performance at home.

The Bruins have excelled on the road the last two years, but have struggled at times at home. Last year they lost 10 straight on Garden ice midway through the season and only Florida finished with less home wins than Boston in the entire NHL. This season the home cooking has been a bit more palatable, with the Bruins going 9-6-3 at the Garden. But that still falls short of their 12-5-3 mark on the road.

Minnesota is also a strong road team, with a 9-6-3 mark away from home. Overall, the Wild are 19-15-5 and just two points out of the final playoff spot in the West. The Bruins don’t want to let them earn those points with yet another win in Boston. That’s one thing the Bruins definitely do know going into this one.