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Krejci line, Hamilton look to add pressure to Leafs |
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Ty Anderson
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For about 48 games, the entire City of Boston complained about the lack of production from the Boston Bruins’ first line of Nathan Horton, Milan Lucic, and David Krejci. And how could you not? The trio that by all means powered the Bruins to the Northeast Division title and carried much of the load en route to the club’s first Cup in 39 years just two years ago, finished this abridged 2013 campaign with a combined 30 goals. Or ten goals per linemate. Or one goal every 4.8 games for what was once Claude Julien’s favorite three-man band.
Their numbers, in a word, were woeful -- nightmarish, even.
But most of all, they were unacceptable.
At their core, the Black-and-Gold know that a deep playoff run simply isn’t possible if the ‘David and the Goliath’s’ line didn’t wake up from their near two-month long snooze, and if Game 1 has any indication as to what Bruins fans are about to see from this group, it’s time for the B’s to hang the “Welcome Back” signs up from the rafters of the Garden.
In their first playoff game together since Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, the 17-46-18 line combined for two goals, six points, a plus-6, and six shots. Their presence out there pestered a reeling Toronto blue-line, and ultimately led to exposure that gave the Bergeron line and even the Kelly line a number of great looks.
But perhaps the most encouraging note of the night came back to the fact that the Czech-born center was back in the driver’s seat of a playoff tilt -- again.
“I think his playoff stats get overlooked a little bit, especially because he led the whole playoffs in goals and points in 2011 and I think I saw on TV after the game that he has 50 points in 60 playoff games, which is pretty impressive for a guy like him,” Lucic said of Krejci’s playoff resume, which now includes 14 goals and 29 points in the last 33 games. “We just got to do whatever we can to keep it going.”
Rich Peverley likely back in lineup
After watching Game 1 from the press box as a healthy scratch on Wednesday night, expect to see the speedy Rich Peverley back in the lineup for the B’s.
Sat in favor of bottom-sixer Kaspars Daugavins, who finished Game 1 with two shots and a giveaway in just under 10 minutes of ice-time, the return to the lineup will surely bring out some extra edge out of the 30-year-old forward that’s seized most of the opportunities thrown his way in just two and a half seasons in Boston. “I’ve always prided myself on my play during the playoffs, so I hope if I’m in there I can prove to be a valuable part of the team,” Peverley said this morning. “Whatever it takes to win the game.”
In 32 playoff games with Boston, Peverley has tallied seven goals and added 10 assists.
If Peverley gets the call, Daugavins will sit as a healthy scratched forward along with Jay Pandolfo, and .
19-year-old Hamilton set to make playoff debut
With the Bruins’ Andrew Ference handed a one-game ban for his elbow to the face of Toronto’s Mikhail Grabovski, the Bruins are likely to go with the 19-year-old Dougie Hamilton for the first playoff game of his National Hockey League career.
Hamilton, drafted with the eighth overall pick back in 2011 as the final piece of the 2009 trade that sent Phil Kessel to the Maple Leafs, is coming off a rookie season that included five goals and 16 points in just 42 games, and while it’s not definite, it’s widely expected to be his spot given yesterday’s lines at practice.
“We’ve seen enough of Dougie to know exactly what he can bring to our team. The rest is
certainly not something that’s going to hurt him,” B’s coach Claude Julien said yesterday. “I know people seem to wonder why we talk about him being rested, it’s simple: I’ve said it before, he’s played more hockey than any player on our team. When you start in August and you represent Canada not once, but twice, and then you play your junior games with your team, and you play the minutes that he played, then you come over here and play the schedule that we had, he deserved a rest. For that part, I think he’s going to come back a better player when he does come back.
“He might be a young player for the playoffs, but to me, at this stage, the amount of games that he’s played, he’s a veteran. We don’t look at guys, necessarily as rookies, we look at them as young players, but he’s a young player that’s going to be playing his first game soon,” Julien noted of Hamilton’s game through 42 NHL contests, adding, “I think that’s the thing with him, he’s played enough hockey to understand what’s at stake here.”
If it’s not Hamilton, expect to see Matt Bartkowski out there as the sixth d-man.
Game two crucial for Julien, Bruins
During the Claude Julien era of B’s hockey, the team that’s won Game 2 has gone on to win the series seven times out of ten. With just three exceptions to what’s become the rule in Boston, coming once back in 2010 with the Flyers in round two and twice in 2011 (first round versus Montreal and Cup Final against Vancouver), the Black-and-Gold know that it’s on them to keep the pressure on Toronto heading into this pivotal matchup.
“We made a decision on how we’re approaching this -- It’s about how we’re going to play, [you can] talk about the pressure, we just need to play the best hockey we can. We feel that if we do that, we’ve got a chance of winning a hockey game, if we don’t play well, then we’re going to give them a chance and we have to play the best hockey that we can, it’s as simple as that,” Julien said after Friday’s practice. “We have to look after ourselves and not worry about what the other team is going to do. That’s what I said earlier on before the series started, it doesn’t matter to me what the Leafs do, what matter to me is what we do. That’s what I plan on doing, keeping the focus on our team.”
Expect a much better effort from Toronto, a team that could very well shake their lineup up before tonight’s game in an effort to get better offense throughout the lineup.
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