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The Boston Bruins opted not to trade Loui Eriksson, acquired defenseman John-Michael Liles from the Carolina Hurricanes and forward Lee Stempniak for their stretch that begins with tonight’s visit from the all-world (and now loaded beyond belief) Chicago Blackhawks.
Liles and Stempniak got their warm-up as Bruins in with Boston’s 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night, with both playing an efficient but nothing out of this world game, but beginning with tonight’s contest with Chicago, 10 of the Bruins’ next 11 games come against playoff opponents. Many of which come on the road, too. It’s the make-or-break run that will line the Bruins up as solidified playoff contenders or among those fighting for the two wild card spots in the Eastern Conference.
And though the Bruins won ugly over Calgary (a bad team), the B’s defensive game (just 25 shots against, most of which from the outside) stood out as an obvious positive moving forward.
“Definitely a good thing for our hockey club, because we’ll need that tonight and even more,… B’s coach Claude Julien said. “This is a team that creates a lot and you obviously have great management skills and they don’t make that many mistakes. They can certainly move the puck around and they have some dangerous players out there that can make things happen out of very little, so defensively, there’s no doubt we’ve got to minimize our mistakes and really pay attention to details.…
That centers around Patrick Kane, the league’s leading scorer with 88 points on the year (a 17-point lead on second-place Jamie Benn), second in the league in boths goals (37) and assists (51), the B’s night focuses on shutting No. 88 down. Or at least slow him down as much they can.
“[Kane]’s one of those guys that you’ve got to keep an eye on all the time. He’s got that knack to kind of disappears and you lose sight of him, and the first thing you know, he appears in a real good scoring area,… said Julien. “When he does have the puck, he’s got great vision, he makes plays, he makes things happen, so real exceptional player for this league – probably one of the better ones, if not the best one right now. Again, you know, I think it’s really about paying attention to where he is on the ice. You hear teams and players and coaches say take his time and space away, and you’ve got to do that, but you’ve also got to have awareness of who’s around him, because he’ll make things happen all the time.…
The Blackhawks enter Boston with wins in two straight and 17 of 32 away from the United Center.
Chicago is expected to give the start to Scott Darling. The 27-year-old Darling has made just one start since Jan. 23 -- a 35-of-37 victory over Toronto back on Feb. 15 -- and comes into action with six wins and a .917 save percentage in 12 starts this season. The 6-foot-6 Darling has taken on the B’s once in his NHL career (at TD Garden, too), a 32-of-34 victory tallied last season.
The Bruins are expected to counter with Tuukka Rask for his fifth straight start. Rask stopped 24-of-25 in the B’s win over Calgary on Tuesday, and has stopped 130-of-137 (.948 save percentage) overall over that stretch, which has come with three wins. The 28-year-old Rask has taken on the Blackhawks five times in his NHL career (those numbers exclude the six-game war the Bruins and Blackhawks had for the Stanley Cup back in 2013), with two wins (one shutout), a 1.76 goals against average, and .937 save percentage to his name. (This one might be on his shoulders tonight.)
- Boston’s Brad Marchand has two goals and six points in six career games against Chicago.
- Loui Eriksson has zero points and just five shots in his last four games played.
- B’s center David Krejci has eight goals and 27 points in 29 home games this year.
- Kane has scored 19 goals and 43 points in 32 road games this season.
- Duncan Keith has two goals and seven points in 12 career games against Boston.
Other news and notes
The Bruins had seven players named to World Cup of Hockey rosters on Wednesday. Both David Krejci and David Pastrnak were named to Team Czech Republic, Patrice Bergeron was named to Team Canada, Loui Eriksson to Team Sweden, Tuukka Rask to Team Finland, and Dennis Seidenberg and Zdeno Chara to Team Europe. And Julien will be among the coaching staff for Team Canada.
Expect defensemen Joe Morrow and Zach Trotman and forward Tyler Randell to sit as Boston’s healthy scratches for the second straight game. And forward Chris Kelly, out since November with a broken femur, though skating, remains out of action.
And it was on this date six years ago that the B’s acquired Seidenberg (and the rights to defenseman Matt Bartkowski) from the Florida Panthers in exchange for Byron Bitz, Craig Weller, and a 2010 second-round draft pick (Alex Petrovic). I’m adamant that this is still the best trade the Bruins made in the Peter Chiarelli era, too, as Seidenberg was that true No. 2 defenseman the Bruins needed to plug next to Chara during their run to the Stanley Cup in 2010-11.
On the Blackhawks front, noted Boston villain Dale Weise will make his Chicago debut.
Marian Hossa (leg) and Marcus Kruger (wrist) remain out for the ‘Hawks.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.