A win tonight for the Boston Bruins makes it three in a row and seven of their last eight overall, but there’s no doubt that sealing the deal on two points tonight will be harder than anything thrown at the Black-and-Gold through this little run of theirs.
On top of injuries to the point (the B’s will be without both Dennis Seidenberg and Adam McQuaid for this one), the Bruins return to the Garden comes with a trip from what many call the West’s version of the B’s, the St. Louis Blues.
They can hang, in case their franchise-best 14-3-3 start to the year didn’t tell you.
Without both Seidenberg and McQuaid, the Bruins will give the 6-foot-2 Kevan Miller a chance to let his skates touch NHL ice for the first time, a tall task for a rookie, but one that the Boston coaching staff isn’t worried given what they saw from the California-born blue-liner.
“He was a big, strong, solid defenseman [in training camp]. Moved the puck fairly well; simple play. Again, probably his strength, his battle along the walls and in front of the net he’s a big strong individual. So I thought he played a steady game,… coach Claude Julien said of the decision to call Miller up from the American Hockey League. “He’s got an opportunity tonight to step in and show that he can play against one of the best teams in the league actually.…
Miller, a former University of Vermont Catamount, recorded a goal, three points, and 30 penalty minutes in 12 contests for the Providence Bruins prior to his call up, and will be with Torey Krug on the club’s third pairing for tonight’s game. If you include Matt Bartkowski and the ever improving Dougie Hamilton, the Bruins will dress a whopping four young defensemen against a St. Louis team that is simply loaded with big bodies that love to crash the net.
A problem? Perhaps, especially when you look at the potential workload for the Bruins’ captain and 36-year-old workhorse, Zdeno Chara.
Finishing Tuesday’s game in Manhattan with a monstrous 31:27 of time on ice, his longest night of the season, Chara’s not exactly in line for a breather with the expected offensive zone presence of Alexander Steen, the game’s leading goal-scorer. With 17 goals in 20 games this season, Steen is certainly going to be a thorn in the Bruins’ side tonight with linemates David Backes and T.J. Oshie, putting Big Z and the B’s on watch all game log.
“We had an opportunity to see this situation last year against New York in the playoffs. We had a young D and they handled themselves well. It’s about, I keep repeating myself, it’s about giving them the confidence to just go out there and play,… Julien said of his youthful blue-line. “If you make them nervous, if you put restrictions on them, they go out there and they play on their heels. You just have to let them go out there and play their game and you can adjust it as you go along. But these are guys that I think a lot of them – like Dougie [Hamilton], and [Torey] Krug and [Matt] Bartkowski – have been in much more, or bigger pressure situations than what it is tonight. So they just have to go out there and play. They’re good players, so there’s no reason why they can’t handle it.…
In net, the B’s will continue to roll with the hot goalie, Tuukka Rask.
Stopping a season-high 43 shots against the Rangers on Tuesday night, Rask enters tonight’s game with a 7-3-1 record and .949 save percentage at the TD Garden this year.
He’ll be on the other side of St. Louis netminder Jaroslav Halak. A former Canadien, Halak has six wins and a .941 save percentage with two shutouts in nine career games against the B’s.
This will also be the first game against the St. Louis Blues for Carl Soderberg.
Soderberg, drafted by the Blues in the second round back in 2004, was traded to Boston from St. Louis in exchange for goaltender Hannu Toivonen back in July 2007. Soderberg enters play with two goals and eight points in 15 contests this season.