BRING ON THE BRUINS
The playoffs are upon us and for the first time in over five decades the Wings will face the Bruins in the playoffs. Both teams have a few extra days to rest up, Game One goes Friday in Boston. The season series leans in the Wings’ favor but only so much merit can be placed on past wins as (insert your ‘playoffs are a new season’ cliche here).
If you can take one thing from this past season into the playoffs it’s that the Wings are resilient. The reason the Red Wings are playing in the post season instead of planning an early vacation is because in the face of all the injuries and in the midst of all the line juggling, the Wings found a way to get points on the board. Whether it was Gustav Nyquist scoring all the goals down the stretch, a Johan Franzen hot-streak or a goal off an ugly bounce, the puck found the back of the net and, more often than not, Detroit managed to earn a point or two in the standings. Yes, it certainly helped that the Leafs and Sens self destructed, but any way you cut it, if this was the year the longest active playoff streak in hockey was put to rest, there would certainly be plenty of reasons to justify it. For this reason alone, the Red Wings are primed to have a decent run this spring.
In playing through the multitude of injuries this season the Wings tapped into a depth in their lineup that might have gone untried otherwise. With Pavel Datsyuk’s recent return, and Daniel Alfredsson set to be back for game one, the Wings can be threat at all times.
Another reason to get excited has been Jimmy Howard’s recent play. After a pedestrian start to the season, Howard has won four of his last five starts and is looking a lot like is former self heading into the playoffs. The Wings will need Howard to steal a game as the Bruins are the only team in the East to average more than three goals a game (3.15).
If only the Bruins were just a high scoring team. The Bruins didn’t win the President’s Trophy just by putting the puck in the net, they kept it out as well. No team in the East came close to averaging just 2.08 goals per game like the Bruins did, and there’s a 6’9” reason that the Bruins can be so hard to score against. Zdeno Chara is getting on in years but I’m sure that there aren’t too many forwards that hope to be busting down the wing on his side. Add to that a strong supporting cast on the blue line and one of the best goalies in the league and it’s not going to be easy to get many good scoring chances.
The are a lot of story lines that could emerge from this series. Whether is the young guns coming up big, the superstars returning, or Daniel Alfredsson’s potentially final push for hockey’s holy grail, remains to be seen and all could be for not if the Bruins show why they were the best team in the league this year but one thing is for certain, nothing beats playoff hockey.
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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