At one o’clock in the afternoon (ET) on Saturday, the Boston Bruins (18-12-4) take on the St. Louis Blues (17-12-2). The Bruins are coming off a game against the Penguins that will be hard to top in the entertainment department. The Blues are coming off of a 3-2 win over the league leading Detroit Red Wings. The Blues have won the last six contests between these two clubs. Last year the Bruins played the Blues in the Blues’ home-opener. Those two and half plus hours of my life can never be returned to me. I think one time I sat through a math class on factoring that may have bored me more than that game but that’s about it.
This game might be a little more lively though. Both of these clubs are much more exciting than they were last year and there’s a storyline this time around too. I’m, of course, referring to the Brad Boyes/Dennis Wideman trade that went down last year.
Brad Boyes has 20 goals and 29 points in 31 games so far this season. That ranks him right up there with the top goal scorers in the NHL. Dennis Wideman has improved his play throughout the year, has 14 points in 33 games and is plus 9 on the season but I think most people would say St. Louis has won that trade so far.
Let’s be realistic about this. Tomorrow’s game isn’t actually Dennis Wideman vs. Brad Boyes (though that could happen for brief periods of time) and the outcome of the game doesn’t logically make a difference when it comes to deciding which club got the better end of the stick. However, while we’re being realistic, we should acknowledge that optics matter. Clearly the pressure is on Wideman to perform tomorrow night, whether he thinks so or not. Obviously the Bruins think it’s important to defend the fact that they traded a 20 goal scorer. For example, on their website they posted the Associated Press preview of Saturday’s game…only they modified it a little bit from the original. I don’t think they usually modify those Associated Press previews but they chose to modify this one:
http://bruins.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=Preview&seas=20072008>ype=2&gnum=517
The phrase they added is the following one: “On the other hand, Wideman, who has logged long minutes on the Boston blue line, has made a big impact on his club as well.”
The original AP story can be seen at the Blues website sans pro-Wideman phrase:
http://blues.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=Preview&seas=20072008>ype=2&gnum=517
Now, there’s nothing wrong with changing the AP report around and I don’t think what they wrote is untrue but it does show that the Bruins are being defensive about the trade and that they have some optics riding on Brad Boyes’ and Dennis Wideman’s performances in Saturday’s game.
Tim Thomas figures to get the start for the Bruins. Glen Murray will not play because of a hip flexor strain. Manny Legace has been having a good year for the Blues (it’s nice to see someone’s goalie named Manny is doing well). There’s also the chance that the Bruins could end up shooting on ex-Bruin Hannu Toivonen.
Keys to the game:
1. Special teams will be interesting. The Bruins are second from last in the PK department but the Blues are number one. On the flip side, the Blues are third from last on the PP and the Bruins are seventh overall.
2. These two teams have a lot in common. They’re both second in their divisions behind the two best teams in the NHL. They both play a good physical game and both teams have unspectacular offenses with decent defenses. That means effort and keeping the feet moving will become more important than in other games.
3. Crosby was busy scrapping with Ference last game, now they’ll have to watch out for Brad Boyes. I think we all remember what he did to Lydman last year. Why do the Bruins have to deal with all of the goons lately?
Prediction:
2-1 Bruins. Plenty of scoring chances. Not much cashing in.
I’ll be back with the post-gamer.
-Gerz
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