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Bruins and Blues built similarly; Scrimmage on tap

May 22, 2019, 9:21 PM ET [16 Comments]
Anthony Travalgia
Boston Bruins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
If you’re looking for end-to-end high-speed hockey in the Stanley Cup Final, you’ve come to the wrong place. If you like heavy, grind it out, low scoring, physical hockey, then you’re in luck.

With the Bruins and the Blues, you will see a Stanley Cup Final featuring two teams who are built very similar.

“Similar to us, the way they play, forechecking team. They play pretty north, south. Use all four lines. Fourth line particularly gets a lot of assignments like ours. Goaltenders are both playing excellent,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said Wednesday morning.

Or twins if you will.

“Their D is bigger than ours, but both can move the puck. So I expect it's, the games would be probably lower scoring, more physical. I think they're a bit of our twin, so to speak.”

As similar as the Blues may be to the Bruins, the Blues are also similar to the Blue Jackets with the type of game they play, and similar to the Hurricanes in the sense of being playoff underdogs after grinding their way to a playoff berth, and pulling out several upsets en route to a date with the Bruins.

“Uh, Columbus-ish, if that's a word, in terms of their size and how they're probably going to try to physically wear you down,” said Cassidy. “I'd say of the three teams [they’ve played], probably most similar to them and obviously I'll have a much better answer next week, but that's kind of what I've seen.”

Like the Bruins, the Blues success starts in goal, and is built out from there. The Blues wouldn’t be in the Stanley Cup Final without goalie Jordan Binnington who took over as the team’s starter in January and never looked back.

Sitting dead last in all of the National Hockey League in early January, Binnington helped the Blues win 30 of their last 45 games, punching their ticket to the big dance.

In the Blues’ playoff series with the Jets, Stars and most recently the Sharks, Binnington was once again sharp as he enters the Stanley Cup Final with a 2.36 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage. But what has been most impressive about Binnington has been his play in series-closing games.

In the three games where the Blues have had the chance to end a series, Binnington is 3-0 with a 1.17 goals-against average and a .947 save percentage.

But oddly enough, Binnington is one that some in the Bruins organization are very familiar with as he appeared in 28 games for the Providence Bruins in 2017-18.

After the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League became the AHL affiliate of the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, the Blues were left without a minor league affiliate—they later would sign a deal with the San Antonio Rampage.

With Binnington not wanting to return to the ECHL, he was loaned to Providence where he went 17-9-0, had a 2.05 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage.

“Well I'd like to think it'll help. Goalie Bob (goalie coach Bob Essensa) knows him. He was down in Providence. So there's a little extra there. I don't think it'll affect Binnington much. He's playing well,” said Cassidy. “There might be a little more inside information that we would have than maybe a San Jose did, but at the end of the day it can't hurt right?

Not many of the current Bruins had much experience with Binnington as a teammate in Providence.

Defenseman Connor Clifton however, did.

"He's an aggressive goalie, he's gonna make a lot of first saves. He's also athletic and just a great kid,” said Clifton. “I don't know how to beat him. When we do our goalie report soon, hopefully we learn how."

If anyone is to have any inside information on the Blues, it’s David Backes who spent 10 seasons in St. Louis, five as their captain.

“They've got a heck of a team, we've got a heck of a team. It's gonna be heightened emotions. It's a binary decision now, it's us or them. There's no third party, ties, none of that stuff. One of us is gonna win the Cup, the St. Louis Blues or the Boston Bruins,” Backes said.

"That's a position you want to be in at the beginning of the year, we're in that position. Wish those guys well up until this point, but now it's all about us and winning this thing and all our thoughts and all our efforts are in this room."

Part of what made Backes an attractive option to the Bruins when they signed him from St. Louis was him bringing that power forward type to game to the table. A type of player that both the Bruins and Blues like to employee.

“There's 10 guys that I think were there when I was there. It's half the team, that's a lot of familiarity, but it's not like I left there at the trade deadline and know every guy like the back of my hand," said Backes. "Obviously if I come up with some information that I think can help us I'll disseminate it, but I don't know that I've got the secret sauce."

As the Bruins look to figure out ways to stay fresh during their 10-day break, the Bruins will invite their “black aces” to join them at TD Garden Thursday night for an official scrimmage. Trying to replicate a game day experience as much as they can, the Bruins will hold an optional skate Thursday morning before the scrimmage takes place at 7pm. The scrimmage is a ticketed event.

“It’s going to be fun, it's gonna be exciting. I think there's a couple of guys that want to square me off at center ice,” forward Jake DeBrusk said with a smile.”

“We don't know the teams yet, but I think that it's more so just to kind of emulate a game day and kind of get that spiel going. But I don't know if it'd be too intense or anything like that. But in saying that, it’s going to be lots of fun. There's going to be fans coming so we're going to try and put on a good show.”

The scrimmage is going to be officiated by two referees and broken up into two 25-minute periods. As of this morning, the teams had not yet been finalized, but it sounds like however they’re split up, they’re not going to stay that way throughout the entire scrimmage.

“Now we might end up flipping guys sweaters anyway during the scrimmage because we want to make sure that (Patrice) Bergeron’s group is on the power play and we are going to use DeBrusk to start there with them,” added Cassidy. “So if it’s a matter of changing a shirt than that’s what we will do. If this game were going to Vegas for a betting line, I’m giving you a heads up right now that guys might switch teams.”

I like the idea of the scrimmage, but my first thought was what if someone gets injured? Cassidy was asked that very question Wednesday morning.

“There is still risk in practice and we battle but not every drill,” said Cassidy. “We try to get some in everyday and the players are aware of it and we will discuss it again.”

The Bruins have avoided any team function injuries during their break, here’s to hoping they can avoid any injuries caused in the scrimmage.
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