Montreal Canadiens at Boston Bruins
Perhaps the greatest rivalry in hockey renews tonight as the Canadiens visit the Big Bad Bruins in Beantown. These two teams met in Montreal on March 12th and the result was a 4-1 Bruins win.
By winning four of their last five games, the Canadiens have essentially assured themselves of a playoff spot. With back to back games on the road, though, and the thought being that Boston has this game in the bag, the Canadiens are going with back-up goalie Peter Budaj tonight. In his last six games, Budaj has allowed 21 goals against, averaging 3.5 against per game. He was also the goalie in net for the 4-1 loss a couple of weeks ago. On the bright side, since coming over from the Islanders, Thomas Vanek has four goals and 30 shots on net. He’s been a notorious Boston “killer” and had an assist and five shots in that game on the 12th.
Boston just keeps rolling. With 12 straight wins, the Bruins were the first team in the NHL to mathematically lock up a playoff spot. With their six point cushion on the Penguins, they are likely to have the top seed in the Eastern Conference as well. In an interesting turn of events, the Bruins have given up a couple of power play goals against in their last three games. Those two goals represent exactly half of the total they allowed in their last four games, so while the penalty kill hasn’t been exceedingly solid, the rest of the team has.
With Budaj in net, I don’t see much chance for the Canadiens tonight. The Bergeron line ran roughshod over anyone they were matched against on that game on the 12th so if I were to stack a line, I would look at them in particular. Goalie Tuukka Rask would make a good choice in net for 50/50s as well.
|
Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
|
(BOS) $7368 |
(BOS) $7793 |
(BOS) $11,628 |
(BOS) $8148 |
(MON) $5525 |
