Game Preview: Bruins vs. Ducks

(Without Dean Porter Portman the Ducks got nothing on the Bruins.)

Game Sixty-Two
Boston Bruins vs. Anaheim Ducks
February 26th, 2008 @ 7:00PM

GAME PREVIEW:

• Coming straight off a blow-out victory over the Panthers (6-1) the Bruins look to continue their success and momentum swing against the Western Conference staple Anaheim Ducks. Even though they are a team created after a movie and have been involved in lawsuits over their name, this is no team to take lightly. Since joining the league in 1993 the Ducks have become a dominate franchise with an already storied past, winning Lord Stanley two years ago. This season though the Ducks have had a rough time living up to their usual success and are currently battling for the 8th and final playoff spot in the West. But things are looking better for them as they are coming off back-to-back wins against the Sabres and Blue Jackets, and show no signs of slowing down. It also doesn't hurt either when you go 5-0 against some tough Northeast Division teams this season. But how will they stack up against the powerhouse of the Northeast, the Bruins when the two teams meet for the one and only time this season. The Bruins have recently hit a rough patch in a nearly perfect season by going 2-4-2 in their last 8-games. But things look to be turning around in the last few games. The team has most of their top lines back intact and look to be rolling on all cylinders again. But tonight will be a test for the Black & Gold who haven't had great success against Western Conference teams this year only going 7-4-2. Which Bruins team will show up tonight? And will Tim Thomas get to celebrate his 100th career Bruins win in front of a Garden crowd?

GAME QUICK HITS:

• The Hub Hockey crew will be at the Joshua Tree in Davis Square tonight to celebrate one of our very owns birthdays and watch the Bruins game. So come buy and join us if your in the area.
• Let's start a new streak! I guess the Bruins recent troubles along with the start of Red Sox Spring Training has already sidelined some of the B's bandwagon fans as an eight game home sellout streak ended Tuesday night. Good, maybe I can get tickets for less then $45 now.
• Jack Edwards BINGO Night 2: Will NESN continue with Boston's newest craze tonight? Only time will tell, but just in case make sure you print out your "official" BINGO pieces.
• Voting continues for this season's 7th Player Award over at NESN. I wish they would tell us the current standings but I guess we would have a whole new All-Star Game type controversy again.
• With the trade deadline now less than a week away rumors and talks are heating up. Well thanks to Stanley Cup of Chowder you can keep informed on who exactly the B's have been reported to be looking into with some great trade prospect recaps (Jordan Leopold, Erik Cole & Keith Tkachuk).
• Don't forget Hub Hockey is now on Twitter so come and follow us!
• Also don't forget about CameronFrye.com which is now back up and running after a brief down period. Thanks to Cameron also for making it known that this is Hub Hockey and not Hub OF Hockey. People make that mistake a lot and we are two different things/people. So for the record, I'm Chris from either Hub Hockey or Hub Hockey.com.
• Finally, looks like fans of Toucher & Rich and readers from here and Stanley Cup of Chowder accomplished their mission as the Aaron Ward Wikipedia page has been locked for all editing. I will post something later this week on some of the funniest additions added to it between yesterday and today.

CREASE REPORT:

• Bruins: Tim Thomas (26-8-5) continued his great season against Florida on Tuesday night grabbing his 26th win of the season. Many fans have overlooked the fact that the team has a pretty wide GF/GA average when playing in front of Timmy. Also, Thomas has been pretty consistent night in and night out. I think Thomas will likely get the start tonight in hopes to add on to the Bruins current momentum swing. Timmy currently sits at 99 career wins as a Bruin. Manny Fernandez (14-4-3) has had some rough breaks lately after an almost spotless beginning to the season. First came a return to the injury reserve for the often hurt keeper and then a string of bad games but the team in front of him, which added up to a 0-1-2 record in February. Even though times have been better for Manny, people can't overlook the fact that he has only played in 4-games this season where the Bruins didn't get at least one point.
• Ducks: Jean-Sebastien Giguere (16-15-4) will likely get the start tonight after coming off back-to-back wins against Buffalo and Columbus. Giguere has been touch and go this season though posting a below .500 win percentage and gaudy 3.09 goal-against average. But at times we see shades of the dominate Cup winning Giguere that most of us remember. So the question is who will show up tonight? Jonas Hiller (14-12-1) has been backing up Giguere this season and has actually been splitting time with the one time All-Star. Hiller has looked solid this season putting together some impressive numbers but has ran into his fair share of trouble, such as his current three-game losing streak.

INJURY REPORT:

• Bruins Injury Report: RW Petteri Nokelainen (eye) has missed six games since suffered a serious eye injury due to a high-stick against San Jose two-weeks ago. RW Chuck Kobasew missed yesterdays practice but no word on the reason why. Kobasew got into his first fight of the season on Tuesday night and this can simply be chalked up to a rest day to heal some wounds. LW Marco Sturm (knee) is out for the rest of the regular season and playoffs while recovering from knee surgery.
• Ducks Injury Report: C Samuel Pahlsson (mononucleosis) is day-to-day with the "kissing disease". Pahlsson hasn't played since January 31st and is still waiting to be medical cleared to even resume practicing. D Kent Huskins (broken foot) has been out of the lineup since December 19th with a broken right foot and is also waiting for medical clearance to begin practicing again. D Francois Beauchemin (torn knee ligament) had a season ending knee injury back in November but has shown great improvement and could return at some point this season. LW Brad Larsen (sports-hernia) will be out for the rest of the regular season while recovering.

GAME PREDICTIONS:
(post your predictions in the comments section)

• Chris: No prediction tonight!