Leafs vs. Bruins: The Strive for Five

                             

 

Welcome to a sold out TD Gardens, home of the Boston Bruins

Hi, I’m Danny Gray for The Leafs Nation…And in goal tonight, Tim Thomas for The Boston Bruins and Jonas Gustavsson for The Toronto Maple Leafs

For The Toronto Maple Leafs, Phil Kessel is on a hot streak, but Luke Schenn is off his game…For The Boston Bruins, Rich Peverley is on a hot streak, but Milan Lucic is off his game.

The TD Garden’s crowd record is 17,565

Hit the start button to begin. Use the A and C buttons to cycle through matchups.

Lately The Toronto Maple Leafs have been playing extremely well.

Let’s take a look at tonight’s matchups!

The "big bad Bruins" are no longer just a hard working and rough team to play. They’ve got lots of individual skill and can skate with most teams. They can play a wide open game or a rough tight checking match. Boston is a tough team to beat at home but they also play extremely well on the road.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are a hard working and gutsy team that matches up well with any team in the league. They rely on close checking and great goaltending to get the job done. The Maple Leafs play a consistent game, which often disrupts their opponents’ style of play.

Oh NHL 94 is there anything you can’t do?

Tonight, Phil Kessel and our Leafs swagger into the TD Garden sporting a 4-0-1 record. As with most stats this one does not tell the whole story. The Leafs play has ranged from playoff worthy to lottery worthy. Some players have struggled, Luke Schenn, and others have underwhelmed, Mikhail Grabovski. On the other hand our best players, Kessel, Phaneuf, and Reimer have played like our best players. This will need to continue if the team hopes to have any success against teams like the Bruins, Penguins, and Flyers.

I think tonight will be a big night for Grabovski, Kulie, and Frattin. They have been maintaining possession and generating some chances. They just need to simplify and catch a break or two. With the Bruins focusing on shutting down Kessel they should have a little more room out there. Grabovski has more career goals against the Bruins (9) than any other team and we all remember what he did to them last year.

This game will also feature Nazem “Nifty Mittens” Kadri. Kadri is playing in his first game of the 2011-2012 season. He was slated to see some time with the Marlies but an injury to Colby Armstrong will put him on the Leafs third line alongside Matthew Lombardi. This is exactly the role many envisioned for Kadri this season. Sheltered minutes at EV and some time on the PP. Thanks to the strong play of Matt Frattin, Kadri has his work cut out for him. I’ll be keeping an eye on him tonight to see if he takes a cue from Frattin and plays a simple, responsible game at EV.

Per Mirtle, with no game day skate we won’t know the line-ups until right before game time.

 

 

Tonight would have been the perfect night for Colby Armstrong to get under the skin of the Bruins. Maybe Nazem can play the role of agitator throat slashes and all.

Can they keep the streak alive as they try for 5-0-1?

Watch and find out!