Bruins need to set tone early....could more ice time for Thornton be the key to victory?
And so we are hours away from Bruins Canadiens game 7. Winner moves on to face the New York Rangers and loser is left wondering "what if".
If you listen to either fan base you will hear that their team should have already won the series if not for bad luck. As a Bruins fan, I just need to look at how game one ended to prove the point that the Bruins should have won the series in 5 games just like I predicted. The Bruins completely controlled that game but just couldn't get the puck to get into the net. Yes, Price played spectacular, but he was also gifted by some lucky bounces.
Canadien fans who think their team could already be in the Eastern Finals need to look no further than game 2 when the Bruins decided late in the third period that they weren't going to go down 2 games to nothing against their rivals from the north.
Canadien fans who think their team could already be in the Eastern Finals need to look no further than game 2 when the Bruins decided late in the third period that they weren't going to go down 2 games to nothing against their rivals from the north.
Now here we are, waiting for what seems like an eternity for the puck to drop. It goes without saying that if the Bruins plan on celebrating tonight they are going to need the veterans to step up. Going into the playoffs the biggest concern people had was about the young players. Well, for the most part the young guys have taken care of business. No one is doubting the health of guys like Hamilton, Smith and Krug. Conversely, many people are wondering if something is wrong with Chara, Lucic or Krejci. If they are playing poorly due to injury they are not going to suddenly snap out of it with 25 minutes of ice time.
While I'm not going to say that I agree or disagree with people thinking that they may be injured, I will say that I think Claude Julien needs to consider giving all three of them less ice time. Being a game seven there may not be many power play opportunities for either team. If and when the Canadiens are short handed, Julien really needs to go to guys like Smith, Krug and Soderberg to get the puck in the net. At this point Lucic is probably the last left winger I want to see on a power play.
To put Lucic's offensive struggles into perspective (you know in case you aren't having nightmares of him whiffing on the puck), I compared his shots and ice time against Shawn Thornton's. In six games, Lucic has taken 12 shots over the course of over 115 minutes of ice time. Of that ice time, just under 12 minutes was during a Bruins' power play. Meanwhile in less than 40 minutes of ice time and 5 seconds, yes 5 seconds, of power play time, Thornton has taken 9 shots.
Besides getting more shots per minute of ice time, Thornton is also hitting more guys than Lucic. If Julien wants to make it out of this series he really needs to look at getting Thornton some of Lucic's ice time. In addition to putting up better numbers than Lucic during this series, Thornton is also in the head of the Canadiens, especially Subban.
While I'm not going to say that I agree or disagree with people thinking that they may be injured, I will say that I think Claude Julien needs to consider giving all three of them less ice time. Being a game seven there may not be many power play opportunities for either team. If and when the Canadiens are short handed, Julien really needs to go to guys like Smith, Krug and Soderberg to get the puck in the net. At this point Lucic is probably the last left winger I want to see on a power play.
To put Lucic's offensive struggles into perspective (you know in case you aren't having nightmares of him whiffing on the puck), I compared his shots and ice time against Shawn Thornton's. In six games, Lucic has taken 12 shots over the course of over 115 minutes of ice time. Of that ice time, just under 12 minutes was during a Bruins' power play. Meanwhile in less than 40 minutes of ice time and 5 seconds, yes 5 seconds, of power play time, Thornton has taken 9 shots.
Besides getting more shots per minute of ice time, Thornton is also hitting more guys than Lucic. If Julien wants to make it out of this series he really needs to look at getting Thornton some of Lucic's ice time. In addition to putting up better numbers than Lucic during this series, Thornton is also in the head of the Canadiens, especially Subban.
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