Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
The NHL regular season has come to a close, and the second season (the Stanley Cup Playoffs) are set to begin this week. In the first round of the playoffs, the Boston Bruins will square off against the Toronto Maple Leafs in a best of seven series.
The first game will take place at the TD Garden in Boston, Mass., as the Bruins play host to the Maple Leafs on Wednesday night. All eyes will be focused on former Bruin, Phil Kessel who is one of the hottest players in the NHL right now. Over the Maple Leafs’ final 10 games of the regular season, the forward tallied 10 goals and seven assists for 17 points. He has been involved in 10 of the team’s last 17 goals.
Kessel finished the regular season with 52 points, which was good for seventh in the NHL. Although none of his 52 points have come against his former club, the Bruins. In four games this season, the 25-year-old was held off the score-sheet.
The Bruins struggled as the regular season came to an end, going 2-5-2 over the team’s final nine games. Their biggest issue was the lack of offense. Over the final nine games, they’ve scored two or fewer goals eight times.
The positive was the play of recently acquired Jaromir Jagr, who tallied nine points in the 11 games since coming over in a trade from the Dallas Stars at the trade deadline. However, Jagr was sick with the flu the final few games of the season, and the team hopes he can return to veteran form come Wednesday night.
The Maple Leafs give up a ton of shots, which is good news for the Bruins’ offense. The bad news is shots haven’t been an issue for the Bruins. They took the second most in the NHL this season, but wound up in the middle of the pack in goals.
With James Reimer in net for the Leafs, the goaltender has been able to stop a ton of shots and bail out their defense time and time again this season. The net-minder finished eighth in the league with a .924 save percentage.
Tuukka Rask had a outstanding season in net for the Bruins this year. The goaltender finished the season with a 2.00 goals against average and a .929 save percentage. However, he took the loss in the final two regular season games for the Bruins. He will have to bounce back and take charge, especially if the B’s have trouble scoring goals.
The puck is set to drop on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. eastern time and will be televised on CNBC nationwide or NESN locally.
Justin Soderberg is a Boston Red Sox and NHL writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter, ”Like” him on Facebook and add him to your network on Google.
