Game Day: Bruins vs Canadiens – Preview, Lines, Goalies, TV, Fantasy
Jordan Lambe
Pre-game Notes and Quotes
Michel Therrien on the Bruins: “They are playing good hockey on the road and since the return of Chara, they’re not the same team, it’s not the same group of defensemen; he plays big minutes. Their power play is going well, and they are one of the stronger road teams this season. Any time you play the Bruins, it’s always a tough challenge.”
Brendan Gallagher: “That’s been the strength of our team all year, the way we roll four lines. We’re able to come after teams line after line and play the right way and wear them down,” explained
Mike Condon on the fact that he leads the NHL in GAA: “I think goals-against average is a team stat. A goalie is really only as good as his forwards and his defensemen. So it takes six guys on the ice to produce numbers like that; it’s not just a goalie stat,”
Brad Marchand on Thursday’s loss to the Capitals: “It’s one game, it’s not the end of the world. It’s unfortunate that we lost, but we’re not going to win 82 games this year, and we just need to make sure we’re better next game.”
The Canadiens sit atop the NHL in goals for with 55, while the Bruins place third with 43. In terms of goals against, the Canadiens rank third with 27 and the Bruins rank 25th with 40.
The Canadiens won all four games versus the Bruins in the 2014-15 season, their combined goal differential over those games was a plus-10.
Although the Bruins lead the league in powerplay goals with 14, the Canadiens are a perfect 23 for 23 in killing off penalties at the Bell Centre.
Matchup
Bell Centre, Montreal, QC. | November 7, 7:00 PM ET | TV: NHLN, TVA Sports, SN, NESN
2015-16 statistics
BRUINS
CANADIENS
13 (10th)
Points (Eastern Con. rank)
25 (1st)
6-5-1
Record
12-2-1
1-4-1
Home
6-0-1
5-1-0
Road
6-2-0
6-3-1
Last 10
7-2-1
3.58
G/G
3.67
3.33
GA/G
1.80
35.0
PP%
25.0
70.4
PK%
89.8
51.4
CF%*
53.2
53.9
CF60*
56.3
51.0
CA60*
49.5
*Advanced statistics: Score adjusted, even strength. CF%: Corsi for percentage of total CF60: Corsi For/60 minutes CA60: Corsi Against/60 minutes (via War on Ice)
Projected forward lines, defense pairings and goaltenders
Dale Weise. Dutch Gretzky. He’s just two goals behind the league leader and has been a shooting machine over his current four game point streak. For all you loyal readers, you will know that I have already spoke about Weise’s value in a previous Game Day post but the team leader in goals (yes, you read that right), deserves some extra attention. Go pick up Weise now if he’s still available and ride out this hot streak, as a good run of points is essential in weekly head to head leagues. Long term, Weise should plateau at the 40-45 point range at the most, so his value drops to a fringe fantasy contributor unless you play in a deep league.
The league’s number one offensive team so far this season, versus a goalie who has absolutely terrible stats so far this season (see Tuukka Rask above). To add fuel to the fire, I took a look at Rask’s career numbers versus the Canadiens. Let’s just say they don’t help his situation much:
GP
W
Win %
L
OTL
GAA
SV%
SO
Career
275
139
0.505
86
36
2.21
0.925
27
vs. Canadiens
21
3
0.143
14
3
2.74
0.906
1
If Rask was on my fantasy hockey team, I would not start him unless I was struggling to reach a minimum of games started for the week. The numbers are stacked against Rask and the Bruins in this game, so start at your own risk.
Top scorers for the Bruins on the road this season are:
Zdeno Chara, Jimmy Hayes, David Krejci, and Brad Marchand (all with 6 points in 6 games, except for Marchand who only needed 5 games)
Patrice Bergeron, Brett Connolly, and Ryan Spooner (all with 5 points in 6 games, except for Connolly who only needed 5 games)
Top scorers for the Canadiens at home this season are:
David Desharnais (with 8 points in 7 games)
Tomas Fleischmann (with 7 points in 7 games)
Brendan Gallagher and Tomas Plekanec (both with 6 points in 7 games)
