? The Bruins will go through their normal goaltending routine of starting Tim Thomas against an Eastern Conference foe in their ?heavy? matchup against the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night at the Prudential Center. Thomas will be looking to bounce back against the Devils after taking the New Year?s Eve loss against the Dallas Stars following 11 days off around the holiday break.
It?s expected Tuukka Rask will get the Thursday night call against the Calgary Flames at home, and that would leave the goalie performing best over the next two nights with the plum assignment against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday afternoon at TD Garden. Claude Julien is reticent about mapping out a strict goaltending rotation between Thomas and Rask moving forward, but both will obviously be needed with 12 games in the next 18 nights.
Most likely, the extra reps will go to whichever netminder is hot here during the month of January. Rask (.945) and Thomas (.939) are still ranking 1-2 in the NHL in save percentage while Brian Elliott and Henrik Lundqvist sit between the two netminders among the top four in goals against average with Rask setting the pace at a miniscule 1.61 goals against per game.
?I think there are a lot of things that come into play. How they play will certainly weigh into my decisions. As we?ve said Timmy is a 37-year-old goaltender that puts a lot of energy into his game,? said Claude Julien. ?So we hope that both our goaltenders continue to play the way they have so we can manage it the best way possible. But I don?t have a set plan for a guy playing a certain game.
?We just go week-to-week and hope that our predictions can come true and we can keep going with the rotation. But that?s as far as I go with thinking about rotations with the goaltenders.?
It appears the Bruins will roll the exact same lineup as they trotted out against the Dallas Stars, and Julien said the club has zero concerns about Rich Peverley playing back-to-back games this week with his nagging injury. Here is the expected lineup versus the Devils:
Marchand-Bergeron-Seguin
Lucic-Krejci-Horton
Pouliot-Kelly-Peverley
Paille-Campbell-Thornton
Chara-Boychuk
Seidenberg-Corvo
Ference-McQuaid
Thomas
Rask
It?s expected Tuukka Rask will get the Thursday night call against the Calgary Flames at home, and that would leave the goalie performing best over the next two nights with the plum assignment against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday afternoon at TD Garden. Claude Julien is reticent about mapping out a strict goaltending rotation between Thomas and Rask moving forward, but both will obviously be needed with 12 games in the next 18 nights.
Most likely, the extra reps will go to whichever netminder is hot here during the month of January. Rask (.945) and Thomas (.939) are still ranking 1-2 in the NHL in save percentage while Brian Elliott and Henrik Lundqvist sit between the two netminders among the top four in goals against average with Rask setting the pace at a miniscule 1.61 goals against per game.
?I think there are a lot of things that come into play. How they play will certainly weigh into my decisions. As we?ve said Timmy is a 37-year-old goaltender that puts a lot of energy into his game,? said Claude Julien. ?So we hope that both our goaltenders continue to play the way they have so we can manage it the best way possible. But I don?t have a set plan for a guy playing a certain game.
?We just go week-to-week and hope that our predictions can come true and we can keep going with the rotation. But that?s as far as I go with thinking about rotations with the goaltenders.?
It appears the Bruins will roll the exact same lineup as they trotted out against the Dallas Stars, and Julien said the club has zero concerns about Rich Peverley playing back-to-back games this week with his nagging injury. Here is the expected lineup versus the Devils:
Marchand-Bergeron-Seguin
Lucic-Krejci-Horton
Pouliot-Kelly-Peverley
Paille-Campbell-Thornton
Chara-Boychuk
Seidenberg-Corvo
Ference-McQuaid
Thomas
Rask
