BOSTON – With a couple of home games against Western Conference teams in the San Jose Sharks and Minnesota Wild on tap for this week, the Boston Bruins get to take a little bit of a departure from the conference and divisional foes.
But they also have to prepare for unfamiliar teams from what's widely held as the stronger of the two NHL conferences, and with player tendencies they don’t see very often and goalies they’ve never faced before like brief Bruin Martin Jones now playing for the Sharks.
It poses a challenge for a Black and Gold hockey club which relies on coaching and preparation to carry them through battles against Eastern foes for playoff position, and it’s one they are ready to take on whether it’s Jumbo Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski or Ryan Suter lining up against them.
“We just have to worry about ourselves here,” said David Krejci. “Obviously we know what they’ve got over there and we’re going to watch some videos. But most importantly we’re going to focus on ourselves, and playing our game.”
That’s the right kind of attitude to have for the Bruins as they try to improve on a 2-5-1 home record, and build on Saturday night’s victory over the Red Wings that gave them a foothold to build from. Now it’s up to them to do it against a San Jose club that’s built up a solid 6-3 road record, and is smack dab in the middle of a long six game road swing through the East.
“San Jose was off to a really good start, and obviously with their record on the road they’ve played well. They’re a well-balanced team. Their goaltender is good, and [Brent] Burns on defense, to me, is a beast. He’s so big, strong and mobile…skates well and shoots the puck well. They’ve got a really good asset back there.
“They’ve got some skill up front, and they’re well coached. Peter [DeBoer] has done well no matter where he’s gone in this league. But at this point where our game has been going at home, a lot of the focus has to be on us . . . and knowing every team that comes in here is going to look at our home record, and certainly come in here with a lot of confidence right now.”
That certainly makes sense for a group of Bruins that also knows they have games in hand on every other team in the Atlantic Division right now, and the ground is there to be gained if looking inward allows them to keep stringing quality efforts together this week.