Milan Lucic and Chris Bourque are two Bruins players who both came into the season with question marks surrounding them. Lucic was ridiculed by critics, including me, as being fat and out of shape. I personally said he was caught in between being a scorer and a tough physical forward. But in the first six games Lucic has two goals and two assists equaling up to four points in six games. Lucic has also been physical and tough, he has 25 hits and 22 penalty minutes. Lucic has also already been in two fights this year, the first a win against New York Islanders defense man Matt Carkner and the second a draw against Tim Gleason. Milan Lucic has been his old self, the model Big Bad Bruin.
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| (Lucic and Gleason juxtaposed after their fight) |
Chris Bourque on the other hand has not lived up to expectations. At this point all you could really ask of Bourque is maybe one goal or assist and a good +/-. But Bourque has zero goals and zero assists in six games played. He also has -4 +/-. Perhaps the thing making Bourque's Bruin stint even worse is Claude Juliens unfortunate infatuation with him, one which has not been seen since the days of Michael Ryder. Julien has put Bourque on the power play every time the Bruins have had one and Bourque hasn't been able to do anything. Seguin could be out there for the whole power play but truly there are a lot of Bruins who deserve to be on the ice instead of Bourque. Julien has also used Bourque in both the shoot outs the Bruins have been in this year. Bourque missed both times and the second time was especially critical, a time when someone like Rich Peverly's number should have been called. So far Bourque hasn't lived up to the name on the back of his jersey, which no one expected him too, but Bourque has proved that Jordan Caron deserves the third line spot over him.
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| (At least the kid doesn't blow a tire every time he touches the puck in regulation... Kelly...) |
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Follow Eric Goldmann on Twitter @eric_goldmann
