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    All-Centennial Team

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    Stanley Cup Champs

    Keys to the Game Vs. Hurricanes

     The Bruins are gearing up to play their second road game of the season. They are coming off a 4-2 win versus the Islanders which was sloppier then it should have been. The Carolina Hurricanes are coming off of a 3-1 victory over the new "tough" Buffalo Sabres. The Hurricanes are 2-2 in four games played losing to the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lighting while beating the Sabres twice.

    The Carolina Hurricanes re-vamped their offense in the off season trading Center Brandon Sutter, a prospect defense man, and a first round pick to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Jordan Staal; Eric Staal's brother. The Hurricanes also signed forward Alexander Semin to a one year 7 million dollar deal. The Hurricanes then also have young gun Jeff Skinner and more young talent on their roster. Perhaps the biggest contributor to the Hurricanes having a successful season is Goalie Cam Ward. So far this year Ward has been less then stellar with a 4.71 goals against average and a 1-2 record. If the Hurricanes want to go far they'll need Cam to perform. For the Bruins to beat the re-vamped Canes they must follow specific keys to the game.

    1) Solid defense. The Bruins seemed melo against the Islanders and sometimes had lapses in coverage; surprisingly even the Boychuck-Chara line had problems. The Bruins have faced Carolina a lot in the past but never a Carolina with this much scoring potential. The Bruins will have to shut down Semin and turn their focus to the Staal brothers who can score and play defense as well as Bergeron. Tough guy and defensive defense man Adam McQuaid will not be playing for the Bruins tonight due to personal reasons so Aaron Johnson will step in for him. Though Johnson is a great defense man, the Bruins will be missing one of the toughest guys on their team.

    2) Power play. The power play could be a key to any teams success. But the Bruins especially need to improve because they are giving up great chances to put one on the board. So far Dougie Hamilton has been doing amazing and hasn't been afraid to shoot the puck like his first game. Players like Chris Bourque, Gregory Campbell, and Daniel Pialle have also been seeing time on the power play which shouldn't be happening. Bourque hasn't proved himself NHL ready yet and shouldn't be out on the power play. A line of Seguin-Krejci-Horton on the first power play would be best and a line of Marchand-Bergeron-Peverly on the second power play would be the second best option.

    3) Rest. The Bruins have to play tomorrow night against the Eastern Conference Champion New Jersey Devils. If the Bruins want a shot at winning both games then they can't use up all their energy tonight, especially because the Devils are a better team then the Hurricane. This rest could mean less ice time for Chara and more for the other defensive pairs. Tuukka Rask has played every game for the Bruins so far this season so Claude Julien said that Anton Khudobin would get the starts in one of the two nights. If Khudobin gets the start tonight the Bruins will have to focus even more on their defensive game and try to help Khudobin as much as possible.
    (Tuukka Rask and Cam Ward)
    The Bruins will be going up against old team mate Joe Corvo. Corvo is almost a shadow image of Tomas Kaberle who did little during the Bruins Stanley Cup winning season in 2011 and if anything hurt the team. While Corvo wasn't as bad he didn't help the Bruins reach the ultimate goal of back to back cups. Now Corvo has returned to the Hurricanes and now the Bruins have Dougie Hamilton. All in all, thank you Kessel.