Bruins vs Buffalo (for the third time)

Tonight the Bruins are back at it up in Buffalo as they start a 5 game road trip bringing them to Buffalo, Winnipeg, Florida (Tampa and Sunrise), and Long Island.

The Bruins have played Buffalo twice already, one being a blowout loss 7-4 and the other being a 3-1 win on Sunday night. After tonight the Bruins will see Buffalo two more times (March 31, April 17). Boston is coming off a tough shootout loss to the Rangers, where they crawled back from a 3 goal deficit in the third to send the game into overtime. Buffalo is coming off a 2-0 loss to Ottawa and currently are tied for last place in the Eastern conference with a 5-8-1 record (11points).

Here's the keys to the game:

1.) Tuukka- If the Bruins want to make a run for the Cup, they will need Tuukka to stand on his head. Tuesday, Tuukka played terrible, but thanks to the third period comeback they were able to come back and make a game out of it. Tuukka needs to shake off the bad game and remain confident, if Tuukka let's in easy goals it's going to be tough for Boston to win.

2.) Offense and Powerplay- The powerplay has been god awful. It is absolutely brutal to watch. They need to figure something out, because with all the man up opportunities the Bruins should be blowing out teams. The offense needs to start scoring more, and relieve pressure off the defense and Tuukka. So far the Bruins have only produced 4 or more goals 3 times. Although they are winning, the Bruins need to start scoring goals in bunches, maybe they will start tonight.

3.) Finally, solid defense and penalty kill- The defense has been great this season and the penalty kill has been outstanding. If the Bruins want to continue their success they will need to rely on these components night in and night out. However, like I said in point 2, if the Bruins can eleviate some of the pressure on the defense by putting more pucks in the net, then the Bruins can be really dominant.

Hopefully the Bruins turn it around after Tuesday's shootout loss and play more like they did in the final 10 minutes of that hockey game.