Game Preview: Jets Set To Battle Bruins in Beantown

If the Jets want to have a .500 record on this road trip they'll need to pull out a win against the defending Stanley Cup champs. Not an easy task, as the Bruins have won 9 of their last 11 and look every bit the championship contender they did last year after struggling at the start of the season.

The B's are, however, coming off a 4-3 loss in an emotional and testy game against their nemisis' the Canucks which saw many penalties and resulted in a Shanaban and a concussion. Just like old times.

The Jets are coming off a 2-1 overtime win in Buffalo on Saturday night that saw team sniper Johnny Oduya put a laser past the Buffalo goalie to finish the game off and see the Jets pick up their first two points of a 4 game road trip that opened with poor showings in Montreal and Toronto.

Now I'd give further insight and analysis on that last game and how they can build on it, but pretty much nobody seems to have watched it. Thanks NFL...big jerk.

All I know is that I hope the next time Bogo hits the post, it deflects in.

Keys to the Game, Lineups and player Numbers after THE JUMP

Keys to the Game:

• Honestly I am super pumped that "The Big Line" is back together. With an average height of 6'4", I like what these guys bring to the table.
• The return of Little is a good thing. With both him and Buff out of the lineup the offense looked much less potent.
• Could be a battle of the goalies if both coaches go with their big names in Pavs in Thomas.UPDATE: Rask is in net for Boston
• Still no Buff. Thought he'd be back by now...that's unfortunate.
• The Jets have a fairly potent power play (10th best last I checked) and the Canucks just finished scoring 4 goals against them with the extra man (or two) on Saturday. In order to win the Jets must exploit any weaknesses they can.
• Boston pest Brad Marchand has been suspended 5 games for "defending himself" into the knees of Sami Salo of Vancouver, so Zach Hamill likely slots into the lineup to replace him.
• Evander Kane needs to once again break out of a "slump" and score...or set up goals. Or cause goals by being in good positions. Because people are going to go "Kane hasn't scored in 4 games" and they'll be correct.

Jets (GP 41 20-16-5 45 PTS)

Forwards

#9 Evander Kane -- #18 Bryan Little -- #26 Blake Wheeler

#16 Andrew Ladd -- #80 Nik Antropov -- #8 Alexander Burmistrov / #14 Tim Stapleton

#15 Tanner Glass -- #19 Jim Slater -- #22 Chris Thorburn

#17 Eric Fehr -- #28 Patrice Cormier / #13 Kyle Wellwood -- #20 Antti Miettinen

Defencemen

#39 Tobias Enstrom -- #4 Zach Bogosian

#6 Ron Hainsey -- #29 Johnny Oduya

#5 Mark Stuart -- #12 Randy Jones

Goaltender

#31 Ondrej Pavelec

I'm putting Steam Punk where he is because he's Mr. Versatility, but he could literally end up anywhere...even net. No word on Burmi as of press time so I'll keep my ear to the ground for rumbling today. I SHOULD have time to update as necessary

Boston (GP 38 26-11-1 53 PTS)

Forwards

#17 Milan Lucic -- #46 David Krejci -- #18 Nathan Horton

#19 Tyler Seguin -- #37 Patrice Bergeron -- #67 Benoit Pouliot

#52 Zach Hamill -- #23 Chris Kelly -- #49 Rich Peverley

#20 Daniel Paille -- #11 Gregory Campbell -- #22 Shawn Thornton

Defense

#33 Zdeno Chara -- #55 Johnny Boychuk

#14 Joe Corvo -- #44 Dennis Seidenberg

#21 Andrew Ference -- #54 Adam McQuaid

Goaltender

#40 Tuukka Rask

Marchand has been Shanabanned so this is the likely set up.

Player to boo without mercy: Zdeno Chara. As a former Canuck fan, and a hater of people who pick on people smaller than them, this guy burns my biscuits.

Prediction: Winnipeg 3-4 Boston. Road trips suuuuuccckkkk.

GO JETS GO!