Bruins vs. Penguins: Game 1 Preview, TV Info and Predictions

The last two members of the NHL’s Eastern Conference to win the Stanley Cup will clash for the right to play for another crown in the third round of the 2013 playoffs. The top-dog Pittsburgh Penguins, Stanley Cup holders in 2009, host the Boston Bruins, two years removed from their title, to commence the conference finals this weekend.

With a one-goal regulation victory in each regular-season meeting, the Penguins were ultimately the only team not to concede a single point in the standings to Boston in 2013.

The first two of three installments to the season series occurred before Pittsburgh padded on another layer of useful seasoning prior to the trading deadline. Only once have the Bruins had to deal with a Penguins lineup boasting the likes of Jarome Iginla, Jussi Jokinen, Brenden Morrow and Douglas Murray.

Also of note, Evgeni Malkin’s 2013 regular-season game log is bereft of Bruins bouts. However, he will be in action for this series and is tied with defenseman Kris Letang for Pittsburgh’s lead with 16 playoff points.

Then again, David Krejci’s 17 playoff points put him one slot ahead of Malkin on the league leaderboard and he and Nathan Horton sandwich Malkin, Letang and Pens captain Sidney Crosby to round out the top five.

But beneath Malkin, Letang, Crosby and Iginla are a host of other legitimate scoring threats on the Pittsburgh scroll. Quite frankly, there are too many to mention in one sitting.

In turn, all partisan puckheads in the Northeast and interested observers all around should anticipate a high-octane, heavy-hitting, emotional and exhilarating series. Below is a glimpse into Saturday’s Game 1.

Time: Saturday, June 1, 8:00 p.m. ET

Where: Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Series: 0-0

TV: NBC, CBC, RDS

Key Storyline: Late-Season Trades On Each Side

For the second straight spring and the third time in as many NHL seasons, Jaromir Jagr will engage his former employers in a playoff series.

The two-time champion with the Pens in the early 1990s faced Pittsburgh in his final season as a New York Ranger in 2008. Immediately after that, he went to the KHL for three years before coming back and crossing paths with the Penguins as a Philadelphia Flyer in the 2012 playoffs.

For what it’s worth, Jagr had a 1-5-6 scoring log in six games, including a playmaker hat trick, during last year’s Philadelphia-Pittsburgh series. He inflicted three goals and seven points on his original NHL franchise when he opposed the Pens as a Blueshirt in the spring of 2008.

Of course, Jagr may not have been sporting the Spoked B in this matchup, or participating in it at all, had the aforementioned Iginla’s heart sat in Boston.

The longtime Calgary Flame was nearly bound for the Bruins in late March, but when higher-ups in Alberta left it to Iginla, he insisted on going to the Penguins. Roughly a week after that, Boston nabbed Jagr from Dallas.

Iginla’s keen desire for a title has so far translated to a 4-8-12 scoring log. He should continue to apply his skills going forward. The question on the Bruins’ end is, will they have a booster shot of incentive upon facing Iginla in enemy garb after he spurned them as allies?

Injury Report (Via tsn.ca)

Boston Bruins

Andrew Ference: Questionable for the game with a lower-body ailment.

Wade Redden: Questionable for the game with an undisclosed ailment.

Pittsburgh Penguins

No injuries.

Pittsburgh Will Win If…

The Penguins keep up their first- and second-round habits of fast, productive starts to home games.

Pittsburgh is 5-1 at home in the playoffs. Save for Game 5 of the first round, an eventual 4-0 win over the Islanders, the Penguins have led after the first period of each home playoff game.

Contrast that with their five postseason road games so far, where they have taken one lead, two ties and two deficits into the dressing room at the 20-minute mark.

Their only loss in that stretch of home games saw them spill a 3-1 lead in the final 40 minutes en route to a 4-3 loss to the Isles in Game 2. They have since been much smarter about putting the opposition away when they have the chance.

They can hurriedly, but efficiently continue the trend against Boston by coaxing its big, brawny veteran blueliners (Zdeno Chara, Dennis Seidenberg) into penalties and exploiting the inexperience of any rookies who dress.

With the aforementioned injuries to Ference and Redden, the Bruins could have as many as two or three first-year NHLers on their back end in Matt Bartkowski, Dougie Hamilton and Torey Krug.

Despite being one of four teams left in the playoffs, the Bruins are ninth in first-period scoring with five goals while Pittsburgh is comfortably at the top (16), just as it was in the regular season (53). Therefore, the sooner the Penguins flaunt their depth up front and instill self-doubt in Boston’s youngsters, the tighter their stranglehold will be.

Boston Will Win If…

Jagr perks up after a pointless five-game series against the Rangers and dishes up more playoff production at Pittsburgh’s expense.

Five of Boston’s top-six forwards on the line chart constitute five of their top six producers on their playoff production leaderboard. Immediately trailing are grinders Gregory Campbell and Daniel Paille, who keyed the clinching victory in the second round.

Who’s been missing? Jagr, for one, and then there’s Chris Kelly (pointless through 12 games this postseason) and Rich Peverley (one goal in 11 games).

If the Bruins are to keep pace with the kinetic Penguins, let alone get an upper hand in the series opener, they will need everybody thrusting salsa-laden biscuits at the Pittsburgh cage. An age-defying, motivated Jagr could provide the spark the depth forwards will be required to produce.

A phenomenally stingy outing by netminder Tuukka Rask will be another key for the Bruins as a group. The defense canceling out Pittsburgh’s prime suspects (Crosby, Malkin, etc.) will only do so much considering all of the alternatives at Dan Bylsma’s disposal.

But if Rask stands out and at least keeps it a low-scoring, deadlocked or one-goal affair into the climactic stages, then Boston will have an ideal game going. He’ll be that much better served if his skating mates can singe his counterpart, Tomas Vokoun, and underscore an early edge in the goaltending card.

Prediction: Pittsburgh Penguins 4, Boston Bruins 1

As paradoxical as it may be, the Penguins are separating themselves from the rest of the East with each successive round, even as each successive adversary is higher-seeded and more playoff-seasoned than the previous.

They have learned from their losses to the Islanders that drew 1-1 and 2-2 knots in the conference quarterfinals and the fall-from-ahead, 2-1 overtime falter against Ottawa that effectively averted a sweep.

Granted, the Bruins had their own learning experience earlier in this tournament, surmounting a 4-1 deficit in Game 7 against Toronto after spilling a 3-1 series lead. But since then, they have not been tested to nearly the extent anyone should have expected when they confronted and conquered the Rangers in five games.

Try as it might, Boston cannot do enough to brace itself for Pittsburgh’s tone-setting onslaught. The emboldened Penguins will reactivate their symbiotic relationship with the Consol Energy Center masses, spot themselves a one- or two-goal cushion in the first period and pace themselves to a convincing, depth-bolstered victory.

Not that the Bruins will be irrecoverably buried for the rest of the series. They will surely learn from Game 1 and at least make subsequent matches look more competitive, but the Pens will prevail in the feeling-out contest.

Unless otherwise indicated, all statistics for this report were found via nhl.com