Boston Bruins-Chicago Blackhawks: Game 4 Preview, TV Info and Predictions

Game 4 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals presents the Boston Bruins with a chance to redo their Round 1 act of pushing an opponent to a 3-1 precipice.

On the other side, the Chicago Blackhawks—although they naturally bounced back to continue their path to this point—hope to avoid slipping to that same brink the way they did in the second round.

The Bruins took the upper hand in the series with a 2-0 victory in Monday night’s Game 3, improving to 8-2 at home in the 2013 NHL playoffs. But the Blackhawks can reclaim home-ice advantage along with momentum in the series by pulling even in Game 4.

Viewing Info

Time: Wednesday, June 19, 8:00 p.m. ET

TV: NBC, CBC, RDS

Key Storyline: The Paille-Kelly-Seguin Line

Since falling behind, 1-0, in Game 2, the Bruins have tallied four unanswered goals and members of the newfangled Daniel Paille-Chris Kelly-Tyler Seguin line have factored in to each of them.

First, Paille set up Kelly for the struggling center’s first goal of the playoffs and a 1-1 equalizer in Game 2. Paille converted a feed from Seguin in the subsequent overtime for a 2-1 Boston triumph.

The troika collaborated on the icebreaker in Game 3. Paille nabbed a loose puck in the Bruins end to initiate a rush that featured an enticing shot by Seguin and Kelly winning a battle for the rebound to feed goal-scorer Paille.

Later, Kelly and Paille each took a turn hustling to the cage and drawing a Chicago penalty, which amounted to 10 seconds of five-on-three. Patrice Bergeron buried the insurance strike immediately after five-on-four was restored, ultimately finalizing the 2-0 outcome.

Key Matchup: Boston’s Special Teams versus Chicago’s Special Teams

That conversion by Bergeron was the second power-play marker of the series, both coming off of his blade.

With that, Boston’s power play is now 2-for-9 through three matchups with Chicago, whereas the Blackhawks are scoreless on 11-man advantages against the Bruins.

It did not help Chicago’s cause Monday night to blow two unanswered opportunities in the latter half of the first period, thus keeping the contest scoreless through intermission. The effort to generate any sustained, draining, let alone tangibly productive attack on Boston’s laser-beamed penalty kill looked nothing short of deflated.

For the better part of those two segments, and most of their Cup penalty-killing sequences in general, the Bruins were repeatedly swift to clear the zone. They did so at least a dozen times over a cumulative 8:11 of shorthanded action Monday night.

Injury Report (via The Hockey News)

Boston Bruins

Gregory Campbell: Out for the rest of the playoffs with a right fibula injury.

Chicago Blackhawks

Marian Hossa: Day-to-day with an undisclosed injury.

Projected Lineup

Bruins’ Projected Lineup

Forwards

Line 1: Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Jaromir Jagr

Line 2: Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton

Line 3: Daniel Paille-Chris Kelly-Tyler Seguin

Line 4: Kaspars Daugavins-Rich Peverley-Shawn Thornton

Defensemen

Line 1: Zdeno Chara-Dennis Seidenberg

Line 2: Andrew Ference-Johnny Boychuk

Line 3: Adam McQuaid-Torey Krug

Goalies

Starter: Tuukka Rask

Backup: Anton Khudobin

Blackhawks’ Projected Lineup

Forwards

Line 1: Patrick Sharp-Jonathan Toews-Viktor Stalberg or Marian Hossa

Line 2: Brandon Saad-Michal Handzus-Patrick Kane

Line 3: Bryan Bickell-Andrew Shaw-Ben Smith or Viktor Stalberg

Line 4: Marcus Kruger-Dave Bolland-Michael Frolik

Defensemen

Line 1: Duncan Keith-Brent Seabrook

Line 2: Niklas Hjalmarsson-Johnny Oduya

Line 3: Nick Leddy-Michal Rozsival

Goalies

Starter: Corey Crawford

Backup: Ray Emery

Boston Will Win If…

It continues to capitalize on its symbiotic cycle of energy with the home crowd of TD Garden.

Bruins buffs have now born eyewitness to seven consecutive home victories. The last two of those wins and hefty portion of another have featured an uninterrupted 186 minutes and 28 minutes of shutout hockey by Rask. (Pittsburgh’s Chris Kunitz was the last visitor to light the lamp at the Garden, doing so in the second period of Game 3 of the previous round.)

Visibly building momentum for themselves has been a plus for the Bruins, but so has denying the opposition any chance to neutralize the electricity in their building.

Regardless of venue, a combination of stalling Pittsburgh’s and Chicago’s ordinarily potent offense and patiently poking open seams at the other end en route to a goal or two has been a reliable winning formula. It has worked well enough for a win in six of Boston’s last seven tries and could work again on Wednesday.

Chicago Will Win If…

Its speedy skaters maximize their own strengths and make the Bruins toil in their end.

Per nhl.com’s Dan Rosen, Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville explained the rationale behind reinstating Stalberg after scratching him for Games 1 and 2 as follows: “I think that he’s a threat off the rush… (With) Viktor, we’re just looking for more. I think offensively, defensively, giving us some more in both those areas.”

Stalberg, along with others on the Chicago strike force, can be more effective by better protecting the puck while initiating the offense. This means moving the puck and their feet in a way that keeps the play on Boston property for protracted periods and tests the Bruins’ discipline.

So much the better if that amounts to multiple goals, preferably in a variety pack of even-strength and power-play, and instills the first sense of doubt in the TD Garden masses in quite some time.

Prediction: Blackhawks 2, Bruins 1

This has quickly taken shape as at least a superficially defensive series and one that will be apt to assume the form of a stiff arm-wrestling match.

On the heels of Monday’s clip to the chin, the Blackhawks are in the same position they put the Bruins in after prevailing in Game 1. They face the task of pulling even in the opponent’s mansion and are thus naturally inclined to harbor an extra dollop of desperation.

Desperation can be a difference-maker and it will be on Wednesday with Chicago affording itself and/or making good on one more break than Boston.

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