Boston Bruins: 5 Keys to Tuesday's Matchup with the New Jersey Devils

Although they have finally surmounted the .500 fence to slightly more savory 8-7-0 record, the Boston Bruins are still lodged in the middle of the unlucky seven Eastern Conference teams below the playoff poverty line.

That being said, there is a chance the Bruins could be officially in the playoff picture as early as the final horn of Tuesday night’s game against the ninth-place New Jersey Devils.

Boston only trails New Jersey, the idle Montreal Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators (in Calgary on Tuesday) by a single point. And the Bruins have games in hand on each of those three teams with the exception of the opposing Devils.

The Bruins can kick the single-biggest layer of ice chips yet over the memories of their initial start by swiping a two-point package at home Tuesday. A win combined with an Ottawa loss would put Boston in a virtual tie with Tampa Bay for eighth place with the Bruins bearing the tiebreaker by virtue of fewer games-played and an upper hand in the season series.

A few items worth musing over as they try to go about that are as follows.

Kovalchuk Back?

Should New Jersey’s Ilya Kovalchuk return after missing the last four games with an unspecified lower body ailment, the Bruins should be one of the first teams to know not to give him any seams. After all, in their previous outing on Saturday versus Buffalo, their own Rich Peverley came back after missing two games and chipped in two points, including a goal that drew a 1-1 knot at 7:40 of the second period.

Shooting Them Down

Surprise, surprise. The obsessive-defensive Devils rank among the league leaders in terms of limiting the opposing shots, currently allowing a nightly median of 27.5 bids. And when the shooting gallery works in their favor or finishes evenly, they are 8-2-0. Only the cross-river rival New York Rangers have fared better in that scenario.

But conversely, when the opposition holds the upper hand in the shots column, New Jersey is a wretched 1-4-1 for a league-worst .167 winning percentage.

Secondary Scoring

If the Devils can bring out the best of their defense, the blistering Tyler Seguin could face a little more of a challenge than what he has previously faced on most nights. It will thus be on the recently awakened likes of Peverley, Chris Kelly and Seguin’s own linemate Brad Marchand to write an effective offensive insurance policy.

Roughing Up Their Road

The Devils are 4-3-0 on the road, but only one of those wins has come within the standard 60-minute time frame. Tuesday night will be only their third outing away from the Prudential Center this month and while they have claimed a victory in their previous two away games, both required a rally and a shootout.

In a Nov. 3 visit to Philadelphia, Kovalchuk’s last game, the Devils fell behind 2-0 in the second period before Zach Parise cut the deficit 51 seconds after Claude Giroux had augmented the Flyers’ advantage. New Jersey later trailed, 3-2, before David Clarkson tied it with 6:34 to spare in regulation.

In Washington on Saturday, the Devils authorized the first two goals and trailed after the first period before pulling even in the second, then subsisted through a scoreless third period and overtime en route to a 3-2 shootout triumph.

Only once this season has New Jersey scored four regulation goals, and that fourth strike happened to be an empty netter. Therefore, if the Bruins can muster a productive start and spice up the TD Garden masses, they will pin their visitors with a daunting task to try to usurp a regulation decision.

40-Minute Drill

Both the Bruins and Devils are undefeated and have collected every possible point when leading after the second period at 7-0-0 and 2-0-0, respectively. Conversely, they have each managed only one win and two points apiece when trailing at the 40-minute mark, with Boston 1-5-0 and New Jersey 1-4-0 in that situation.

The opening frame has been decisively less indicative of each team’s fate on both counts. Neither side has much experience this season carrying a lead into the first intermission (Boston is 3-1-0, New Jersey 1-1-0) and both teams are 3-4-0 when they trail at that point.

During their November-long five-game winning streak, the Bruins have led after one merely twice, trailed on two other occasions and tied once. But they have entered every third period with a lead they would successfully safeguard.

In each of the Devils’ last three games (2-0-1), they have been tied after two, but the team trailing after one has rallied to win each time.