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The School Newspaper of Franklin High School

Pantherbook

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The School Newspaper of Franklin High School

Pantherbook

The School Newspaper of Franklin High School

Pantherbook

Bruins Will Win the Cup

The Boston Bruins have now won 15 of the last 16 games, after beating the Philadelphia Flyers in their own barn and will be the next Stanley Cup Champions.

Tuukka Rask, .931 save percentage (2nd best in NHL), is reason number one. He is 34-14 this regular season with 7 of those 34 wins being shutouts. He started the season off slow but after leading Finland to a bronze medal in Olympic hockey, Rask came back and is now having one of his best seasons yet. Getting past the numbers, watching him play, especially when the game is tight and the stakes are high, Tuukka is the calmest, coolest in the whole building, while still stealing a game from the opponent.

The Bruins have arguably one of the best first lines in all of hockey (Lucic, Krecji, Iginla) who account for 67 of the teams 238 goals this year, but there is no argument toward the fact that the Bruins have the best four forward lines in the league. Patrice Bergeron is second in goals on the Bs with 27 and is the best defensive forward in the NHL, he centers the 2nd line. Carl Soderberg is the 3rd line left wing and has 15 goals and 30 assists. The best part about the four lines is the actual fourth line of the Boston Bruins. Shawn Thornton, Gregory Campbell and Daniel Paille make up the line that gives the rest of the team energy and gives the first three lines a good breather. Bruins Coach Claude Jullian is always comfortable no matter what line is out there.

Reason number three the Bruins will capture Lord Stanley this year is the Stanley Cup experience but more importantly the lack there of. 13 of the 31 one current players have their name engraved on the cup and that type of experience is very important and in a long post season run, but the other 18 who don’t, make the ones who do, want it even more.

Enter Jerome Iginla, age 36 and is now about to finish out his  18th NHL regular season. In those 18 seasons Iginla has not yet captured hockey’s greatest prize. With his career closer to the end than the beginning, he doesn’t have too many shots to win it all left. Guys like this make everyone else on the team want it more. All the more reason the Bruins will be taking what should have been theirs last year if it wasn’t for half the team practically on their death bed.

Concerns for the Bruins are obviously their defense. With Adam McQuaid and Denis Sidenberg out the Bruins look to three rookies to help out Tuukka Rask in their own end. This seems like a huge obstacle but it is an obstacle they have seemed to be handling with those three rookies have plus-minus’s all over 15 (22, 17, 15).

Add all that up and it equals a team with Stanley Cup in their near future.