Five Things The Bruins Need to Do Tonight

The Bruins need to step up their game tonight in Montreal. Here are five things I'd like to see happen.

Soft Dump and Chase

All too often this series, the Bruins get over the red line and fire around the boards. You can win possession along the high boards this way, but it doesn't allow you to be barrel hard into the corners and scare the bejeezus out of your opponent-- which just so happens to be a Bruins strength, particularly with their top line. Lucic and Iginla should be springing the puck out of the corners.

Hit Everything and Get in the Way

Look, stop worrying about penalties (just don't take dumb ones for slashing after the whistle). In Game 3, we witnessed a Bruins team that was inexplicably passive-- it was like they were unwilling to play their typical hard hitting game because they feared the penalty box. Y'know what? Remember how to kill penalties again and play your game!

Wrist Shots from the Point into a Crowd

I'd love to see guys like Dougie Hamilton and Torey Krug step into open lanes and snap off quick wrist shots instead of winding up for a slapshot. Slapshots are easy to block and easy to read. There is no element of surprise. Wristers are silent but deadly, err, well you know what I mean. Pair this with the Bruins crowding the front of the net and you've got a recipe for deflections and rebound opportunities. Virtually every forward is bigger than the Canadiens D (other than Subban), make them try to push you out the way.

Tuukka Being Tuukka

It's not so much that he's been bad, but he hasn't come up with that big save when needed either-- and elite goalies are supposed to do that. Tuukka is an elite goalie but he's been very average in this series. Steal a game, a period, something...

Don't Be Stupid

Be aggressive but don't get caught making retaliatory slashes or nonsense like that. Your power play is expiring? Maybe sneak back to cover the guy springing out of the box. The Bruins had the best record in the league because they were smartest team. Stop blowing defensive assignments (and Claude, I know Matt Bartkowski had a bad start to the series but he is still better than Meszaros. Please let him play, and maybe rotate five d-men instead of six).