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Five things to watch for in tonight’s Game 7 between Boston and Tampa Bay

Boston Bruins v Tampa Bay Lightning - Game Six

in Game Six of the Eastern Conference Finals during the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at St Pete Times Forum on May 25, 2011 in Tampa, Florida.

Justin K. Aller

With Game 7 upon us in just a short amount of time now, it’s only right that we take a look ahead to what we very well may see shake loose in this evening’s game to decide on who goes to the Stanley Cup finals. With so much at stake for both teams including a date with Vancouver starting next week, there’s so many factors that can go into deciding how things go tonight.

Out of everything you could see tonight, we’ve picked out five fancy ones really worth zeroing in on for tonight’s tilt in Boston.

1. Very little referee involvement

After all the gamesmanship we’ve seen out of Guy Boucher and Claude Julien in the wake of and lead up to Game 6, don’t expect tonight’s officials Dan O’Halloran and Stephen Walkom to go out of their way to help decide tonight’s game. The ticky-tack calls will go away and the pressure will be on both teams to settle it themselves. Of course, should infractions occur that eliminate an immediate scoring opportunity, the arms will go up and power plays will occur. For Boston that means a two minute long fight with themselves to do something with the man advantage while Tampa Bay will be looking to continue their hot play from Game 6 on the power play. If you’re hoping your team can rely on penalties occurring, you might be sorely disappointed.

2. Who will Zdeno Chara match up against?

The safe answer would be “everyone” as Chara is their main defensive stopper and through the first five games of the series he played between 26 and 28 minutes per game. In Game 6 he played over 30 minutes as he was also being used out in front of Dwayne Roloson on the power play, a tactic the Bruins started using in Game 5.

Defensively, however, the question is who will he see more ice time against? Chances are he’ll be out there against whoever Martin St. Louis is riding shotgun with be it Steve Stamkos or Vincent Lecavalier or both of them at the same time. St. Louis is the most dangerous man on the ice for Tampa Bay and he’s found room to score all series long. Chara’s going to have to be at his best to keep up.

3. Can Dwayne Roloson stay undefeated in elimination games?

As crazy as it sounds, Dwayne Roloson has been the lights out closer in his career in goal. The 41 year-old netminder is 7-0 in his career in elimination games including going 4-0 this season alone for the Lightning. He won three straight against Pittsburgh and he was the big winner in Game 6 on Wednesday night. Roloson has had a rough go of things against Boston in this series with a 4.33 goals against average and a .851 save percentage and he’ll need to be a lot better tonight because banking on Tim Thomas to give up five or more goals again is not a wise gamble to make.

4. Boston’s first line: Help or hindrance?

Which version of Boston’s top line with David Krejci, Milan Lucic, and Nathan Horton shows up tonight? If it’s the version from Game 6, the Bruins are in good shape as they saw Krejci net a hat trick while Lucic had a goal and an assist and Horton added two assists of his own. If the version that we saw in Game 1 that had a combined eight shots on goal and no points while seeing Lucic and Horton meltdown with penalties, the Bruins are in for some trouble. That top line has played better as the series has gone on but with how poor they played early on in the series, the worry about a relapse is there especially if things get chippy and the Bruins trail.

5. Does Guy Boucher have one more trick up his sleeve?

Tampa Bay coach Guy Boucher caught the Bruins by surprise in Game 1 by deviating away from the more relaxed version of the 1-3-1 defense that lulled Washington to sleep and instead stifled the Bruins with pressure and counterattacks that forced the Bruins defense to turn the puck over and create scoring chances for the Lightning on their way to a 5-2 win. While both teams have adjusted well to each other, you have to wonder if perhaps there’s an attack strategy left in Boucher’s bag of tricks to surprise the Bruins. When in doubt the Bruins will look to defend stronger and work counterattacks of their own, but Boucher’s a sharp coach and if there’s something he’s seen in tape as the series has gone on with the Bruins defense that he can have his team expose, he’ll go to it.

The Bruins will want to play tough, physical, and aggressive no matter what in this game and they’ll want to get better play from defensemen like Andrew Ference and Dennis Seidenberg to shore things up. If Boston can play what they call “Bruins hockey” and get rolling with that, Tampa will have a hard time countering that easily but the easiest way Tampa Bay can get the jump on Boston is to score first. If Boucher has a game plan worked out that can make life miserable for the Bruins, you’ll see it tonight.