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Five Thoughts: Tyler Seguin is making Claude Julien look bad

Tyler Seguin, Andrew Ference

You had to figure that the Bruins were going to come out in Game 2 and go for it, and they did that and then some. They attacked, they pressured, hell they even scored a couple power play goals. That said, it still wasn’t easy for Boston as they knotted up the series at 1-1. We’ve got a few thoughts on last night.

1. Tyler Seguin is doing a hell of a job to make Claude Julien look awfully bad. After Seguin’s two goal, two assist effort last night he’s now got six points (3 goals, 3 assists) in two games. He still didn’t get the minutes you’d think a guy producing like that would get (13:31 played in Game 2 to go with the just over nine minutes in Game 1). Six points in about 23 minutes played is unbelievable production. Seguin got points on the power play helping set up Michael Ryder’s first goal and his two goals were beauties of both skills deking and shooting.

Julien opting to keep Seguin caged up in the press box both at the end of the regular season and the first two rounds of the playoffs was met with a lot of criticism and while he’s going to look like a genius now for unleashing this “secret weapon” against Tampa Bay, it makes those of us who are a bit more cynical about things wonder why in the world he wasn’t on the ice in the first freaking place. Either way, it’s great to see Seguin unleash his potential through the series’ first two games. Let’s see how he does the rest of the way.

2. There’s plenty for the Bruins to be proud of as they got the offensive breakout they were waiting for through most of the playoffs. Michael Ryder scored twice, Seguin had his big game, even Tomas Kaberle earned a pair of assists. Defensively, however, the red flags that were around in Game 1 are still there for Game 2.

While they got the great attacking and physical effort, the Bruins seemed to sit on the lead after two periods. When you’re up 6-3 after two periods, complacency can set in and Tampa Bay nearly took full advantage of that in the third. Tampa Bay isn’t the sort of team you can fall asleep against as the effort level will always be sky high under Guy Boucher. Steve Stamkos and Dominic Moore (scoring one off of Tim Thomas’ bare face after losing a helmet) helped make things too interesting. Letdowns generally lead to losing and the Bruins should be more than happy to have held on.

3. One red flag the Bruins didn’t think they’d have to deal with in this series would have to be the play of Tim Thomas. For the second straight game Thomas allowed five goals and while Tampa is doing their part to attack the net strong and generate chances consistently. After 33 shots faced in Game 1 and 41 in Game 2, the Bruins defense and Thomas are all struggling. The insane part is that Thomas is still making spectaular saves and keeping the Lightning frustrated for stretches of the game. The Bruins would feel more comfortable if he can get back to looking like a potential Vezina winner rather than having to go out and score tons of goals each game.

4. It’ll be worth watching to see how Dwayne Roloson responds to getting lit up for six goals on 27 shots. We’ve seen in the past that sometimes Roloson will have the sort of game where he looks less-than stellar only to bounce back even stronger in his next outing. They’ll need Roloson to stay strong especially if the Bruins have figured out how to score goals consistently. One game doesn’t indicate problems, but Roloson didn’t look good in Game 2.

5. Lost in the huge games had by Seguin and Ryder for Boston were the incredible efforts from Vincent Lecavalier and Steven Stamkos. Lecavalier had a goal and three assists while Stamkos poured in a goal and two assists. Martin St. Louis getting a goal and an assist as well all going for naught in the loss. Getting such dominating games from their top players is just what the Lightning would want to see, coming away with out a win when you put a five spot on Tim Thomas makes the loss all the more bitter for the Lightning. Of course, getting that kind of output from their stars is something that they’ve gotten through parts of the playoffs, just not all in one game like that.