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Bruins look to get aggressive to tie up series with Lightning

Tampa Bay Lightning v Boston Bruins - Game One

in Game One of the Eastern Conference Finals during the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at TD Garden on May 14, 2011 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Mike Stobe

Tonight’s Game 2 between Tampa Bay and Boston will help set the tone for the rest of the series. Either we’ll see the Bruins bounce back after a tough Game 1 that saw them lose 5-2 thanks to three early goals from the Lightning en route to a relatively easy win or the Lightning will continue to find ways to upset the play of Boston and head home with a 2-0 series lead.

Tampa Bay @ Boston - 8 p.m. ET (Versus) - Tampa Bay leads series 1-0

While the Bruins are getting less-than stellar play from defenseman Tomas Kaberle, one of their biggest issues in Game 1 was how they handled the intense attacking pressure brought forth by the Lightning. The Lightning used the sort of forecheck that neither the Bruins nor anyone else had seen much of in the playoffs from them. The Bruins struggled with the pressure and made many bad decisions leading to Lightning goals. One way that Boston can upset Tampa’s game plan is to get physical and finish their checks all over the ice.

Boston stepping up the physical game should help keep Tampa Bay on edge and while you certainly won’t catch the Lightning dropping the gloves with the Bruins, even if the plays come late in the game, it would be enough to make them feel uncomfortable on the ice. That alone could afford Boston the opportunities they’re looking for to try and beat Dwayne Roloson.

What will be worth seeing tonight is just how much ice time and potential power play time we see for Bruins rookie Tyler Seguin. Seguin had a goal and an assist in Game 1 while getting less than ten minutes of ice time. Seguin is in the lineup thanks to Patrice Bergeron’s concussion he suffered in Game 4 against Philadelphia. While Bergeron has skated the last two days with the team leaving Claude Julien to be a bit mysterious about whether or not he’ll play tonight, it’s suspected that Bergeron will be out of action again.

Tampa Bay meanwhile is all systems go with the same lineup they had in Game 1. While they’re still without Pavel Kubina in the meantime with a head injury, Eric Brewer has been all that and then some for the Lightning along the blue line. Brewer leads the playoffs in blocked shots and he’s got a goal and five assists so far as well. If the Lightning go on to the Stanley Cup finals, Brewer’s contributions will be a major part of that as he’s averaging 26:04 of ice time per game.

For now, Tampa Bay will be happy with finding ways to again frustrate the Bruins and head back home with a 2-0 lead. If they can do that and figure out a way to get Steve Stamkos back on the scoresheet, they’ll be feeling really good about themselves and their chances in this series. Don’t expect Zdeno Chara and Tim Thomas to take too kindly to those efforts though.