Bruins face Maple Leafs, their own increasing frustration

The first-place Toronto Maple Leafs, and Phil Kessel's Gretzky-like scoring pace (sigh), visit Boston on Thursday night. The preceding probably seemed as unlikely as the reigning Stanley Cup champions having generated 11 goals in six games, losing four of them. And yet here we are.

In theory, this is a statement game for the Leafs coming off their shootout win over the Winnipeg Jets, but that theory doesn't really hold when you consider (a) no James Reimer against Boston and (b) injuries to Colby Armstrong and Clarke MacArthur, which necessitated the recall of Nazem Kadri. As Jonas Siegel notes, the Kessel line has factored into 12 of the Leafs' 16 goals this season, and their secondary scoring could take another hit.

The Bruins, on the other hand, need a statement. Especially from the two power forwards that have been split from their line pairing by Coach Claude Julien, and have contributed more than a little to the B's offensive swoon: Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton.

Horton joins a line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. It's difficult to call this a "demotion" given the offensive prowess of that duo, but that's how it's being spun in Boston. As Big Bad Blog notes, Horton was one of the reasons the Bruins' game against Carolina went off the rails:

All of Horton's struggles and the team's frustrations coincided in ugly fashion when Horton took his costly penalty late in the game. "We're not scoring, me personally or the team," Horton said. "We're not playing how we want to play. It's just a little bit of frustration there. It was a bad time, obviously. I didn't mean to hurt my team there, but that's the way it happened and I can't change it now."

Horton has a goal and an assist in six games. Lucic's offensive issues are a little more concerning: Zero goals so far for a 30-goal man last season, and he's simply not looking like the same player this season.

Joe Haggerty of CSN Boston breaks it down:

In simple terms Lucic knows he must play the steaming-locomotive style that helped him earn his reputation as an intimidating player, and he's strayed away from that player as he's developed into a 30-goal scorer in the NHL.

"Sometimes you have to take a step back in order to take a step forward, and that's where I am personally at this point," said Lucic. "Maybe I'm trying to do too much and thinking about doing too much, and it's causing me to do nothing. I need to step back and focus on playing that straight-line, strong-along-the-walls style and just simplify my game.

"When I'm pushing the puck up and chipping it in, that's when I'm most successful. There have been spurts where I've played well, but not enough of it. This year we're a little bit late here and there, we're not finding each other when we're open and we're not seeing each other as well. That's why there's a need for a change. I support this decision for a change, and we just have to work our way out of this to find our game again."

Hence, the move of Chris Kelly up with Lucic and Tyler Seguin. Kelly's a grinder and a fundamentally sound two-way player. It's a shrewd move for Julien, even if he has no clue what to expect (via Kalman):

"I wish I could stand here and pretend I'm a genius. But you know what, I don't know what I'm going to get. What I know is that what I was getting before wasn't enough," said head coach Claude Julien about the line changes. "So I just felt the need to make those changes. We've kind of put certain guys together for specific reasons. ? It's never a bad thing to mix guys up a little bit because sometimes it brings that burst of energy, it's a new challenge and sometimes it [changes] things that maybe are stale."

So is "stale" codeword for, or a symptom of, the dreaded Stanley Cup hangover, or just an indictment of Lucic/Horton?

The key tonight is the start for the Bruins. They're a team that opens the game really well, doesn't get results and then gets frustrated about it. (Cue the "championship entitlement" accusations.) In six games, they've scored once in the first period. In 2010-11, they were fifth in the NHL in first-period scoring and were 24-4-2 when leading after one period.

For all the talk about getting back to basics for a player like Lucic, how about for the Bruins: Score first, and let Zdeno Chara's pairing take on Phil Kessel while Tim Thomas shuts the door on everything else? What a concept.

Toronto Maple Leafs Chicago Fire Premier Richmond Kickers Future Fresno Fuego Miami FC