While February can bring out the mid-season doldrums in the NHL, it isn't the case this week.Just two days after the Red Wings and Penguins met in a Stanley Cup rematch in the Steel City, the two teams with the best cases to qualify for this year's title hit the ice Tuesday night in Boston.
It isn't often you get a pair of teams meeting that are both on a 129-point pace, a total that has been reached by only three teams in NHL history, and both have a good chance of eclipsing the all-time mark of 132 set by the 1976-77 Canadiens. Of the 104 combined games Boston and San Jose have played this season, they've lost a grand total of just 15 of them in regulation, and grabbed a combined 164 points out of those contests.
Oh, and there's that little matter of the blockbuster trade between the two teams just three seasons ago.
The date was already circled on many calendars around Boston, since it marks Joe Thornton's second game on Causeway Street since being sent to the Sharks in November of 2005 -- a game just 41 days after the trade, and one where Thronton was kicked out in the first period for hitting Hal Gill -- but no one anticipated when it was originally announced on the NHL slate that it would be a battle of two teams leading their respective conferences.
Thornton told the Mercury-News this meeting wouldn't be quite as a bundle of nerves as the first one was.
"Then it was still fresh... I don't think this time the nerves are going to be there as much as they were back then."And, as he told the Boston Globe, he never expected to leave the Hub.
"Now, as a 29-year-old, you're a little bit different than a 26-year-old. But I actually felt really comfortable in Boston. I felt that I was one of the best players in the league at the time. I thought Boston was going to be the home for me for the rest of my career."People expected the Sharks to contend for the top seed in the West, but right now, San Jose is on pace to obliterate their franchise mark for points set in a season - set last year with 108 points. While the Sharks trail the Bruins by six points in the President's Trophy race, they do hold four games in hand and actually have a slightly better win percentage (.790) than the Bruins. Unlike Boston, San Jose doesn't hold a huge lead over the second-place team - just two points over Detroit - but they do have three games in hand over the Wings.
As for the Bruins, no one expected them to be running away with the Eastern Conference's top seed, as they lead Washington by 13 points in the race for home ice in the East. The Bruins are also on pace to shatter the team's single-season points mark of 121 set by Bobby Orr's squad of 1970-71, not a small feat for a franchise that's been around 85 seasons. After sneaking into the playoffs last season as the eighth seed in the East, Boston is just nine points shy of last year's grand total - with 28 games left to play.
And, the two teams are in the top three of both goals scored (Boston's averaging 3.41 GPG for second behind Detroit, while San Jose just trails them at 3.38), and the Bruins lead the league in allowing just 2.15 GPG, while the Sharks are third with 2.34.
Both teams also feature balanced scoring, with the Sharks featuring three 20-goal scorers in Patrick Marleau, Ryan Clowe and Devin Setoguchi, the B's feature four players with 19 or more in Marc Savard, Phil Kessel, David Krejchi and Michael Ryder (who will miss the game after facial surgery).
For the Bruins, the story has been around goaltender Tim Thomas, who has posted a microscopic 2.10 GAA with a .932 save percentage, while backup Manny Fernandez has been almost equally good with a 2.16 GAA and a .925 save percentage.
Both teams also are coming off tough overtime losses, as the Sharks actually have lost three in a row (although two were after San Jose garnered an extra point), while the Bruins blew a 3-1 lead and lost on a fluky goal to the Flyers Saturday in overtime.
But, of course, the focus in Boston will be on their former captain who was sent to San Jose because as a scapegoat for Boston's failures in the postseason, and despite him failing to lead the Sharks to a Stanley Cup final yet, there will be heavy expectations on both sides that this won't be the two teams' only meeting of the season.
