Bruins Win Overshadows Nash’s Return, An Early Look at Men’s Olympic Hockey Play

With headlines dominating the impending return of New York Rangers (10-11-0) forward Rick Nash to the lineup, the Boston Bruins (14-6-1) spoiled the party with a 2-1 win on Tuesday over his team.

Tuukka Rask

Bruins goalie Tuukka Rusk, playing for a second straight game, had 43 saves (out of a 44 season-high shots allowed by the Bruins) for the night.  He said of the game via the Associated Press, “The first two (periods), we were really playing with fire. We gave them a lot of opportunities, but then in the third we fixed that. I usually feel better the second night, but I don’t think you need that many shots every time you play the back-to-backs.”

In the first period, the Bruins saw Dennis Seidenberg go down with a lower body injury; the team then played with five defensemen.

The Rangers had hoped Nash’s return would give them a little spark after it had only scored two goals over the three previous games. The player had been out with an injury for 17 games and had not played since Oct. 8. For the night, he participated for 17:55 with five shots on goal.

New York fell short for the win but in the first period did outshoot the Bruins 16-6. For the game, getting past Rask was a tough task.

Lucky for this goalie, he had a good game as the general manager of the Finnish national team, Jari Kurri, was in the house. Rask may have punched his ticket for the 2014 Winter Olympics starting goalie job.

Next up for the Bruins, who sit in the top spot for the Atlantic division, is a Thursday game against the St. Louis Blues (14-3-3). The Blues sits at 17/2 to win the 2014 Stanley Cup with the Bruins right behind at 11/1

An Early Look at Men’s Olympic Hockey Play

With Rask likely having the Olympics on his mind Tuesday night, he’s probably not alone as its less than 80 days until the start. It’s not too soon to start looking at the favorites for Men’s Hockey even though the final rosters for the U.S. men’s hockey team will not be announced until the NHL’s Winter Classic.

This year’s game has the Detroit Red Wings (9-6-7)  against the Toronto Maple Leafs (13-7-1) on Jan. 1 in Ann Arbor’s Michigan Stadium.

Vegas already has some odds out and our friends at Bovada via CBS Sports have jumped on the bandwagon with numbers for the the upcoming play.

Men’s Gold Medal

Canada and Russia – 11/5
Sweden – 9/2
USA – 6/1
Czech Republic – 9/1
Finland – 12-1
Switzerland – 25-1
Slovakia  – 33-1
Norway – 200-1
Latvia  – 400-1
Austria and Slovenia – 900-1

No surprise here as both top teams will be loaded with talent. Canada is the reigning Olympic champion and you could say Russia does have home-ice advantage.

In addition, Canada (1/7), Russia (1/2) and Sweden (1/2) are also the odds leaders to win their respective groups.

As for the U.S. team, they should still have a decent group of players and the oddsmakers took at look at some possible ones making the team:

Will Brandon Saad make team USA’s 2013 Olympic hockey roster?
Yes: -200 (1/2)
No: +150 (3/2)

Will 19-year-old Nashville Predators Seth Jones make team USA’s 2013 Olympic hockey roster?
Yes: EVEN (1/1)
No: -140 (5/7)

Will Alex Galchenyuk make team USA’s 2013 Olympic hockey roster?
Yes: +150 (3/2)
No: -200 (1-2)

Will Kyle Okposo make team USA’s 2013 Olympic hockey roster?
Yes: +150 (3/2)
No: -200 (1-2)

Jonathan Quick

As for who will be play goalie for Team USA, in August at USA Hockey’s orientation camp, six players had been invited: Craig Anderson, John Gibson, Jimmy Howard, Jonathan Quick, Ryan Miller and Cory Schneider. While Miller was the team’s star in Vancouver, he has been inconsistent with the Buffalo Sabres. According to TeamUSA.org, Los Angeles King’s Quick has been considered to be the frontrunner from his role in his team’s 2012 Stanley Cup win.

To-date, he is 10-5 with a .907 save percentage.

The Kings sit at 16/1 to win this year’s Stanley Cup.