Dave Goucher On Toucher & Rich: Will Claude Julien Change His Lines For Game 7?
Claude Julien has put faith and trust in his forward lines, but he hasn't been rewarded for that loyalty. With his Bruins team now facing a win-or-go-home Game 7 on Monday night, will the B's bench boss switch things up in order to try to create some offense?
Toucher and Rich asked Bruins radio play-by-play man Dave Goucher if changes should be expected.
"My sense is at the beginning of the game, he will probably go with what he's had so far, but if it doesn't get going, he would switch it up pretty quick," Goucher said, offering a bump for Jaromir Jagr up to the right wing on the Patrice Bergeron line as a suggestion.
"It's funny, one of the things Claude said earlier in this series is that you don't have time to be patient in the playoffs, because you run out of time pretty quick. But he's been more than patient with [Brad] Marchand and Seguin and not switching it up. There were some signs that things were a little bit better last night, but it doesn't matter anymore. It's about producing or not producing, and the fact that neither of them have a goal yet in this series is pretty disturbing for them and for everybody."
"So I don't know, it might not take long if it's not going, that they might look to spark that tonight."
Marchand has two assists in the Bruins' six games, while Seguin has been kept off the scoresheet completely, so a change may very well be in order.
As for the rest of the Bruins, Goucher said it's hard to predict anything about this team.
"If you can tell me how they're going to come out and play, then you know a hell of a lot more than I do," Goucher said. "I thought they were going to come out in Game 5 and put this away -- I was convinced of it. It was alarming to me how they came out in the first period of that game. It reminded me, as much as I want to forget about it, of Game 5 against the Flyers in 2010, when they had a chance to wrap up the series at home in the fifth game and they didn't."
As for the pressure, Goucher expects the Maple Leafs to be the more comfortable team heading into Game 7.
"Toronto is playing with house money right now," Goucher said. "Nobody expected them to win, nobody expected them to force a Game 7. All the pressure -- all the pressure -- is on the Bruins in this game tonight. I hope they come out and play well, I hope they can take control in the first period like I hoped they could do the other night in Game 5, but that remains to be seen."
Dave Goucher
