Toucher & Rich: Dave Goucher On The Stanley Cup Hangover
The summer is over and hockey is back. The Bruins are ready to kick off their preseason Wednesday night it Ottawa with the Senators.
The Sports Hub's Bruins play by play announcer Dave Goucher spoke with Toucher & Rich about what he's seen in camp, where Tyler Seguin might play, Tim Thomas, Tuukka Rask, the addition of Benoit Pouliot and Zdeno Chara's injury.
The guys started things off talking about Boston's 4 lines. How do they look at the beginning of the season?
"I know they've tried Tyler Seguin in the middle at center over the last few days, maybe they go that way to start the year. The big question to me is who's going to play with Bergeron and Marchand and I thought that maybe Seguin would get a chance, maybe Peverly would get a chance there. I think that's the only big question," Goucher said.
Will Seguin be able to handle the responsibility of playing center? Does it handcuff him, or is it a waste in this system with how defensive Claude Julien asks his centers to be?
"If he's capable of doing it no I think it's fine. There's some guys that will tell you that playing the middle frees you up when you're coming through center ice and you're not on either side, either wall coming up the ice all night. No I think if he's able to handle the responsibility of playing in his defensive zone I think it could be a good thing," Goucher said.
This Bruins team played 107 games last year and the Stanley Cup hangover is always an issue with teams the following year. How much will winning last season affect the Bruins this season?
"It's an issue. You play until the middle of June, you can pretty much write off the rest of the month with parades and celebrations and the next thing you know it's the middle of July. I just can't believe how fast training camp has come back around. They might benefit early fro m the fact that they don't have a lot of road games early...I do think that Stanley Cup hangover can be a legitimate issue at some point during the year," said Goucher.
Another issue the B's have to deal with is the goaltending. Tim Thomas played a bulk of game last season, but Goucher feels that Tuukka Rask needs to help out more this season. Unfortunately last season Rask was not the Rask of the season past and struggled in most of his starts throughout the season.
They also discussed the addition of Benoit Pouliot from Montreal. Will this move help him have a better season?
The guys also talked about the injury that Zdeno Chara suffered in training camp where he took a puck off the leg. How serious of an injury is it and does it really matter if he misses these preseason games?
All this and so much more with our Bruins play by play guy.
