Wheeler In, Ference Out: Game 4 Preview

With the Bruins 4 hours away from dropping the puck in essentially must win game Game 4 against the Carolina Hurricanes, it's confirmed that Blake Wheeler will in fact play. Despite the good news, the Bruins were hit with bad and somewhat expected news as Andrew Ference will not suit up and play tonight. It appears that Ference re-aggravated the lower body injury that he sustained in an April 4th matinee against the New York Rangers.

Ference, a mainstay on the Bruins 2nd defensive pairing and alternate captain missed all of the 1st round against Montreal before returning in Game 1 against Carolina. Ference was a +1 in the first 3 games of the series, and was averaging over 15 minutes on ice per game. Although the lost of Ference is surely what the Bruins don't need at this point in the series, there's no need to count them out for Game 4, and the rest of the series for that matter as the "Sheriff" Shane Hnidy will step in for Ference.

Hnidy has played in just 3 of the Bruins playoff games so far, scoring 1 goal and providing more physicality into the Bruins defense. The Bruins have won all 3 games in which Hnidy has dressed, and Hnidy himself has a +2 in the playoffs. He comes into tonight's game averaging a little under 15 minutes per game, making Ference's subtraction from the line-up and Hnidy's addition a fair trade off.

One of the biggest tasks on hand for the Boston Bruins to succeed will be playing defense as a cohesive unit. In Game 3, the Bruins defense struggled greatly to contain Eric Staal and the rest of the 'Canes high powered offense. As the Bruins defense focuses on containing Staal, they must keep an eye on the 'Canes secondary scoring. Jussi Jokinen is quietly having a Conn Smyth-worthy post-season, Carolina's top defensive pairing of Joni Pitkanen and Joe Corvo have been tallying up the points and Ray Whitney and Chad Larose have proved to be great line-mates for Eric Staal. Considering Mark Stuart's strong play throughout the entire playoffs, expect to see the Stuart and Hnidy pairing log some serious minutes in their effort to stop Carolina early and often.

For tonight's game, the biggest key will be putting the pressure on Cam Ward early. As demonstrated in Game 1, the Bruins rattled Wardo early and went on to win 4-1. Since then, the 25 year old Saskatoon native has been automatic. He's 2-0 with a .966 SV% in game's 1 and 2 and is looking to follow up with yet another strong performance in front of the hometown crowd. Although Ward's stats thus far have been impressive, he has yet to face the full pressure of the Boston offense. Boston's 0-9 on the powerplay in this series, and as stated before have been out shot in 7 out of the 10 periods of play in the series; truly an unusual position for the NHL's 2nd best scoring team behind the Detroit Red Wings. With tonight's game being a phenomenal chance for the Bruins to tie this series up before heading back to Boston and the 17,000+ yellow towels waving for them expect this to be the biggest test for the Bruins heart.