There are two variations of this drill, the first being when the coaches have the players form two lines parallel to each other in close proximity then have players take turns handling the puck between the lines while the players on either side use their sticks to try and disrupt his rhythm and check the puck away...
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| Patrice Bergeron and the Bruins have to solve Detroit's Gauntlet |
...while a more physical version is created having the players line up about a body's length from the dashers while a player skirts the boards handling the puck, the players in line taking turns trying to body check the puck handler into the boards.
The Detroit Red Wings put the Boston Bruins through a similar drill on Friday night, setting up their own real-time version of the gauntlet in the neutral zone at TD Garden, stick checking and body checking the Bruins with fervor, taking away all forward momentum and at the same time taking away the home ice advantage that Boston had earned throughout the regular season.
Now, if the Bruins want to take back what they've earned, they have to take back control of their home ice on Sunday afternoon - and the only way to do that is to physically take it back by breaking the gauntlet and getting pucks in deep, where the Bruins superior physicality can manifest itself.
In truth, the Red Wings' speed advantage is almost completely negated by the tactic of clogging the neutral zone, but when they can limit the Bruins to just 25 shots and only a handful of actual scoring chances with a gauntlet line, their chances of beating Boston increases incrementally, as frustration infiltrates the Bruins' structure and they start pressing bad position.
It's the perfect game plan against the bigger and stronger Bruins - or at least the only one that really has a chance of working - and now it's coach Claude Julien's lot to deal with it.
"It was a tight checking game, but nonetheless, I think everybody's got to find a way to create more, and that's going to be the challenge in this series with two teams playing really tight," Julien said on Saturday "So it's about everybody working a little harder and then gaining your space and doing what you have to do here."
Bruins' Projected Lineup
Forwards
Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Jarome Iginla
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Reilly Smith
Justin Florek - Carl Soderberg - Loui Eriksson
Jordan Caron - Gregory Campbell - Shawn Thornton
Defensive pairings
Zdeno Chara - Dougie Hamilton
Matt Bartkowski - Johnny Boychuk
Torey Krug - Kevan Miller
Goaltenders
Tuukka Rask
Chad Johnson
Defensemen Matt Bartkowski and Kevan Miller have resumed skating and the flu bug that ran a very different gauntlet through the Bruins' locker room has abated and all players are clear of the nasty virus - though the after effects of the bug combined with a long layoff may have been part of the reason why Boston was unable to break the Red Wings' trap...
...but there is still no word on the status of forward Daniel Paille nor Chris Kelly, both of whom have been laid up for over a week now, Paille with an upper-body injury (in lieu of a concussion, which the team claims he does not have) and Kelly with recurring back spasms.
Red Wings' Projected Lineup
Forwards
Johna Franzen - Pavel Datsyuk - Justin Abdelkader
Gustav Nyquist - Riley Sheahan - Tomas Tatar
Tomas Jurco - Darren Helm - Daniel Alfredsson
Drew Miller - David Legwand - Luke Glendening
Defensive Pairings
Niklas Kronwall - Brendan Smith
Kyle Quincey - Dan DeKeyser
Jakub Kindl - Brian Lashoff
Goaltenders
Jimmy Howard
Jonas Gustavsson
As mentioned in an earlier piece, the Red Wings are as healthy as they've been all season and got through Friday night's match relatively unscathed - even defenseman Danny DeKeyser, who was the victim of a Milan Lucic cup check late in the second period, but emerged no worse for wear - at least as far as hockey is concerned.
Lucic was fined $5,000 for his attempt at mixing up DeKeyser's huevos, an expensive little omelet that the freight train has no explanation for.
"I don't want to say it was too much frustration. It was kind of a heat of the moment thing where you're not thinking when you do something like that," Lucic said with a sense of embarrassment. "I've been in the years seven years now, and I think I've only done that three times. I don't know why I did that."
Nobody knows why he did it, other than the frustration that Lucic denies, or maybe even an attempt to fire up his teammates, who were having trouble breaking through the Red Wings' neutral zone gauntlet - regardless, they all collectivly realize what is at stake if they can't solve the riddle.
“It’s just one game. We have to obviously play a lot better." top line center David Krejci lamented after Friday night's 1-0 loss. "We have to look at the video tomorrow, and make some adjustments. The next game is going to be important. It’s a bit different if you go to Detroit going in 1-1, or 0-2. So we have to do everything we can and get a win on Sunday.”
And that means being physical and breaking the Red Wings' trapping gauntlet, then making them pay in the form of getting some pucks past goaltender Jimmy Howard.
Game time is set for 3:00pm EST, at TD Garden in Boston.
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