BRUINS SCOUTING REPORT - Julien meeting familiar face
WILMINGTON - He may not know every name on their roster, but coach Claude Julien still has a pretty good read on his team's next opponent.
Idle since last Sunday, Julien's Bruins resume the season Saturday night against his former employer, the New Jersey Devils, and John MacLean, his former assistant coach.
MacLean, who played for the Devils from 1984-85 into 1997-98, joined the Devils' coaching staff in 2002-03. He worked under Pat Burns, Larry Robinson, Julien, Brent Sutter and Jacques Lemaire before he was named head coach upon Lemaire's retirement following last season.
"John's been in that organization forever," Julien said Friday. "I don't think there'll be a ton of changes."
Julien expects the Devils, as always, to "try not to give you much, try to wear you down as much mentally as physically. The biggest thing is you've got to stay focused on your game, stick with the game plan, and don't get frustrated. When you get frustrated, that's when they take over."
Protecting future Hall of Fame goalie Martin Brodeur is a big Jersey thing, although free-agent defections and injuries have left the Devils with an increasingly anonymous defense corps to do the job. New Jersey does, however, have a minimum two forward lines worth of offensive talent in Ilya Kovalchuk, Zach Parise, Travis Zajac, Patrik Elias, Jamie Langenbrunner, Jason Arnott and Dainius Zubrus.
The Devils are completing a well-publicized week in which they twice dressed fewer than the accepted 18 skaters because calling up minor-league players would have put them in violation of the salary cap.
"But they still have their top nine guys up front, more or less, so it's not that big of a change," said Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk. " They still have some great players, so we'll have to play as hard as we can."
BRUINS UPDATE:If Julien uses the same lineup that beat Phoenix last Sunday at Prague, 3-0, D Adam McQuaid and RW Brian McGrattan will wait to make their 2010-11 debuts, LW Daniel Paille will be scratched, and Tim Thomas will be in goal. The B's, who got four of last weekend's five goals from linemates Nathan Horton (3 goals, 4 points), David Krejci (3 assists) and Milan Lucic (goal, assist), hope to balance their offense.
DEVILS UPDATE:Most of their injuries have been concentrated on the blue line, where the losses of Bryce Salvador (concussion), Anton Volchenkov (broken nose) and Mark Fraser (hand surgery) left them with an inexperienced crew for weekend home games against Colorado (Friday) and the B's. Winless through their first three games, the Devils broke through on Wednesday, beating Buffalo 1-0 on Kovalchuk's overtime goal.
LAST YEAR:The Bruins went 1-2-1 last year against the Devils, with Patrice Bergeron (3) and Blake Wheeler (2) scoring all their goals. Tuukka Rask (0.36 goals-against, .986 saves percentage in 3 appearances) earned a 1-0, overtime win on Bergeron's goal in the series finale on March 30 at the Prudential Center.
Reach Mike Loftus at mloftus@ledger.com Read more of his Bruins coverage on Blog of Ice at PatriotLedger.com/sports
BRUINS at N.J. DEVILS
7:05 p.m. Saturday
TV: NESN
Radio:WBZ-FM (98.5)
