Bruins goalie Dafoe needs to pick game up

Can the Boston Bruins win the Stanley Cup? Well, the obvious answer is yes, in that they have made the regular-season cut to the 16 that go to the postseason in the NHL. The rest is going to be a little tougher, but not out of the question.

All sports turn to defense in the postseason. In baseball, the pitching matters most when the stakes are the highest.

In hockey, goaltending is the road to the Cup. For Boston that means Byron Dafoe.

Dafoe has never been viewed as the goaltender who would take you to the finals. This year is no exception.

The best of the goaltenders in the Eastern Conference are Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils and Jose Theodore with the Montreal Canadiens. The will compete with Patrick Roy and Dominick Hasek for the best of the regular-season netminders.

Dafore was ninth in the league in goals-against average and his 35 wins were fourth. He played in 64 of the Bruins’ games and as the team got better, so did he. And it was in that order.

The Bruins are an exciting team to watch and a tough team to play against. They have a toughness that forces opponents into mistakes and turnovers. With Joe Thornton back, they can expect him to be at his peak at just the right time.

Bill Guerin, Glen Murray, and Sergei Samsonov are the offensive heart of a team that buzzes the net with the best of them.

The biggest surprise of the year has been Sean O’Donnell, a defenseman who has been the Bruins’ best at moving the puck up ice. His puck movement play will be essential in the playoffs, where the checking is tighter and the maneuvering area smaller than during the regular season.

It is a wonderful matchup to have two of the original six NHL teams, Boston and Montreal, go at it in the first round. They have played 28 previous Cup series and the Canadiens have won 21.

The last time they met was 1994 in the first round and Boston won in seven. In fact, Boston has won the last four playoff meetings in 1990, ’91, ’92, and the ’94 series.

The Canadiens will have the energy of returning Saku Koivu, back from a battle with cancer that has inspired all of hockey and well beyond. The eight-minute standing ovation Koivu received when he returned in Montreal 10 days ago brought chills to anyone who saw it.

That kind of adrenaline rush is not to be overlooked in the postseason. Any edge for two teams as evenly matched as Boston and Montreal can be the difference.

That’s why the play of Dafoe is vital. Theodore is a better goaltender right now. Dafoe will have to move his play to a higher level. The question is, can he?

Overall, the Devils are the team to beat in the East. They have played without passion for most of the year. However, since Kevin Constantine took over as coach, they have gone back to being the best defensive team in the East and have a renewed commitment to win.

Colorado, especially if Peter Forsberg can be effective in his return, is the team to beat in the West. The Avalanche have Patrick Roy and those are two enormous playoff words.

The Devils and the Avs in a finals rematch? There’s a good chance of that, but the upstart teams like the Bruins, Islanders, and Canadiens have other ideas.

Then there are the Detroit Red Wings, the No. 1 team all season. Should be fun.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.