Bs Holding Their Own At The Quarter Pole
Just one month into this abbreviated season, the Bruins hit the quarter pole on the 48-game playoff weeding-out process known as the NHL regular season. Thanks to Sunday’s nail-biting victory in Winnipeg, the Bruins have gotten at least a point in 11 out of 13 games, their 9-2-2 record giving them 20 points and the fifth seed in the East. But the Bs have also played the least amount of games in the conference and have at least two games in hand on all but the Hurricanes (and three on the division-leading Habs who have 23 points).
The lessons the Bruins learned about how to win in the last few seasons have certainly been applied to their play this season. Because but for a bounce here or there, the Bs may well on the outside of the playoff bubble looking in. They’ve already had seven one-goal games, going 5-2 in the those contests while two other wins had late empty net goals to provide a two-goal final cushion.
The reason for so many close contests? The Bruins, thanks in part to their power play, simply aren’t potting goals commensurate with their skill level because they haven’t turned in too many 60-minute efforts so far. They’ve been able to just turn it on here and there to bail themselves out but they surely know that doing that too much is a recipe for disaster. They’ve tallied just 37 goals (2.8/game) and only five teams have scored fewer. Low scoring means tight games which can become coin flips.
Fortunately, they do a damn fine job of preventing the other team from scoring as well, as they are tied with the red-hot Blackhawks for least goals surrendered with 31 (2.31/game). (Settle down, Barstool Chicago—just like Super Bowls aren’t won in November, Stanley Cups aren’t won in the winter). So while the Bruins have looked good, they certainly haven’t looked like a great team too often. Maybe they’re saving some energy for a very busy March or maybe they’re doing just enough to win right now. Or maybe they’re just playing their part in what has been an unpredictable Wales.
Either way, 9-2-2 isn’t really anything to complain about, particularly if the team isn’t exactly firing on all cylinders and you expect them to get better. Their game thus far gets a ’B’. When the team does find its consistency and brings its ‘A‘ game, it should still win a surprising Northeast Division going away.
A few more buds for your February Vacation bowl…
*Claude has the third most coaching wins in an 89-year-old team’s history, a Stanley Cup, and a Jack Adams Award so I try to defer to him on most coaching matters. But for the love of St. Pete, can he please put Tyler Seguin and David Krejci together more? Seemingly every time they’re on the ice, the Bs get a scoring chance. It’s readily apparent that 46 knows exactly how to find 19, who himself knows where to be to receive Krejci’s feathery feeds. But I guess pairing the team’s best goal scorer with the team’s best set-up man is too much to ask.
*I’m already sick of talk about Seguin’s alleged ’issues’. He might need volunteers to suck the venom out of his snakebites but that’s about it. He’s skating hard at both ends and has been getting chances (he was going balls-out in the third period Sunday). The only real knock on him is his lack of physicality—an aspect of his game he rarely needed to worry about growing up because he was always his team’s head-and-shoulders-above-everyone-else star. But he’s only 21 and it’s his third season. Joe Thornton and Vinny Lecavalier received similar knocks early in their careers but they simply soldiered on and eventually quieted the doubters. The guess here is that Seguin does the same.
*Chris Bourque’s play has been dissected more than most third-liners but then most third-liners don’t inspire conspiracy theories of nepotism and/or favoritism (right, Peter & Claude are going to use one of 12 forward spots on the son of a Bruins legend because…? Because people are friggin‘ crazy, that‘s why). And the many dissections ran the gamut depending on who was wielding the scalpel. He was either doing a great job alongside Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley or he was dragging them down. I think the line, and Bourque, struggled early but looked to be getting good opportunities in the last handful of games. Still, they’ve only potted three goals to go along with nine helpers (Peverley has skated with the top three lines) and are a combined -12 (the fourth line is a -7). If Bourque is to stick on the roster for the year, he will need to start producing at some point. He’s offensively gifted and led the ‘A’ in scoring last year yet he hasn’t been able to find his groove yet. It’s widely thought that the Bs will give Jordan Caron a look on the line to see what he can do. The 22-year-old brings a huge size advantage but has battled consistency issues in his call-ups to Boston. If underperformance, lack of opportunity, or injury keep both off the line, Jay Pandolfo can slide right in and the team won’t miss a beat.
*Tuukka Rask and Anton Khudobin have both been pretty solid and excellent at times. Rask has only had one real stinker, against the Rangers last week. Though the Sabres hung six on him in January, he could hardly be faulted playing behind a porous D that night. If you throw that game out, Rask is 4th in save percentage. But I don’t think there are any concerns about Tuukka in the regular season—it’s the playoffs where he still needs to win people over after the collapse of ‘10. Khudobin turned in great work in his season debut vs. Carolina and was even better vs. Buffalo in his second game. He was mediocre Friday in his second game against Buffalo but in limited play so far, Khudobin has been exactly what you want and need—a good, solid back-up goalie.
*After the flood of Dougie-gasms (including yours truly), the rookie defenseman’s play had a refractory period of its own as the youngster’s play, and ice-time, took a dip—sort of quick nap and a butt, if you will. Claude more or less stapled his ass to the bench in the third period Sunday night and he hasn’t jumped off your TV quite like he did those first several games. Of course, these growing pains are wholly expected any time a teenager goes pro. And it appears as though Hamilton learns from his mistakes. It’s nice to see he’s never afraid to shoot the puck either.
*The power play is on an absolute tear…over the last two games, that is, where the Bs have cashed in on two out of three chances, moving from 29th in the league to 28th. Hey, you gotta start somewhere, right? All kidding aside, do the last two games represent a genuine change for the better or is yet another aberration for a power play unit that has been struggling for parts of three straight seasons now? We’ll find out in due time but it’s clear that the personnel is there to ice even a so-so NHL power play. For whatever reason(s), the execution has been off. How about ‘less cute, more shoot’?
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