Happy Holidays and a Happy, Healthy New Year to all of the readers out there!
As you can see if you read this blog, I fell very far behind in these game blogs. I've realized that there are plenty of places to read a game story, and that a FoxSports blog is probably not the first place one would look. I'm still going to comment on most of the games, just in less o####ame report fashion.
Since that last post on the December 20th game against Pittsburgh, the Bruins have fallen on rough times indeed. At that point, the Bruins sat in 4th place in the Eastern Conference, and were within reasonable striking distance of the first place Ottawa Senators. However, since scraping a point out of that Penguins contest, the B's lost to the Blues at home, the Pens in Pittsburgh, the Hurricanes in Raleigh, were destroyed by the Thrashers in Atlanta, and won a good game against those same Thrashers on New Year's Eve. Also, before that OTL on the 20th, the B's had lost at home to the Senators. So what does that all mean? It means that the Bs went from fourth place in the conference to being tied for tenth before Monday afternoon's game by going 3-6-1 in their last 10 games. Currently, the B's are tied for seventh in the conference with 42 points (same as the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders), and have fallen to third place in the Northeast division, 3 points behind second place Montreal and a whopping 12 behind the Senators. To make matters worse, the B's have yet to beat Montreal or Ottawa this season in six tries.
Maybe, but Monday's win certainly was encouraging. After falling behind 2-0 early, the Bruins scored 5 straight goals to avoid another embarrassment at the hands of the Thrashers. The team showed some resiliency after falling behind early, and really dominated the second and third periods of that game. I consider tomorrow a must win against the Caps here at home, simply because the Caps are in 14th place, and this is a game the Bruins should win.
(On a historical note, Dennis Wideman scored the Bruins' franchise's 18,000th goal, the first of the game on Monday. They are the second team to reach that milestone, with Montreal being the first.)
What's the deal with this trade? Hard to say, really. The B's added another defenseman, filling a void after Aaron Ward has been hurt, as has Andrew Ference. The B's defense has been their strong point, and they faltered when their d-men got hurt as of late. Hnidy also brings a physical and intimidating presence to the ice, making the B's a bit tougher of a team overall.
Why did Bochenski have to go? A few different reasons, really. He wasn't fitting in here, and wasn't really playing well (when he was even playing). He didn't seem to fit in Claude Julien's system, and didn't really show many flashes of that offensive firepower he showed towards the end of last year when he came from Chicago in exchange for Kris Versteeg. To put it plainly, he wasn't doing what the B's needed from him, and Anaheim must have expressed an interest in him. Best of luck to Bochenski in Anaheim. Let's hope he's not another former Bruins who goes out West and revives his career. Who could that be?
All in all, this is really meant to be a "get caught up to now" post. Nothing too detailed, nothing too in depth. Right now, the B's find themselves in a tough spot, needing to stick it out through these difficult times, or they risk seeing their great start fall through the cracks.
In the spirit of the New Year, here are some resolutions for some Bruins players:
Chuck Kobasew: Keep up the good work! Kobasew has been the Bruins most consistent offensive player this season, and is making the Brad Stuart trade seem pretty lopsided at this point. Before Milan Lucic added a goal in the closing seconds last time out against Ottawa, Kobasew had been the only Bruin to score this year against the Sens. He has shown toughness, determination, and a great work ethic. Hopefully he can keep it up, as he seems to be on pace for a career year, which the Bruins would certainly appreciate.
Marco Sturm: Wake Up! Sturm has fallen off the map as of late, and at the worst possible time. The B's need offense desperately, and with Glen Murray out for an unknown amount of time, Sturm can't afford to get cold now.
(For evidence of how intense Sturm is, check out this picture...of a table tennis game. And no, this isn't sarcastic at all. Have a look.)
Phil Kessel: Keep on keepin' on! Kessel is a great talent, and cannot get down on himself. After a lackluster effort (in Julien's eyes) against the Penguins, Kessel suffered what may have been the first benching of his entire hockey career. He didn't take it too well, but did seem to respond the next time out. He worked hard on both ends, and scored a goal in the third period. Kessel is the future of the B's, and can't let all of the doubters who cited his bad attitude be proved correct. These past few weeks could prove to be little more than growing pains for Kessel, who should be on his way to becoming an NHL star very soon.
Tim Thomas: Calm down! Any Bruins fan who has watched this team over the past few years knows that Tim Thomas has made some highlightreelsaves. However, an educated fan knows that many of these saves are necessary because Thomas finds himself horribly out of position at times. One of the reasons for his early season success was that he was a lot more sturdy in the net, and didn't find himself flopping around at all. Why is that? Some say it is his increased strength, others say yoga helped him. Either way, he has looked a little flustered out there in recent efforts, and needs to get back to keeping it simple, and stopping one shot at a time.
Peter Chiarelli- Look to the future! Chiarelli is on the hot seat, and is, in all likelihood, done if the B's don't make the playoffs this season. One of the things that bothers me about this is that he is almost like a GM with nothing to lose, willing to sell the farm to make it now. Barring a major Brad Richards/Martin St. Louis/Vincent Lecavalier/Marian Hossa level trade, this Bruins team isn't one that is going to be a Stanley Cup favorite. It is going to take another year or two, and the B's have one of the stronger farm teams in the league. Be patient (and the same goes for the Jacobs family in regards to firing Chiarelli), and the B's youngsters times will come.
That's enough Bruins writing for tonight. Let's hope the B's can get back on the winning track with their second straight tomorrow night against Alexander Ovechkin and Co.
Thanks for stopping by, and please feel free to leave comments on this format change or on anything above.
This is starting to look familiar, and starting to get verrrrrrrrrry annoying. The Canadiens coming out and sticking it to the Bruins, looking faster, sharper and more skilled in every aspect of the game. I was at this game, just like the last time the Canadiens were here, and wanted my money back after the first period. It was probably the worst period of hockey this team has played all season. Just absolutely terrible. Positives? The only positive to be taken from this period was that it was only 3-0. ONLY 3-0??? That says a lot about how bad it was...
Fortunately, the Bruins were playing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde hockey, and came out looking like a new team in the second period. They were shooting, hitting, buzzing the net, getting physical, and putting pressure on Montreal's rookie netminder, Carey Price. They cut the lead to 3-2 in what was probably their best period of hockey all season, and actually had a third slide in the net after a whistle. It was questionable whether or not it was a quick whistle, but ultimately looked like the right call. So after one crappy period and one stellar period, the B's found themselves down just 3-2, with all of the momentum on their side.
However, the Canadiens seemed to lock down, and the B's really didn't get much going offensively in the third. They seemed to be content protecting a one goal lead, and did a good job of it. They did finally go on the attack, however, and Andrew Alberts looked like one of the old MBTA turnstiles on Mathieu Dandenault's third period-icer. Game over. I couldn't get out of that place fast enough, as the Bruins seem bent on making losing to the Habs a habit (no pun intended).
Rask played shakily in this game. The fourth goal wasn't really his fault, as my friend said Dandenault had him "dead to rights", and I agree with that assessment. Others, however, were a little shaky. Five hole goals, bad rebounds- Rask wasn't on his game tonight, but everyone has an off night. Phil Kessel's play is starting to annoy me as well. He continues to try and dance into the offensive zone, deking through 3 players only to lose the puck. This has drawn him the unfavorable comparisons to........Sergei Samsonov. Uh-ohhhhhhhh...Fortunately, he has improved his defensive play, and seems to get the message whenever Claude Julien gets tough with him. He better be tough with the whole team after this one, as the B's are back on the road against a hot Toronto team on Saturday night, and can't afford to start going on a skid now.
This game marked the long-awaited debut of the Bruins goalie phenom, Tuukka Rask. The 20 year old Finn had been up and down from Providence for a week, leading many to wonder whether or not he was even going to make a start. Well, he got one, and veeeeeeeeeery interestingly, against Toronto, in Toronto. Hmmmm. Toronto traded Rask to the Bruins for Andrew Raycroft in the summer of 2006, and Rask made his first start against the Leafs? Supposedly this was all a coincidence, but it seems more like the Bruins showing the Leafs the cool new toy that they got rid of. Either way, it was good to finally see the kid in net.
The first thing I noticed was that Rask is pretty small in the net. He isn't a big guy, standing at around 6 foot 3 inches, 160-70 pounds. However, his instincts seem to be amazing. He was never caught out of position, and seemed to always know exactly where to move next. He also was amazingly calm and collected, never looking rattled or like he didn't have control over a situation. He has great reflexes too, and is very quick. He'd flash out his pads to make a leg save, and in what seemed like a nanosecond, be back on his feet, ready to glove the next puck. Overall, he seems like he's very skilled, and very grounded. This kid should be a joy to watch in the very near future.
As far as the goals he allowed, both of them were fluky. The first goal was deflected twice, and the second one was like a knucklepuck from Mats Sundin. Both goals scored on Rask were last touched by Bruins players, making it hard to criticize Tuukka for either of them. He got a lot of the first one, but it trickled through his arm. The Sundin goal looked like it just took off on him, and people at the game described it as moving like a knuckleball or curveball. Overall, Tuukka played excellently, and only added to the anticipation, as Bruins fans now got a taste of what should be a very exciting future.
As far as the rest of the game, I actually found it really boring. Two friends I was watching with actually fell asleep, and I wasn't too far behind. I attribute this to the Leafs' style of play, which I can't fault them for. They played this stifling, slow, trap kind of game against Ottawa the other night, and emerged with a 3-0 win against one of the best teams in the league. If it ain't broke, why fix it?
The game was slow and chippy, with neither team really able to get much going. Phil Kessel's goal was the result of a strong effort by the B's, as well as a few failed clear attempts on the part of the Leafs. It was good to see PJ Axelsson finally get on the board for the season, and even better that it came as the game tying goal. Chuck Kobasew, who is quickly becoming this team's best offensive weapon, scored the next two to give the B's their first win of the season when trailing going into the third.
Hopefully, this is the start o####ood stretch for the B's, as they came out of their stretch of Northeast division games standing in 3rd place in the division, only 3 points behind Montreal. Rask may not get another start anytime soon, but he certainly came up with the effort the B's needed this time around.
This was another game, along with the Philadelphia one on Saturday that I didn't see at all, due to being out of town. The clear "highlight reel" moment of this game was the heavyweight bout between Zdeno Chara and Chicago's David Koci. From the get-go, this was a one-sided fight. Chara caught Koci early with a punch directly to the face, and that was about it. Koci already had a broken nose, which accounted for the massive amounts of blood that followed. I was pleased to see Chara finally show some intensity, but I also have to give Koci credit. He took 3 or 4 solid shots while having a broken nose and still bleeding profusely, and continued to fight. He didn't win, but he certainly earned some respect by not simply falling to the ice after the fight. A good bout all around, and I hope we'll see more of that from Chara as the season progresses.
As far as the game itself, it was good to see Phil Kessel continue to play well, especially in a game hyped as being a battle of young stars, with projected-rookie sensations Johnathan Toews and Patrick Kane on the Blackhawks. Toews scored his team's only gooal on the power play, so it was a matchup that seemingly lived up to expectations. I hope to see Kessel's playing time increase as he continues to play better.
I'd also like to see more offense from this team. Yes, they won and scored 3 goals, but they only had 18 shots on goal. That isn't usually enough. Also, let's hope the toughness continues. Claude Julien wanted this to be a hard team to play against, and if Chara does to one more person what he did to Koci, teams will definitely start to think twice about pushing the B's around.
GOALS:
< em>Boston- Phil Kessel (4,5), Glen Metropolit (1)
Chicago- Jonathan Toews (4)
SAVES:
B oston- Tim Thomas, 26 saves on 27 shots
Chicago- Nikolai Khabibulin, 15 saves on 18 shots
NEXT GAME: Saturday, October 27 vs. Philadelphia Flyers @ 4:00 PM EST
Due to the time change, I actually didn't get to see any of this game. So, as you may guess, I don't really have much to analyze. I saw the highlights however, and it appears that Manny Fernandez played a pretty solid game. He had a few highlight reel saves, and played pretty good hockey overall. The team defense seemed decent from the highlights and the game stories, but the offense seemed somewhat sluggish again. 19 shots on goal against Henrik Lundqvist isn't usually going to get the job done.
But, again distancing themselves from the Bruins of last year, this is a team that seems to be willing to find a way to win, and tonight, it was Phil Kessel came through in the shootout (again).
He beat Lundiqvist on a wrist shot to win the game, and get Manny Fernandez his first shutout as a Bruin. It also ended an eight game losing streak against the Rangers, perhaps easing some of the sting of the horrible defeats the B's received last season, both at home and at MSG.
There's not much else I can say here, considering I didn't see the game. It'll be interesting to see if Claude Julien plays Fernandez for the second straight game in Montreal on Monday, or if he puts Thomas in. I'd stick with Manny, in hopes to get him on track, but we'll have to wait and see.
GOALS
Boston- Phil Kessel (SO goals don't count to season totals)
New York- None
SAVES
B oston- Manny Fernandez, 26 saves on 26 shots
New York- Henrik Lundqvist, 19 saves on 19 shots (neither total includes the shootout)
NEXT GAME: Monday, October 22 @ Montreal, 7:30 PM EST
I'm a 20 year old kid from Dorchester, MA, who one day hopes to be a sportswriter for a big time newspaper, and figure this is a good place to start. I'm in college at Suffolk in downtown Boston now, and it's awesome. I love all sports, with the Bruins and Red Sox being my favorite teams, thought I'm also a big Patriots and Celtics fan. I think it's ridiculous how no one in this town cares about the Bruins anymore. I like college sports too, no particular teams, especially any big bowl games and March Madness. I hate fairweather fans, especially everyone who jumped on the Sox bandwagon in 2004. The "pink hats" and "OMG Varitek's so hot!!" drive me crazy, just like anyone else who's a real baseball fan. Pick a team, know the players, stay loyal and be a real fan- in good times and in bad.
