Early Thoughts on a Young Season

This is my first post since the regular season started, and unfortunately it's going to start off on a sad note. Yesterday, 19 year-old Alexei Cherepanov, a highly-touted New York Rangers prospect playing in Russia's KHL, died unexpectedly after collapsing on the bench near the end of a game. There were media reports swirling about shortly after this happened, some saying he collided with the elbow of teammate Jaromir Jagr, others saying that he simply collapsed. However, the official word seems to be that he collapsed on the bench due to apparent heart failure or a heart attack, seemingly the same ailment that felled fellow young hockey player Mickey Renaud back in February. It appears that a criminal investigation is underway, as some officials are saying negligence on the part of paramedics and the lack of a defibrilator may have led to the young player's death. Either way, a young kid is gone, and may he rest in peace.

Despite this tragedy, hockey goes on, and the Bruins are 1-1-0 on the young season, beating Colorado 5-4 in a wild season opener, before falling to the Minnesota Wild, 4-3, in game two of the season.

Here are some observations on the team so far:

• The offense already looks much more dangerous than last season. Last year's edition of the Bruins had a very hard time putting pucks in the net, while this year's group has scored 8 goals in two games. Granted this pace will be hard to sustain throughout the course of a season, but the offensive prowess of this team has looked very promising thus far. Patrice Bergeron is still showing a little rust, as he missed on two breakaways in the season opener, but that is to be expected. He looks very strong overall, and has been creating great scoring chances for his teammates. It won't be long before he buries one. Marc Savard is picking up where he left off, setting up golden scoring chances and even potting a couple himself. Blake Wheeler continues to impress, and David Krecji looks like he is continuing on his upward trajectory.
  
• It was good to see Michael Ryder get one out of the way against Colorado. He scored a goal to put the B's up 4-3 over Colorado on a beautiful no look pass from Marc Savard from behind the net. After doing little scoring last season, it must be a load off of Ryder's mind to get the first one out of the way. He's shown great offensive instincts so far, and a willingness to shoot and take the puck to the net. If Ryder and Savard can get some chemistry going, he will be a 30+ goal scorer this season.
• Defensively, the B's have work to do. The blueliners looked overwhelmed against Colorado early, and, despite holding on to win, nearly gave the game up down the stretch. Against Minnesota, the team was beaten end to end too many times, as Wild players were allowed the carry the puck from their own goal all the way to that of the Bruins without encountering much resistance. The defense needs to step it up. This team isn't going to go far getting into offensive shootouts with teams this season.
• The goalies have each had a start, and so far I'd say Tim Thomas has the upper hand. Each netminder allowed the same amount of goals (4), but it's safe to say that Thomas had the far better performance. He faced a barrage of shots against the Avalanche (20 in the first period alone), but held the fort, making some of his trademark spectacular(though some call it "flopping") saves, including stopping one on the doorstep as the final seconds ticked away. Thomas' performance left room for improvement, but he certainly didn't play poorly. Manny Fernandez, on the other hand, needs some serious work. I imagine there were some jitters for Manny, seeing his first real in game action in a while, and playing in front of his old fans against his old team. Despite all of that, Manny needed to have a strong showing to boost the team's confidence in him, and, perhaps more importanty, to boost his own self-confidence. He's made some statements this year that sound like he isn't all that high on himself, something that's never a good quality in a goalie. He let in two very soft goals, goals that he himself said he should have stopped. He didn't play all that poorly, but definitely wasn't good. Manny needs to step it up in his next start, or he may be seeing the bench for a while.
• The Andrew Alberts trade marks a disappointing end to the ex-BC star's tenure in Boston. Unfortunately, Alberts never seemed to reach his full potential, his play marred by inconsistancies. He never seemed to fully recover last year after the hit to the head by Scott "I'm A Clean Player!" Hartnell of the Flyers, something that he can't be blamed for. It's interesting that Alberts is now going to play on the same team as the man who nearly derailed his career. It seemed a given that Alberts was on his way out when he was a healthy scratch against the Wild, as he is from nearby Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and probably was chomping at the bit to play in front of fans in his home-state. Best of luck to Alberts in Philly. Maybe he'll crush Hartnell in practice a couple of times.
• Tomorrow's game is going to be a tough one for the B's. Playing against the Canadiens, who according to some are already appearing to be a better team than last year, in Montreal is never a picnic. However, tomorrow is the Habs' home-opener and the home beginning of the season-long Centennial Celebration, one that is guaranteed to feature old Habs legends being brought back and plenty of pregame ceremonies. After that, the Habs are sure to come out flying, and the B's need to avoid a Game 1 of the ECQF-esque start, and try to not allow a goal within the first four minutes. If the B's can weather the storm early and slow down the pace of the game, they've got a great chance to win. Hopefully the team shows a desire to exact some revenge of the team that ended their season last year. Also, expect Michael Ryder to be loudly booed everytime he touches the puck, if not everytime he's on the ice. Hopefully he'll shut the crowd up with a goal or two.
• The Bruins really do have a pretty tough schedule to open the season. Not only do they begin with four straight on the road, but their first five opponents were all playoff teams last year. The Avalance, Wild, Canadiens, Senators and Penguins averaged over 98 points last year, with two (Pens and Habs) teams breaching the 100-point mark. It's good that the B's got a win in their first game, becuase it wouldn't be inconceivable to have them come home with a 1-3-0 or 1-2-1 record. I feel like this won't happen though, and that the B's will continue to build on the positives and trend upward this year.

That's all for now, I'll probably write something else after the Habs game tomorrow. Go B's.