Montreal (5-1-1) for second place in the Northeast Division. The 11 points puts the Black and Gold in a tie three way tie for fifth place in the Eastern Conference with Montreal and the New Jersey Devils (5-2-1). Granted it's a little early in the season to start watching the standings, but it never hurts to check in.
Last night was one of the Bruins' best games of the season so far, an immensely satisfying 1-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers in overtime. The B's played hard in this game, and deserved the two points. Tim Thomas was excellent in goal, stopping all 27 shots the Oilers fired his way, including some sparkling saves down the stretch. When Dennis Wideman fired a wrister past Dwayne Roloson (who was equally dazzling in goal for the Oilers), it gave the B's the win and started off what is really a crucial western Canada road swing on the right foot. This road trip gives Claude Julien and the rest of the Bruins' staff to see what this team is made of. All three teams on this trip are expected to contend for playoff spots come spring, and all three are decent if not above average squads. The Bruins have played inconsistently all season, and need to start getting things together before they fall too far behind.
Early indications from today's Boston Globe's game story show that Thomas may get another start tonight, which I would be in favor of. Julien has given each goalie a chance to show his stuff so far, neither has had the type of performance that would indicate he has the upper hand. With last night's showing, Thomas may have solidified his grip on the number one spot, something that he has undoubtedly earned. Also, perhaps giving Thomas two straight starts will light a fire in Fernandez, in that he may see he's falling behind and get his competitive juices flowing again. A competitive goalie tandem is rarely an issue for a team; more often than not, it's a benefit.
Since my last post, the Bruins results are as follows: 4-2 win at Ottawa, 2-1 SO loss vs. Pittsburgh, 3-2 SO loss at Buffalo, 4-2 loss vs. Toronto, 5-4 win vs. Atlanta, and 1-0 win at Edmonton. Let's take a look at the good, bad and ugly from two weeks' worth of Bruins hockey.
THE GOOD
- Patrice Bergeron appears to show no signs of post-concussion problems. He has been, for the majority of the time, the best player on the ice for the Bruins. He hasn't been skittish going into the corners, and appears more than willing to take the body. His passes have been crisp, and he has been making plays all over the ice. He appeared to be struck with bad luck earlier in the year, missing on a couple of breakaways, so it figures he finally got a goal on a somewhat fluky tip-in that found its way between the Leafs' Vesa Toskala's arm and body. Bergeron seems like he is in fine form, and seeing his play this season really makes one wonder "what could have been last season?" even more than before. Imagine last year's scrappy bunch with a healthy Bergeron...something tells me a second-round playoff appearance wouldn't have been out of the question. But that's the past, and the present looks good for Bergeron and the B's. Hopefully he can stay healthy (knock on wood), and continue to produce.
- Phil Kessel is turning into a dynamic all around player. Kessel, who responded strongly after being benched early in the playoffs last season, has continued on his upward trend. He is tied for second on the team in scoring with 7 points (6 goals and 1 assist). Though he has slowed in the last two or three games, he has shown a great willingness to shoot the puck this season, whereas last year he relied more on his stickhandling and often just lost the puck to a defender. Kessel should only become more dangerous as the year progresses.
- Marc Savard has continued to make plays. He is still a wizard with the puck, and has been laying tape to tape passes on the sticks of his teammates all year already. Look for Savard to continue to improve, and emerge as a bonafide scorer (or, more specifically, assist-man) in the NHL.
- Milan Lucic's performance this past week. Any time your week consists of this: AND this: it's safe to say that you've had yourself a decent couple of games.
- The Bruins' for the home hockey season have been "interesting" to say the least. First, on opening night, the Bruins introduced each player on the roster one by one. Each got a nice cheer, followed by a rousing ovation at the end. One problem: they forgot to announce Mark Stuart's name, leaving him to come out of the tunnel by himself as the PA announcer said "Ladies and gentleman, your 2008-2009 Boston Bruins!". Stuart appeared to take it in stride, hamming it up for the crowd by raising his stick as he came out. Later that week, the Bruins were forced to change the game format against the Thrashers, with the teams switching ends at the 10 minute mark of the third period because one zone's faceoff dots had been incorrectly painted. Yikes.
- The Bruins' defense has given up 24 goals in 9 games (27 if the shootout winners are included, which they aren't in official stats as no player gets credit for the goal). That puts them at 16th in the league, with a 2.67 goals per game average. Surprisingly enough, they are on pace to allow 216, which is only one less than last year. However, this year's defense has shown little sign of being the same-lock down unit last year's was, as made clear by the team's first regulation loss after holding a two goal lead under Julien against the Leafs last week. Last year's group would have simply locked down defensively, clogging the neutral zone and playing strong in their own zone. This year's unit took silly penalties and allowed the Leafs way too much time in the attacking zone en route to allowing four straight goals against a team that simply outworked them. This is not the type of team Julien likes to put on the ice, and judging from his reactions to the Toronto game, he'll take steps to make sure his team never plays like that again.
- I really don't have all that much to complain about here, but there is one thing that has been atrocious: the penalty kill. This has been an Achilles Heel for the team for two years. Last year's group ranked 28th in the NHL, with a measly 78.6% kill-rate (for the sake of comparison, the number one team, the San Jose Sharks, killed 85.8% of their penalties). So far this season, the B's sit at 29th in the league, killing a putrid 71% of their penalties, a mere 0.4% more than last-place Edmonton. This is something that the Bruins HAVE to improve on. A team can't go far allowing a power-play goal every game of the season. The B's have one of the best defensemen in the league in Zdeno Chara, and one of the best defensive forwards in the game in PJ Axelsson. One can only hope that the B's penalty killing woes are from trying to work out the kinks, and that they will be a penalty killing machine come December. If not, the B's are going to find themselves in more and more offensive shootouts, a style of game that doesn't really fit this team.
That's about it for now. I'll probably make another post after the Calgary game on Thursday, kind of a look back at the opening month of the season. Until then, go B's.
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