The Boston Bruins won their second consecutive road game Saturday afternoon with a 4-2 contest in St. Paul against the Minnesota Wild. The team’s 30th win of the season earned them sole possession of second place in the Atlantic Division, just four points out of first. The B’s had to get it done today without Patrice Bergeron, who missed the game with an undisclosed injury after fighting Blake Wheeler in Winnipeg Thursday.
Brad Marchand (27), David Krejci (13), Loui Eriksson (18) and Zdeno Chara (8) all scored for the B’s, and Jonas Gustavsson had a solid game in net with 33 saves to earn his tenth W of the season. Claude Julien earned his 500th win in the NHL and moved closer to Art Ross to take over the top spot in team history- six more victories ties him at 387.
On the other end of the spectrum the Wild dismissed head coach Mike Yeo after his team’s eighth consecutive loss. Yeo, you may recall, was the toast of the Twin Cities a year ago after his club made the playoffs with a great second-half run (of which Devan Dubnyk played a huge part), but pro sports is a results oriented business, so less than a year later, Yeo is out.
The bigger issue with the Wild is all of the passengers- they’re paying boatloads of money to veterans who simply aren’t producing/giving the the team any bang for the buck. If Bruins fans think their team has problems, they ought to take a close look at Minnesota’s woes. I don’t think a coaching change (John Torchetti will take the reins on an interim basis to finish out the year) is going to make much of a difference if the guys earning the big dough don’t start holding up their end of the bargain.
After Marchand tallied his fourth shorthanded tally of the year to take a 1-0 lead, the B’s gave up a bad goal in the second period on a fumbled exchange behind the net between Gustavsson and Kevan Miller, who heeled the puck over to Thomas Vanek at the left side. He pinballed a shot that squirted through the B’s goaltender for his 15th tally.
Krejci came right back moments later with a nice 2-on-1 rush that was started with a nifty play by Matt Beleskey in the neutral zone to take a hit to make the pass that launched the Czech Mates- Krejci and David Pastrnak– up the ice. The two did a give-and-go with Krejci instantly recognizing that Nino Niederreiter was sliding towards his own net and rapidly running out of an angle to shoot into the open side, he victimized Wild backup Darcy Kuemper (and Niederreiter) by banking the puck off the crashing forward and over the goal line before he knocked the Minnesota net of its moorings.
Boston extended its lead to 3-1 when Eriksson took a pass from Ryan Spooner and broke away from the Wild defenders, sliding a backhander under Kemper. After Chara fired a 160-foot shot down the ice and into the empty net to make it 4-1, rookie Mike Reilly scored his first NHL goal and point with a late shot that beat Gustavsson but did nothing to alter Minnesota’s fate.
The B’s continue on their road swing Sunday afternoon where they take on the Detroit Red Wings in an important Atlantic Division contest. Tuukka Rask will be back in net for the B’s, and the fans will hope to get a shot in the arm from Bergeron as well.
It’s 6-1 as I type this- and there are still 20 minutes of hockey left at TD Garden.
On a night of sentimental nostalgia, the home team laid an egg. Again.
The Los Angeles Kings were in town and wearing their expansion-era gold and purple duds with the giant crown on the front- and Milan Lucic took center stage with his first game back in Boston without a spoked B on his chest.
The B’s took an early lead on Brad Marchand’s power play goal- his 25th marker of the season- and things were looking good until the less than 2 minutes remained in the opening frame. Bang, bang. A deflected Jeff Carter power play goal off the stick of Kevan Miller and then a Marian Gaborik backhander with the B’s in disarray (yep- Miller again but he wasn’t the only one at fault- it was Keystone Cops time) and just like that it was 2-1, Kings.
That opened the door for an ugly four-goal second period. Tuukka Rask (mercifully) got the hook after the Kings made it 5-1, but Jonas Gustavsson didn’t take long before allowing a sixth goal to Trevor Lewis to score the touchdown by the Rams, er- I mean- the Kings.
The Bruins just showed Don Sweeney and their fans that they are not a contender. Sure- they’re good enough to maybe scratch and claw their way to the playoffs, but when they go up against a real team- with skill and depth to match, they’re cooked.
I don’t have the answers, and neither, in all probability, does Boston’s management team. However- something needs to change. Whether it’s a tweak or something more- this club just doesn’t have it, so don’t just keep rolling the same lineup out every single night. Sometimes their hard work pays off, but the Kings just showed how far away they are from the Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs. If anyone out there was starting to dream about the Bruins maybe pulling together for an improbably deep run into the 2016 NHL postseason, then Lucic (1 assist with one period remaining) and his mates just threw a giant bucket of ice water on these hibernating B’s.
Everyone knows the Bruins need major help on defense, and here’s hoping they can get some and soon. Unfortunately for Sweeney, that everyone also includes all 29 other GMs. If we think landing a real difference-maker at that position is as simple as snapping the fingers and picking up the phone, my in-laws in Kansas have a real sweet parcel of oceanfront property to sell you. Every NHL team knows how much in dire straits the Bruins are defensively. And every time Sweeney picks up the phone to talk trade for a blue liner, the voice on the other end is gonna make it hurt.
There are things to be optimistic about in Bruins land, but this club is not built to win now. Whether they can win later will likely be determined by what the club does between now and the next 1-2 seasons.
Just a guess, but it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
P.S.- It was nice to see Lucic back and to watch the nice video tribute the Bruins put together for him. It’s a shame the team could not find a way to put forth a better showing, but sometimes, you have to call things like they are and realize that the 2015-16 Boston hockey team is not ready for primetime. Based on what is likely out there to be had between now and the end of the month, they’re not going to be in primetime anytime soon. The key is not to overreact and make shortsighted, short-term moves that will fritter away assets without appreciably improving the club for the long term.
That’s a lot easier said than done.
P.P.S.- 9-2 final score. Kings 9, Bruins 2. Putrid. Lucic scored his 13th of the year to make it 7-1, before Tyler Randell netted his fifth goal in just 21 games. Luke Schenn (that’s right- Luke freaking Schenn) and Dustin Brown closed out the scoring in a thrashing folks won’t soon forget.
For once, it wasn’t the Boston Bruins surrendering a two-goal lead in a game.
Ryan Spooner started and finished the comeback against the Buffalo Sabres at the First Niagara Center Thursday night with a goal in the second period and the lone shootout strike to secure a 3-2 road victory for the B’s.
Evander Kane registered the opening tally after a bumbling sequence in the Sabres zone that saw neither of David Pastrnak or Kevan Miller make a play on the puck, allowing an odd-man rush the other way. With the B’s out of position in their own end, Kane was able to corral a loose puck to Tuukka Rask’s left and slip a shot into the net behind him for a 1-0 lead.
Sam Reinhart added to Buffalo’s lead just 47 seconds into the second frame when he deflected Mark Pysyk’s point shot past Rask to make it 2-0.
Spooner answered just 58 seconds later when he dug a puck out from Matt Beleskey’s feet and flipped backhander into the net on former Bruin Chad Johnson’s blocker side. It was Spooner’s 11th goal of the season.
Brad Marchand tallied the equalizer with his team-leading 23rd marker on a nifty rush and backhand shot that Johnson appeared to have the angle on, but was unable to stop from sneaking through him and over the goal line.
From there, Rask held down the fort. Even as the teams exchanged 4-on-3 power plays in overtime, neither squad was able to break through. Patrice Bergeron had the best chance to end it when he was standing just outside the crease, got his stick on a loose puck and fired it on net, only to be denied by Johnson’s glove.
That set the stage for Spooner’s quick cut and shot that beat Johnson and stood up as the winning tally in the shootout, giving the B’s the extra point.
As the old adage goes- the scoreboard don’t say how- just how many. This is a game that against a more skilled opponent, the Bruins likely don’t battle back from, but it moved the team into third place in the Atlantic Division and keeps Boston firmly in the playoff hunt as the 2016 NHL season enters the real stretch drive.
The NHL dropped the hammer on Dennis Wideman, giving him 20 games of unpaid vacation for his cross-check of NHL linesman Don Henderson on January 27. I won’t rehash the incident here- it is well-documented and there is plenty of room to debate how sound of mind he was when the incident occurred, but the bottom line is that the league had to do this.
Had to.
Physical abuse of officials cannot ever be tolerated in any form. Equivocating in the form of accepting that Wideman was loopy (and allegedly concussed) after a big hit immediately prior is a slippery slope that no league can afford in this day and age. Even if the NHL wanted to cut the player a break, it opens the door for any player to physically engage the on-ice officials and be able to claim a precedent for leniency.
No, the NHL got this one right. Wideman and the NHLPA are well within their rights to appeal and if Gary Bettman wants to take the mitigating circumstances into account, that is up to him. The rule of law here is critical and leaves no room for selective application of the rules, so Wideman got the book thrown at him and rightfully so. What happens from here on in is anyone’s guess, but he’s eligible to return on March 11, some two weeks after the trade deadline.
That leads me to my next point.
If recent rumors are to be believed, the B’s might have dodged a bullet with Wideman’s lengthy suspension. Several sources to include Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe, recently discussed the team’s interest in bringing Wideman back to the Bruins given the team’s struggles on defense. Wideman played in Boston from late in the 2006-07 season through the end of 2009-10, before he was part of the package dealt to the Florida Panthers for Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell in June, 2010.
While in the Black and Gold, Wideman was an effective if polarizing and uneven player for the team. He posted a career year in 2008-09 with 50 points (until he eclipsed that mark last season with a 15-goal, 56-point campaign with the Flames). This season, Wideman was well off that pace with just two goals and 19 points in 48 games at the time of his suspension. He was in effect, continuing his career trend of following his best years with numbers well short of those marks. In stops with Boston, Washington and Calgary, Wideman alternately had seasons with very good offensive output followed by barely mediocre campaigns. His most recent stint with the Flames is no exception.
While Wideman to Boston would have given the team a more experienced defender to play more minutes and do some good work on the power play, his lack of foot speed, and advancing age (he’ll be 33 next month) in conjunction with his $5+ million cap hit would have limited Boston’s options going forward.
It would be one thing if Wideman was in his prime, but on the wrong side of 30 and never the most fleet-of-foot defender to begin with, his presence might have constituted a slight upgrade on what the B’s can currently field, but he’s more of an offensive contributor than a defensive stalwart, which is what the team needs more than anything right now from the blue line. Unless the Flames were retaining salary in the deal with Boston (rumored to involve mid-round pick and/or prospect), the move made little sense for Boston, who would likely be saddled with a bottom-3 defender with diminishing returns and a high cap hit for what he brings.
If Don Sweeney was in fact preparing to bring Wideman back into the fold, then count me in as someone who feels the suspension was a blessing in disguise. It’s a short-term minimal upgrade, but limits the GM’s options when trying to do the critical roster building in the next 1-2 years that will determine if the B’s can get back into contention or solidify their status as an also-ran.
This is why the loss the other night to the Toronto Maple Leafs, one of the NHL’s cellar dwellers, was so confounding.
When David Krejci popped home his 12th goal of the season early in the 3rd period, the B’s were up by two goals and positioned to cruise to the finish with another two points in hand. Unfortunately, the Leafs didn’t get the memo and battled back, winning the game in overtime on a P.A. Parenteau power play goal after Boston frittered away its 3-1 lead.
This was a game the Bruins could have had. Should have had. Too often last season, we saw them surrender points to teams lower than them in the standings and it caught up to them in the final weekend when they were on the outside looking in. The B’s had their chances to beat Toronto decisively, and wasted a two-goal game from Brad Marchand, whose blistering goal-scoring pace has been a treat to watch. You’d like to have seen Tuukka Rask make just one save in there on Toronto’s last three shots that went in, but its hard to fault the goaltender too much on seeing-eye redirections and perfect puck luck that the Leafs translated into success. In the end, poor puck management was far more costly for the Bruins than Rask’s inability to deny Toronto’s comeback, but allowing come-from-behind wins to the other guys has been the most profoundly negative story of Boston’s season thus far.
It marked the seventh time this year Boston has blown a two-goal lead (and it’s only February for goodness sake), and underscores why lateral moves like Wideman aren’t worth it.
Frustrated fans (and they’re right to be angry, believe me) want a change and want one now, but unless it’s something that can address Boston’s shortcomings in the short and longer term, then I would submit to you that it is better for Sweeney and Co. to ride it out.
We knew very well coming into the season that Boston’s collective defense was not a strength. What has been a pleasant surprise has been the way the forwards have collectively fared, though the production itself has been largely top-heavy of late, with not enough production on the lower lines. However, even with the uptick in offense, the defense was an identified concern coming into the 2015-16 season. Whether you staunchly believe that Sweeney could (and should) have done something to address the flaws at that position last offseason, or feel that getting out from under the cap crush was the first priority and that rolling the dice with some of the younger players in the system was worth trying, the reality is- it is now February and we know that this group is not a playoff-caliber defense. I went over that in more detail in a previous post, so I won’t revisit and pick at a scab many of you are already well aware exists.
The problem with the “do something now” mentality is that it leads to short-sighted transactions like a trade for Dennis Wideman, who would have likely cost the team assets that would be better allocated elsewhere, or it feeds this idea that there is a surplus of fine talent at the defense position just waiting to be picked up. The first point isn’t going to fix the team’s woes, and the second is becoming more and more of an unintended consequence of the NHL’s move to impose cost certainty (a salary cap) 11 years ago. It was a different league back then and hockey trades for talent were far more prevalent because there weren’t a lot of complex rules and constraints on a club’s salary structure and the return on investment that has become more and more important over the past decade.
Nowadays, teams recognize pretty early the importance of the skilled defenseman in the modern NHL and lock them up long-term before the possibility of getting them via free agency is there. Unless, of course, they trade them (see: Hamilton, Douglas) first. Today’s reality is a stark one if you’re Don Sweeney: there simply isn’t much out there to be had if you need to truly bolster your blueline for the present and future. And, if there is a GM out there willing to even talk about moving such a prized asset, the cost will be astronomical. It is a seller’s market and with the parity the NHL currently enjoys, there aren’t many teams looking to unload anyone right now.
This leads me to Loui Eriksson…
If we accept that a. this Boston Bruins team simply isn’t that good- they perhaps make the 2016 playoffs as a fringe club in a wildcard spot and then subsequently bow out to those better teams above them in the seeding and that b. Eriksson is pretty bound and determined to leverage what he can as an unrestricted free agent this summer, then it stands to reason that the Bruins should move on from him and get what they can at the deadline.
Now, given how well he’s played, the good news is- such a return stands to be a pretty fine one for the B’s. The bad news: any contender looking to add someone like Eriksson will be happy to part with futures, but good look getting any NHL roster/prime potential talent back in return. The whole idea of trading for a soon-to-be UFA like Eriksson is to add him to the very good group you *already* have- not robbing Peter to pay Paul by giving up a key contributor from your lineup at a different position. That’s just not how it works.
Loui has been a team player and good guy since the B’s acquired him nearly three years ago. Alas, Tyler Seguin became one of the real forces in the NHL, while Eriksson has largely continued his steady, effective play. That has led to his getting the short shrift in Boston, though there is no shortage of real students of the game out there who recognize what Eriksson brings to the table and appreciate him for it.
Having said all of that, it would be one thing if the Bruins were contenders and they held onto Eriksson to make that one last run, then lost him to free agency in July. The Bruins aren’t that team. So, at some point, unless they’re willing to re-up him, which, as he turns 31, is probably not the best idea to commit to term and dollars he’ll likely get on the open market, means he has to go.
At this point, I think the Bruins are better off taking their lumps- resisting the urge to pay a premium for a mediocre return in the here and now, and ultimately build up more of a war chest of assets that can allow Sweeney to make some more aggressive moves down the line to absorb the going rate for a true, difference-making and cost-effective defender with some longer term retainability.
Dennis Wideman was not that player, so his suspension becomes exhibit A for the case that sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make. And, I would submit to you- any player a team offers up before the trade deadline is not likely to be that guy either. Boston needs not panic, but do the best they can with tweaks and then make a more concerted effort to address the real holes in the lineup this summer. Trying to plug them now will cost a fortune, and in the case of a player like Eriksson, he’s not likely to bring the kind of return that fans are clamoring for.
This is why you saw a trade like the one between Columbus and Nashville in an even-Steven deal with Ryan Johansen and Seth Jones. Both teams got young, high-upside players, neither of whom were finding success in their respective systems. No package of picks and prospects would have enticed either GM into moving prized assets and former top-5 picks in 2010 and 2013- it had to be a roster for roster swap of established NHL players needing a change of scenery. So, unless Bruins fans are prepared to lose someone like David Pastrnak for a defenseman with similar promise, dreaming up scenarios involving Eriksson isn’t going to get it done, and be prepared to be disappointed at the deadline- don’t say I didn’t warn you.
In a perfect world, the Bruins could go out tomorrow and make their team better. The reality is- the world of the modern NHL is far from perfect, and in it, you can certainly make things a whole lot worse before they get any better.
If Sweeney and his staff somehow find a way to get that impact two-way defenseman who could be a future mainstay in the Boston lineup between now and the end of February, then lock him up to an extension now, because that’s the kind of move that flies in the face of the established handicaps that most of the other GMs are dealing with as they try to improve their hockey clubs.
In Patrice Bergeron’s case, at least when it comes to his profession, perfection is a closer goal than for most.
Boston’s lone representative at the NHL’s All-Star festivities in Nashville has done it again- showing fans around the world that stardom at hockey’s highest level does not require blazing speed, flashy offense or a larger-than-life off-ice persona. The 30-year-old center brings none of that to the table, though I bet if you polled GMs around the league and had them pick 5 players to build a franchise around, Bergeron would be on more of their lists than not.
On Sunday, Bergeron returned to the building where the Boston Bruins called his name for the first time, selecting him in the second round of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft, a year that is going down as one of the strongest collective drafts in league history. For those who may not be aware, the B’s picked up Bergeron with the 45th overall selection, and it was a compensation pick awarded them by the league when Bill Guerin had taken the money ($9 million per season) and run to Dallas. Back in those days, the entry draft was nine rounds, and the NHL had rules to protect teams from being plundered by the big spenders of the world with a compensatory formula that involved the amount of money departing free agents got. In other words- the bigger the coin, the higher the pick, and Boston landed one of the highest extras that year.
The rest, as they say, is history.
But, for those who followed the draft closely back then, Bergeron’s eventual success in the NHL as a champion on multiple levels and the undisputed class of all forwards defensively, he was anything but a household name when the B’s drafted him ahead of some of the more flashy names that were available at 45.
Bergeron’s journey from under-the-radar, solid but unspectacular Quebec League pivot to impressive NHL rookie at age 18 and an eventual Stanley Cup and two-time Olympic champion (to go with multiple other titles to include the 2005 World Jr. Championship and MVP accolades) is one of personal discipline, focus and a will to constantly seek self-improvement. He didn’t explode onto the NHL scene in 2003 with the excitement and draft pedigree of others in his peer group, but his ascension to the ranks of the league’s elite has come with consistency and class, as he overcame two of the bigger knocks that can derail a hockey player’s NHL dream faster than the Kardashian sisters change their looks: size and skating.
Bruins assistant GM Scott Bradley, who was Boston’s chief amateur scout at the time, recalled going to an Acadie-Bathurst Titans game early in the 2002-03 campaign to see offensively skilled defenseman Bruno Gervais. He came away smitten with No. 37, a first-year center who had spent his 16-year-old season playing midget AAA hockey because he was unable to stick in the QMJHL as a full-time player. From that moment on, the die was cast- a series of events was set into motion that would ultimately see that youngster not only drafted, but eventually evolve into the face of the Bruins franchise some 13 years later.
It isn’t like other NHL teams didn’t know who Bergeron was. Central Scouting had him ranked in their top-30, though when you factored in a very strong European contingent that year, he projected to land somewhere in the mid-to-late second round. I spoke to one NHL scout based in the Maritimes in Nashville on the ’03 draft’s second day- back when rounds 1-3 were done on a Saturday and 4-9 occurred on Sunday- and asked him about Bergeron. He liked him enough, but expressed concerns about Bergeron’s height (he was pretty average at the time, hovering around 6-foot) and lack of foot speed. He did point out how creative and smart Bergeron was, however, and liked where Boston got him.
That fall, Bergeron not only impressed the Boston brass at his first training camp, but got the attention of the one who mattered most at the time: rookie head coach Mike Sullivan. He made the club out of camp, scored his first NHL goal against the Los Angeles Kings a few weeks later (October 18, 2003 to be exact), and some 12 years later, has added 224 more and is closing in on 600 points for his career. If not for an entire season lost to lockout, nearly an entire year gone to a massive concussion suffered on a hit from behind in 2007, plus another half-season wasted in another lockout, he’d be closer to 800 points and 1,000 games.
Bergeron has quietly become the player that just about every hockey fan wishes was theirs. He’s always been serious and dedicated, but he plays the game the way he lives his life: disciplined, effective, with honesty and integrity. Like the kid who sat inside the net and watched his peers skate in beginning hockey before getting up and joining in the game that would eventually become his way of life, Bergeron’s rise to NHL super stardom has been deliberate.
One NHL scout told me over coffee in Buffalo during the 2011 World Jr. Championship that his one real regret in a long career scouting amateur players for the same team was not pushing harder for his club to draft Bergeron in 2003. “We coulda had him,” he lamented with that wistful look a man gets when he knows in his heart his gut had been telling him to act, but he didn’t seize the initiative. “I know things would be a lot different for us if I had taken more of a stand in our room before the draft.”
Perhaps. Probably.
But what happened instead was that another team, with a scout who went into a fateful junior game with zero expectations, saw all he needed to and then leveraged his power within the Bruins organization to act.
Bergeron is now that grizzled veteran that Marty Lapointe was in 2003 when he took the young Quebec City native under his wing. He has a noticeable scar on his upper lip- a reminder of the countless battles in the trenches on the 200 x 85 sheet of ice. His presence and poise is a testament to those contests. He’s just about seen it all, and has the medals to prove it. Best thing of all, at least from Boston’s perspective, is that he’s still very much in his prime, so he will keep adding to his growing legend.
So he’s good, sure. But perfect? That’s a lot of pressure to put on a fellow hockey player.
“Well, I mean, there’s not that many of them out there,” Duchene said. “I think if you asked most guys in the league if there was a perfect player out there, who would it be? I think most guys would say him.”
One thing seems to be certain: Bergeron is the perfect Bruin. And for those who love the team, that’s perfect enough.
The Boston Bruins have gone 1-1 in their last two games at home, losing a 4-2 match to the Vancouver Canucks Thursday night and then giving up a two-goal lead to the Columbus Blue Jackets but getting a 3-2 victory in the shootout.
The loss to the Canucks served as a good reminder about what currently ails the team, as Vancouver’s forecheck and play along the walls created turnovers and prevented Boston from getting much going on the breakout. When Boston did have offensive zone possession in that one, they had a tough time working the puck to the middle of the ice and goaltender Jacob Markstrom had a relatively easy night.
Against Columbus, the Bruins took a 2-0 lead, with the first goal coming from the newly-formed line of Patrice Bergeron-Brad Marchand-Ryan Spooner (on the RW). Whether that was an audition to try and see what life might look like if Loui Eriksson gets moved in the near future or just a hunch by Claude Julien, the unit looked pretty good, as the speed/skill combo of Marchand-Spooner with Bergeron’s high-end vision and smarts gave Columbus all they could handle.
When David Pastrnak scored his fifth of the season with David Krejci and Eriksson assisting at 3:34 into the second period, it looked like the B’s might run away with it. As has been the case in the TD Garden far too often this season, the visiting team came back and scored two goals (Dalton Prout and Nick Foligno) to knot the score at two goals apiece.
That opened the door for Spooner and Torey Krug to score shootout goals and secure the extra point for the B’s. Krug’s goal went top shelf as he cut across the grain- it’s a shame he’s only managed to find the back of the net three times (no goals in his last 20 games) this season, because the chances have certainly been there.
Night of Jonas
Tuukka Rask was originally supposed to start, but he was “not 100%” according to Julien, so Jonas Gustavsson stepped in and played well in making 31 saves. Gustavsson out dueled Joonas Korpisalo at the other end…he prevented B’s center Joonas Kemppainen from scoring any goals. All the while- winter storm Jonas did its work on the East Coast yesterday. Boston was spared the worst of the storm, which hit the Mid-Atlantic region hard and saw the postponement of several NHL games. Gustavsson played Prout’s band-angle shot poorly on the first goal he allowed and took ownership of the score afterwards, but more than made up for it in the final period when Columbus carried the play and generated some quality scoring chances that he all turned away. ‘Gus’ is now 9-3-1 in 14 games as the Boston backup. In contrast Niklas Svedberg had just 7 wins all of last season in 18 appearances, but interestingly enough- had a higher save percentage (.918 to .917).
Marchand surging
It took some time for No. 63 to get going after he returned from his three-game suspension, but his 19 goals in 42 games leads the B’s. He’s not just scoring and using his speed, but he’s playing disruptive game, getting in on opposing puck carriers and pushing the pace every time he’s on the ice. It was interesting to see the way he and Spooner worked together Saturday night, as the Blue Jackets had a tough time containing their quickness and ability to handle the puck. I won’t jump to conclusions that the line combination was expressly rolled out to see if Spooner can handle duties as a top-two line forward on his off-wing in the event that Eriksson is moved before the trade deadline, but that strategy makes sense, and for one game at least, Marchand and Spooner looked like a good fit together.
When it comes to the Boston Bruins, there aren’t many collective boogey men out there that have caused more angst and consternation than the Montreal Canadiens.
Over the years, when the Habs have been great, Boston had no chance. When the Habs weren’t so great, Boston still found ways to lose (Steve Penney, anyone?). Even in 1979, when the Bruins had a team that nearly matched up with the threepeat-and-going-for-four Canadiens, they not only lost a grip on a game they had all but won, but did so in such devastating fashion that the sports psyche scars of that overtime defeat (and of course- the Habs went on to win a fourth straight Stanley Cup in a walk over the Rangers) still remain for those old enough to remember it.
That’s why last night’s 4-1 win over the flailing sans Carey Price Habs feels so good for Bruins fans (and I would add, more than a few Canadiens fans who have seen enough of coach Michel Therrien).
Goals by Max Talbot, Patrice Bergeron (on a nifty play by David Pastrnak before beating Mike Condon on a wraparound), David Pastrnak (another wraparound) and Brad Marchand (empty net) gave Tuukka Rask plenty of offensive support. However, it was the Finn’s 38-save brilliance last night that secured the victory, just the fifth of his career against Montreal (15 losses).
By itself, the win doesn’t mean a whole lot. Sure- it kept the B’s in a playoff position (Tampa bumped them out of third place with their win) and pushed Montreal into 10th place in the Eastern Conference. With nearly half a season remaining, no one should be planning any victory parades or playing a funeral dirge for the Canadiens just yet.
However, the victory- any victory against Montreal- has a much deeper meaning for the Bruins and their fans.
The B’s haven’t been good enough to sweep their big, bad rivals from Montreal this season, but unlike last year, they’ve managed to secure a couple of important victories against them on the road. Even if the B’s haven’t found a way to beat their nemesis at home, just winning games at this stage is a moral victory and prevents continued malaise and an inferiority complex that has long been more of a fixture on the Boston side of the rivalry than the other way around.
Leigh Montville, who penned unforgettable columns in the Boston Globe when I was growing up, actually wrote the single greatest piece I have ever seen written on the Bruins-Habs rivalry not for the Globe, but for Sports Illustrated way back in 1988.
He wrote it as an ode to the decades of ignominious failures of the B’s at the hands of the Canadiens, and it came out before the Adams Division final series that year. For those who might not remember, the Bruins had been bounced from the playoffs by the Habs from 1984-87, but dug out of an 0-1 hole to win the next four games and close out the stunned Canadiens at home in the Montreal Forum thanks to a pair of goals by Cam Neely and Steve Kasper (in what was arguably his finest hour as a Bruins player) along with some major heroics in net from Rejean “Reggie” Lemelin, who made Patrick Roy look mortal at the other end of the ice.
The Canadiens have always worn the top hats and lived in the house on the hill. Superior. Grand. Elegant. How many NHL teams have been called elegant? How many players? The elegant Canadiens. Their fans arrive at the Forum, the basilica of perspiration on St. Catherine Street, dressed in coats and ties, for a night of opera on ice, penalty announcements in two languages, s’il vous plait. The Montreal teams have been built on grace and speed, continental cuteness. The Flying Frenchmen. Drawing-room hockey, served on a white linen tablecloth. Elegant.
The Bruins have always been the poor relations. A collection of Al Capp characters, woofing and scratching and emerging from that dogpatch home on top of a train station. Elegance? Punch you in the mouth, you say that again.
The Bruins have reveled in their bowling-shirt earthiness. Hockey was a hard hat job for them long before the introduction of the helmet. They play in the smallest rink in the NHL and have tailored their team and dispositions to fit this environment as surely as the Red Sox have looked for right-handed boppers to hit baseballs over the left field wall at Fenway Park. Want to play at Boston Garden? Bring your elbows.
Montville used one of the true icons of Boston Bruins fandom- the late, great play-by-play man Fred Cusick to help underscore the tale of woe and provide an amazing perspective of a rivalry that he saw unfold in all it’s gory detail until the B’s broke through in 1988. That Cusick was able to witness (and call) Boston playoff wins in 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1994 before he retired in 1997 helped remove some of the sting of some memorable defeats earlier in his career. That Cusick passed away before Boston beat Montreal en route to the 2011 Stanley Cup championship is as much a tragedy that the celebration of a life so well lived can allow.
Here, Montville further expounds on the B’s-Habs history through Cusick’s lens:
“The year we should have won was 1971,” Cusick says. “We were better. Much better. Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito and all of those people. We won the first game, 3-1, then were ahead 5-1 midway through the second. I remember doing interviews between periods about possible opponents in the next round. That’s how certain it was. Then Montreal started scoring goals and won the game 7-5. And Dryden was a rookie and he made some big saves and…still we should have won.
“And then 1979. Too many men on the ice. That was the other one. That was the one no one will ever forget.”
Six men on the ice. Sixty men on the ice. How many men on the ice? The story has become legend, the number swollen, in less than a decade, the highlight (lowlight) of the entire streak, stowed in the same, sad Boston footlocker as the ground ball that rolled through Bill Buckner’s legs and the home run that the Yankees’ Bucky Dent hit into the screen on a fall afternoon. Who was the extra man on the ice? Terry O’Reilly? Mike Milbury? Stan Jonathan? Don Marcotte? All of the above? Any of the above? Sometimes, in the retelling, it seems as if there were a brass band on the ice, every member wearing a Bruins uniform. Six men. 60 men. 1,000 men, doing close-order drill as coach Don Cherry barked commands from a step-ladder. Who loses a game, a series, because too many men are on the ice?
There were 74 seconds left. The Bruins were ahead 4-3, seventh game, in Montreal, a minute and 14 seconds from ending the streak. Six men on the ice? The penalty was called: the Bruins had a crowd on the ice far too long for any official to miss. Then there was Guy Lafleur firing the tying the goal on the power play. Here was Yvon Lambert in overtime, taking the pass from Mario Tremblay, drilling the puck past Bruin goalie Gilles Gilbert.
“I want to cry for every one of these guys,” goalie Gerry Cheevers, a backup that night, said in the Boston dressing room. “Each guy I see makes me want to start crying all over. I just feel so sorry for all of them. They just tried so hard. I’ve never seen a team try so hard.”
“What bothers me is that my 12-year-old son was watching the game,” captain Wayne Cashman said. “I have been telling him forever that hard work always pays off. Always. What do I tell him now?”
You get the message.
The Boston-Montreal rivalry means something. It always means something.
Whether they’re playing a “meaningless” exhibition game in September, a regular season contest in November, a much-hyped Winter Classic match on New Year’s Day or the two teams are embroiled in a white-knuckle, winner-take-all seventh game of a playoff series. Things broke Boston’s way in 2011, but in 2014, not so much.
This is what makes the history between the two clubs, enriched by the genuine dislike that each generation of the B’s-Habs rosters have one another, so special.
24 Stanley Cup wins to 6. That’s how the ultimate scorecard reads.7 of those 24 Cups the Canadiens won came at the expense of the Bruins in the final series. The B’s have never beaten the Habs in a Stanley Cup final, and unless the NHL’s structure changes, they never will. However, Boston fans can smugly talk about 1993- that’s the last time the Canadiens hefted hockey’s silver chalice, and the 22-year drought is the longest in club history. Until 2011, Boston could only look forlornly to 1972- a championship won without beating the Canadiens. The B’s lost to Philly in ’74 then in back-to-back years in ’77-’78. They then ran into the Edmonton Oilers dynasty, getting swept in 1988 and trounced in five games in 1990 after winning the President’s Trophy.
What do Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Johnny Bucyk, Milt Schmidt, Brad Park, Terry O’Reilly and Gerry Cheevers all have in common? As players on the Boston Bruins, they never beat Montreal in a single playoff series. Not once. If you know anything about the history of the Boston Bruins, then you know each one of those players is firmly enshrined in the franchise’s pantheon of heroes and yet- individually and collectively- none were ever able to shake hands with the Canadiens at center ice as the victor.
When you get down to it, no team has been responsible for more collective heartache by those who love the Boston Bruins than the bleu, blanc et rouge. Much like Yankees-Red Sox, the ledger is tilted heavily in favor of the other guys, so Boston fans have to savor the wins however they get them.
In retrospect- last night’s win was barely a blip on the radar for most hockey fans. Even for some of the younger Bruins fans who grew up in the better times, when Boston was winning more playoff series against Montreal than they lost, last night’s win wasn’t too much of a big deal. But for those of us who can remember, those of us who greeted the bridge between spring and summer as the ending of the Bruins’ season at the hands of the Canadiens, Boston’s 24th win of the 2015-16 campaign meant something. It always does.
Montville started that favorite column, once a symbolic cross of what it meant to be a fan of the Boston Bruins, with the following passage:
The uniforms have not changed. The people have not changed. Nothing has changed. Nothing ever changes. There are 1,000 guys named Pierre and 1,000 more named Guy and Jean and Boom Boom and Rocket and Pocket Rocket and all the rest. No change.
Things have changed since 1988. The B’s have won 7 of 12 playoff series against Montreal. There are no Pierres or Guys or Jeans on the 2015-16 version of the Canadiens, but Max and Pernell Karl-“P.K.” and Carey and Brendan and the rest of the rogues who carry on the legacy of the Flying Frenchmen still give the Bruins more than they can handle.
Enjoy the win for now and then turn the page.
At least until the next time these two teams meet.
It is sure to matter.
EDIT–
Here is one of my personal favorite Bruins-Montreal moments: Boston Garden November 1989. Was a senior in HS and saw this game with my dad- what a finish! So much going on here: Bruins down 2-0 in final 2:25 of the game, three goals by Boston in 57 seconds by Ray Bourque, Cam Neely and Glen Wesley. The late Pat Burns behind the Habs bench (Mike Milbury for the B’s) The aforementioned Fred Cusick and Derek Sanderson with the call:
Ryan Spooner during his Providence Bruins days(Photo courtesy of Alison M. Foley)
A child throws a rock into a still pond. The rock sinks to the murky bottom, but the impact creates a reaction well beyond what is seen on the surface.
This ripple effect can be applied to the young career of Boston Bruins center Ryan Spooner, who has finally arrived on the NHL stage as a regular contributor to his team’s fortunes.
It was not a given, however, that he would reach this point. If history is any indication, there have been legions of talented, skilled players who for one reason or another, could never make that extra step to establish themselves at hockey’s highest level. And, at this point just a year ago, it was looking more and more like Spooner was going to be another name to add to Boston’s growing list of capable, but ultimately unsuccessful draft picks.
This is the story of how Spooner and a small bit of help from fate and circumstance altered that trajectory.
The hockey prodigy from Kanata
Spooner grew up near Ottawa in Kanata, most famous as the home of the Ottawa Senators’ home rink, the Canadian Tire Centre. From an early age, he took to hockey as most Canadian sons do, and excelled as a naturally gifted skater and offensive player. He still laughs about the time he and Sue Spooner skated together in a mother-son game early in his minor career and she scored a goal, adding one tally to an impressive haul from the Spooner duo that day.
As he grew older, the little prodigy who wore No. 76 was so fast, so dangerous, so sublimely skilled that there wasn’t a whole lot opposing teams and coaches could do other than to accept that he was going to find a way to break through- the key was in minimizing the damage Spooner would do to them. As the years passed, his peers grew a little taller and stronger, but Spooner did what his coaches asked of him- he went out and scored goals. Lots of them.
It was around this time that Spooner met the man who would have the most profound effect on his own pursuit to one day play in the NHL.
Enter Pat Malloy
Pat Malloy is an Ottawa native and was a promising player and natural skater growing up. While pursuing his dream of playing hockey in the NCAA and possibly beyond that chance was cut short by chronic injury, which affected his skating. In 2000, Malloy decided that his love of hockey and connection to the game could flourish as a mentor and in the growing area of player development. Over the years, Malloy has not only worked with NHL players like Spooner, but several others including current Kings star Tyler Toffoli and even B’s veteran Chris Kelly. Malloy’s success led to greater recognition and he was ultimately hired by former Senators assistant GM Tim Murray to join the Buffalo Sabres organization as a skating and skills coach when Murray took the helm in Western New York before the 2014-15 season.
However, long before Malloy parlayed his local success into an NHL job, he got to know Spooner first as an opponent, and then as a client and student of the game.
“I coached against him at first, but even in that situation I could see what a special player he was at that age,” Malloy said from his office as the director of hockey for the PEAK Academy in Ottawa. “Our relationship sort of built organically, if you will. I don’t know if it was a mutual respect with the way he played and the way I coached but as big as Ottawa is, it’s actually a pretty small community and there are no secrets in hockey. We just sort of gravitated to one another and here we are years and years later.
“What started out as a skill and skating coach kind of thing has sort of turned into a mentorship situation where there aren’t many days that go by where we aren’t communicating about how things are going, last night’s game and the upcoming game and sort of planning and putting in place things from a personal perspective that we know will help him have success.”
Spooner recalled seeing Malloy with his PEAK Academy charges in the same rink he trained in and was at first intrigued by what he saw.
“I just remember the Patty works at PEAK and he does 1-on-1 sessions and I remember going to the gym and I would see him out on the ice,” Spooner told the Scouting Post during a recent off day. “He’d be working with some kids that were younger and some kids that were older and it just looked like it was fun stuff- scoring drills, stickhandling drills, footwork and all that kind of stuff. I think I just said to my dad that was something I wanted to do and I went out and tried it, loved it and I’ve been doing it since then.”
From OHL star to NHL prospect
Spooner ended up being the fifth overall pick at age 16 in the 2008 OHL Priority Selection draft of the storied Peterborough Petes. Already working with Malloy by then, he went on to become the youngest player in Peterborough team history to score 30 goals in the 2008-09 season, and was primed for an even bigger breakout in his draft season.
Unfortunately for Spooner, right after the 2010 CHL Top Prospects Game (he scored a memorable goal off a 2-on-1 rush when he ripped home a Taylor Hall cross-ice pass), he fractured his clavicle, causing him to miss just about all of the rest of the 2009-10 OHL campaign. Although he caught the tail-end of the season and playoffs, he wasn’t the same kind of dynamic presence he had been, and that might have been a reason for his fall from projected late first-rounder in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, to the 45th overall pick the Bruins tabbed him with in the middle of the second.
Almost immediately, Spooner became a fan favorite when he teamed up with second overall selection Tyler Seguin and 32nd pick Jared Knight at the trio’s first development camp, which brought the Bruins faithful out to the Ristuccia Arena in droves mainly to see Seguin. However, by week’s end, Spooner had caught the fans’ eyes with his impressive combination of speed and offensive savvy.
He parlayed that into an extended look at his first NHL training camp before he was returned to junior not too long before the 2010-11 NHL season opened. Spooner returned to a different situation with the Petes than one he had been accustomed in being around the big club, and with Peterborough struggling out of the gate under new coach Mike Pelino, things didn’t click and Spooner asked out. In what was a messy divorce, Spooner was sent to the Kingston Frontenacs, but Pelino blasted him on the way out for not being a good team guy.
Spooner, for his part, has always chosen not to directly address the personal critiques from his former coach (Pelino was let go from his duties in Peterborough during the 2012-13 season) but would only say that he was grateful to the Petes organization for giving him an opportunity, and that moving on was the best thing for him at the time.
“When that happened, I was a kid- I was 18- I just knew that I wasn’t happy where I was,” he said. “I didn’t know what to do, but I just knew that it wasn’t working for me and I asked for a trade. I learned a lot about the business of hockey going through that and I think it prepared me later for some of the stuff I’ve experienced in Boston.”
Still, fans were eager to see him make the Bruins, so when he was returned to junior pretty early in his second NHL training camp in 2011, several months after the B’s won the Stanley Cup, there was some disappointment in multiple circles.
“It was an always an understanding that the skill level was there, the creativity was there,” said Malloy. “Growing up he was able to do things in minor hockey and through junior that came very easy to him, came very instinctively than the finer points of the game. I think the areas that the Bruins and my exposure to them, and I would always report back to them in the summers on the things we were working on and was fully aware of what they were looking for and the mindset in terms of making sure he was growing and buying into the idea of doing the things he needed to do to be an everyday guy.”
Paying his dues in the AHL
Even with the world of skill, Spooner entered his first full AHL season in 2012-13 with a laundry list of things to work on in his game. Starting in Providence was eased by the fact that there was an NHL lockout going on, so he had no opportunity to impress the Boston brass in training camp, but instead reported to the minors to put into practice what he had worked on with Malloy that summer.
Defenseman Colby Cohen, who scored the 2009 NCAA championship-winning overtime goal for the Boston University Terriers and was a Boston farmhand with Spooner, fondly recalls how impressed he was with the rookie center’s ability when he first arrived in Providence (he made a couple of late-season appearances in 2011 and 2012 after his junior years ended).
“He has one of the highest hockey IQs of any player I’ve ever been on the ice with,” Cohen said via text. “He has 360-degree vision, which not many players have. His hockey IQ and vision has got to be on the 1 percent highest scale I’ve seen. I played some power play with him in the minors and you never had to call for the puck on the back door play. He saw you (and got it to you).”
Spooner’s maturation process began with Providence head coach Bruce Cassidy, who told me back during an interview in Spooner’s first season that the rookie was at his absolute best when he was attacking defenses with his speed.
“He’s not a player who gets a great deal done when he’s out on the perimeter dancing around,” Cassidy said after a Providence victory in which Spooner netted a pair of goals. “You could see it tonight with him, as he was attacking into the middle of the ice and being aggressive at going to the net. That’s how Ryan has to play if he’s going to be successful not only at this level but in the NHL.”
Spooner got a taste of the big league with a brief recall to Boston in early 2013, and then got another, more extended opportunity the following season, when Chris Kelly went down in December with an injury that forced him out of the Bruins lineup for several weeks. Spooner showed flashes of his potential, including a three-assist performance against Nashville, but he was unable to find the back of the net in 23 games (11 assists) with the big club.
Although he was ultimately sent back to Providence, the longer Spooner was around head coach Claude Julien and the other coaches and players, the more he saw what was expected of him in Boston’s system and organizational climate.
“What you see a lot now is that players that have the ability to do things at a higher rate, and sometimes it takes more time and convincing that those dirtier areas, those smaller areas…that attention to detail defensively- understanding that you earn the right to advance and you need to do the job defensively in order to let your talent level come through,” Malloy said. “That’s not the sexy part of the game, and it’s harder for a player that has high-end ability to get their head around sometimes because at various levels they didn’t have to or it was something they weren’t asked to do, so what I saw with him was the maturity of understanding sometimes I’ve got to do things that I might not think are the best for me but are best for the group.”
Spooner played enough on a President’s Trophy-winning roster to show he had enough talent to belong in the NHL, and that December- January run in Boston set Spooner up for even bigger expectations entering the 2014-15 season.
Nearing the end of the line with B’s?
The good news for Spooner when the new season started against Philadelphia was that for the first time in his career he was on the opening night roster. The bad news was, that after an up-and-down training camp, Spooner was playing such a reduced role (and on the wing where he did not look comfortable) that it was difficult for him to leverage his game’s strengths. After five games in a bit role and barely an impact, he was sent back down to Providence where the team moved him back to center to try and get him going again.
At the same time, rookie David Pastrnak was in the process of producing at a point-per-game rate and would soon grab much of the attention in Providence before he ultimately won a permanent job with Boston by mid-January.
Meanwhile, Spooner got injured in late December and went back on the shelf for a period of weeks while he worked on trying to get back on the ice. The injury may have happened at a critical time, and is the first element of circumstance that may have intervened to save Boston management from making a big mistake.
There were rumors that the B’s and then-GM Peter Chiarelli were entertaining moving Spooner to a team out in the Western Conference in an exchange of underachieving second-round picks. That team had sent several of its scouts into Providence on several occasions, and just as things where heating up, Spooner was knocked out of action, putting any alleged trade talks on hold.
He returned to the Providence lineup in late January and his production immediately improved, as Spooner began playing his best hockey of the season. Not long after that, fate intervened again, this time in the form of an injury to a key member of the Boston roster.
When opportunity knocks…
When David Krejci injured his MCL in late February 2015, the B’s were in a dire situation.
Just one year after cruising to the league’s best regular season record, the team was fighting for its playoff lives, and the loss of Krejci stood to have an enormous impact on the postseason chances.
Spooner was called up for a Sunday game against Chicago and promptly made an impact with an assist in a much-needed Boston win on February 22nd. Five nights later, on February 27, Spooner tallied his 1st NHL goal, an overtime strike that propelled Boston to a much-needed 3-2 win over the New Jersey Devils. (Highlight vids courtesy of “Dafoomie”)
Although the Bruins ultimately failed in their bid to make the 2015 postseason, Spooner was one of the bright spots in a dismal spring, posting eight goals and 18 points in 24 NHL games after the late February recall. The B’s saw a more confident and rounded Spooner in his second NHL stint last season, and he clicked centering a line with Milan Lucic and Pastrnak.
Through it all, Malloy and several other people have been instrumental in helping to keep Spooner grounded and focused on the ultimate goal of establishing himself as a Bruin, even with the setbacks and hits to his confidence at various times.
“The thing I like about him is that it’s not like I go out and work on my skills and then I don’t talk to him again until I’m home again,” Spooner said. “I talk to him pretty much after all my games and he tells me things I need to improve on and things I did well. The thing I like about Pat, too, is that he’s very approachable and easy to talk to. He’s a mentor as someone I talk to after the games and I talk to my dad, I talk to my best friend and I also talk to my agent.
“Last year was especially tough for me at different times- I had heard some trade stuff and I wasn’t playing my best and I remember Patty saying to me ‘You need to go out and have fun, you need to remember why you’re playing hockey. Just go out there and use your skills and speed.’ He’s always been the one who’s reminded me that I’m at my best and using my speed and skills.”
As the disappointment of not making the playoffs wore off last April, Spooner went back home Ottawa to prepare for a new season and for the first time, a true opportunity to contribute to Boston’s fortunes as a roster regular right out of the gate.
After a short break, he went right to work with Malloy, who had always had a willing and driven student, but one who now had considerable focus on one area in particular that he wanted to address before the new season began.
“Last summer (Ryan) came back and said ‘I need to have more of a shooter’s mentality,’ and that’s absolutely accurate and that of course comes from the top,” Malloy said. “The Bruins had said that with his skill level, they’d like to see him shoot pucks more and become more of a threat from that perspective. So, a portion of that time spent last year and the year before was spent saying let’s develop a mid-range shot, let’s develop a one-timer, which you’re starting to see him use more now, with all that time he sees on the power play, and the confidence to do that under pressure and the confidence to do those things with a mindset that he’s going to dictate the outcome.”
Spooner said that in order to improve the mechanics of his shot, Malloy used his iPad to take a tremendous amount of video and then the two broke down his shot in the close level of detail needed to identify ways to improve his release, shot power and accuracy.
With the best stretch of NHL hockey in the rearview, Spooner and Malloy both new that now was the time to put all of the hard work from years past into practice and keep the positive momentum going forward.
10-to-2: the making of an NHL center
Armed with a new two-year, 1-way contract extension, Spooner returned to Boston as the best bet to start the year as the team’s No. 3 center behind Patrice Bergeron and Krejci.
After a preseason that began with great promise, the team began to show signs of what was likely to be a year of peaks and valleys in 2015-16, but nobody was quite prepared for how brutal the Bruins would begin the year in a three-game homestand, going 0-3.
Spooner, like many of his teammates, took a little longer to get going. He excelled on the power play from the get-go, but his even strength play drew criticism early. Some of it had to do with a revolving door of linemates, but things seemed to hit a low point when he was benched during a December loss to Calgary. The B’s battled back from a deficit to send the game to overtime, but came up short.
After that Spooner seemed to bear down and play with more urgency in his game, but the real test came on December 27, when Krejci was lost again from the Boston lineup for an extended period of time against Ottawa.
That meant a promotion to the second line again for the first time since a year ago in February when Krejci was lost for most of the rest of the regular season and Spooner proved for really the first time in his young NHL career that he belonged in Boston.
From there, Spooner’s production took off, as he was able to more than hold up the offensive end of things while also demonstrating effectiveness in his 200-foot game, something that had long been something critics pointed to as a source of friction with Julien.
“I thought he played really well tonight,” Julien told the Boston Globe and assembled media after Boston’s 2-1 overtime loss to Ottawa more than a week ago. “I thought he skated well. I don’t know how many times I saw him make a real great backcheck. Both sides of the puck, he was good. He made good plays, good decisions. A lot of good things happening with Ryan tonight. I thought it was one of his better games.”
In a recent win over the New Jersey Devils, Spooner was skating with confidence and effectiveness, employing one of his favorite skating moves, the 10-to-2, on a goal he scored against Cory Schneider.
“He was always a kid that had an ability to be mobile,” said Malloy referencing the genesis of the work the two have done to make the 10-to-2 an effective element of Spooner’s skating threat. “I think what we did together was we figured out ways and continue to figure out ways to buy time and space. It’s one of those ways that number one- it makes you a dynamic moving target; it makes it harder for defenders to track you because you can change angles.”
For Spooner’s part, he recognizes its effectiveness but also believes in not using too much that he becomes predictable with it.
“In terms of it being effective for me, when you get the puck in the corner and you’re attacking out, it seems to work well,” he said. “ On the power play when I come through the middle of the ice, I can use it, so that you’re kind of looking back at the defenseman to get the pass or if you’re coming down the left side of the ice and you have some time you can see the entire rink.
“On the goal I scored (against the Devils), I got it and I always do it when I go across at the top (of the offensive zone) because I find that it gives you a better angle, the puck’s in front of me more so it’s tougher for a guy to block the shot and then it’s just been something I’ve done since I’ve been 17 or 18 and it was something I did working with Patty on drills- going around cones, and stuff like that.”
In effect, the 10-to-2, in a way, symbolizes Spooner as a scorer. It is something that not just anyone can go out and employ because it requires speed and a mastery of edges and balance to make work, but according to Malloy, it’s something the two have worked at perfecting because of what it does to enhance Spooner’s offensive lethality.
“A lot of what we have done in summers past in terms of developing his shot came from having the ability- when you can use your feet to create square hips to the net and balanced power so that you can release pucks at maybe a better pace than he had been previously doing,” said Malloy. “When moves like that get you around the corner, get you square- it allows you to be in spots where spots are better to be created from rather than shooting off balance and shooting on angles.”
The next step
Krejci is now considered day-to-day and Spooner will likely return to his third line pivot spot in the Boston lineup. However, the last near month multitude of games as a top-2 center has given him the confidence to keep finding ways to contribute to the B’s fortunes.
“Going forward, once Krech gets back I’m going to get sent back down to the third line and I just need to focus on the same things I’ve been doing,” he said. “I need to use my speed and my skill and try to make the players around me better and whoever they’re going to put me with, I just need to get them the puck, play responsibly and it definitely helps out for the confidence that I was able to go up there and score a bit. I thought my defensive game was going along better, but I still need to work on it and work on my faceoffs. I’ve played some games where I’ve been 60 percent in the dot and then (against Toronto) I was like 2 and 12, so it’s been up and down, so I need to find more consistency for sure. But for the most part I’ve been happy with my game, but there are things to work on.”
Spooner’s old teammate Cohen, now an NCAA television color analyst for ASN, feels like the best is yet to come for him.
“He’s done what he’s needed to in terms of improving his defensive game and being lower risk, lower reward in his approach,” Cohen said alluding to Spooner’s success at sticking in the NHL. “He skates so well, so being good defensively is relatively easy for him in that he has an amazing stick and doesn’t need to be physical to be effective on defense.
“Give him a longer leash- if a coach gives him that, he is a top-six and really even more like a top-three forward I believe.”
Spooner has told Malloy what he wants their focus areas to be when the season ends, hopefully after an opportunity to gain experience in the NHL postseason.
“He’s aware of the areas he needs to improve and he’s bought into that,” Malloy said. “We’re already talking about next summer in terms of improving things like his faceoff play; improving areas where he’s harder on pucks and that tells me that we’ve taken that next step in terms of his evolution and his maturity and that he’s starting to feel confidence from a points production standpoint where he feels like he can make plays, but he’s also talking about the things that are a little less sexy to deal with.”
And as far as Malloy is concerned, how much work can he still do with Spooner as the soon-to-be 24-year-old continues to mature as a pro?
“There’s no such thing as fast enough, there’s no such thing as good enough in the game of hockey. You can always develop and work and so I think the things we do with Ryan is because he’s a high-end skater and he’s got high-end puck skills, we’ll look at taking those skill sets and applying them to areas of the game where he has the ability to dictate the outcomes of plays, where he’s forcing people into situations where they need to react to him or defend against him from things he’s done by applying that high-end ability to skate and navigate the ice with the puck.”
And that ripple effect we talked about earlier?
Think about how different this conversation would be if Spooner were doing all of this in another team’s uniform. Good thing for the Bruins that’s not the case.
The losses were piling up on the road trip, but the Boston Bruins stopped the bleeding with big wins in Buffalo and at home Saturday night against Toronto to salvage a tough stretch and keep teams behind them in the standings at bay.
Saturday’s 3-2 victory was especially heartening, as the B’s saw a Brad Marchand go-ahead goal with under 13 minutes remaining in the final frame get wiped out on a coach’s challenge that ruled the play offside. After contending with some pretty one-sided officiating all night that play seemed to convince the skeptics that it wasn’t Boston’s night, but the Hockey Gods smiled down on the TD Garden, and a Martin Marincin gaffe allowed for Marchand to pot the winner with under a minute remaining in regulation to break a 2-2 deadlock.
The referees- Dave Jackson and Justin St. Pierre– made me feel at times like Professor Terguson from the 1986 Rodney Dangerfield comedy Back to School. The role put comedian Sam Kinison firmly on the map with his “Oh, Ohhhhhh!” battle screech from the mid-80’s until his death in a car accident in 1992. The officials last night brought out the absolute worst that is the two referee system in hockey- two guys who just seemed to make inconsistent, subjective calls at whim while players like Nazem Kadri disgraced the game by flopping to the ice anytime a Bruin touched him without being held accountable. I guess I should not be surprised given Jackson’s reputation, but if this is the kind of effort the fans can expect- then why bother, NHL? Just put the teams out there and let them decide everything themselves- you wouldn’t get much more bang for your buck than what those two did last night. And with that, I cede the floor to Professor Terguson/Sammy K.
The win put Boston back into third place in the Atlantic Division, just one point ahead of Tampa Bay (51-50…hey- that’s an old Van Halen album!), who will play the division leader and Sunshine State rival Florida Panthers this evening. The B’s also stayed ahead of the hated Montreal Canadiens, who hurled 49 shots at Brian Elliott but lost in overtime in a game in which the Blues brought back goaltending legends- Mike Liut, Curtis Joseph, Grant Fuhr and Martin Brodeur for a pre-game recognition ceremony. Interestingly enough, Elliott’s 46 saves were the most at home by a Blues goaltender since…you guessed it…Joseph. And to top it off, Elliott was wearing a special tribute mask to Joseph with the same paint job that the former NHL great wore in St. Louis from 1990-93, before he adopted the ubiquitous CuJo rabid dog visage that decorated his headgear for the remainder of his career. But I digress…
This Bruins team is a game bunch of players who put in a good effort on most nights even if their hard work isn’t always rewarded with a win. For the past several weeks, they’ve been without center David Krejci, but Ryan Spooner rose to the occasion by playing like the 2nd-line pivot that many of us felt he had the potential to be. With Krejci close to returning, that’s good news for the B’s but the issue with this club is not the scoring as much as it is a lack of a viable championship-caliber defense. Unless Don Sweeney and his scouts can figure out a way to bring someone in, then fans can expect that this is about as good as it will get.
Tuukka Rask has shown that he has more than enough talent and experience to carry the team at times, and Jonas Gustavsson has been the serviceable backup that the team hoped Niklas Svedberg would be a year ago. However, without a balanced defense, the Bruins are a middle-of-the-pack team, and even the most optimistic of observers aren’t blocking off their calendars in May and June for an extended playoff run.
The B’s are doing about as well as they can, even playing above their heads for stretches of the season. However, the elephant in the room is the current makeup of Boston’s defense. The team knew this would be a sticking point when Sweeney traded Dougie Hamilton last June, and the 22-year-old has certainly not taken that next step that seemed a given just seven months ago, but make no mistake: the loss of Hamilton opened up a void that the GM was simply unable to fill and we’re seeing that with a 23-16-5 record and 4-5-1 in the last 10. The B’s are losing games that during the Claude Julien era they wouldn’t have in previous years, by losing leads because they depend too much on their goaltending and forwards to cover up for a group of players that works hard, but lacks the talent and ability to match up effectively against some of the NHL’s better offenses.
Zdeno Chara is the easy target for fans, frustrated by the fact that father time is catching up to him at age 39 (in a couple of months) and hoping against hope that Sweeney could make a trade for new blood using him as capital.
Here are just a few reasons why that isn’t going to happen: 1. He has a no-trade contract and a wife expecting twins in 60 days. Even if he wanted to play for a contender, it is highly doubtful Chara would even consider putting Tatiana Chara through the turmoil such a move would put his family through. That reason alone precludes serious consideration of any others, but here they are: 2. His best years are clearly behind him, and if you are a Boston fan, do you really think that another team would give the B’s the kind of value that improves the team today? If your answer to that question is yes, then I would submit your position is pretty unserious and you might want to learn a bit more about how the NHL works. I don’t say that to be arrogant, it’s just a fact. 3. There is simply no other defenseman remotely close to assuming the role Chara has on this club. It’s easy to declare he should be traded while Boston can get something for him, but with the NTC and a diminishing body of work, the return isn’t going to justify the net effect of such a move, which would be to elevate Torey Krug or Dennis Seidenberg to the top spot, a role neither player is suited for or capable of at this stage in their respective careers. Even when not producing the results that fans seem to have taken for granted in the decade Chara patrolled the Boston blue line, he’s still an integral part of the roster and Julien’s system, whether we like it or not.
Besides, assuming Chara asked out and wanted to be dealt (which he doesn’t at present) there is no shortage of teams that would want to add him, but those clubs aren’t going to give up a premium young roster player in return- that defeats the purpose of adding Chara to a contending team’s lineup in the first place. The best the Bruins could hope for is a young prospect along the lines of a Colin Miller, but more realistically, the trade partner team would give up a 1st-round pick for him, and that’s about it. If you want an improved Boston team in the present and immediate future (next year) that scenario doesn’t help. You can probably make a good trade on NHL ’16 involving Chara, but this is real life so just stop with the video game mentality, please.
But getting away from trading Chara for a second- the future Hall of Famer is worth far more to the Bruins than he is most anyone else. It would be one thing if the B’s had a legitimate young colt waiting in the wings and approaching the time to take over as the No. 1 defender on the Boston roster. Right now, Sweeney and Co. don’t have that player. They don’t even have a clear-cut No. 2, leaving Krug to take on more of that role, but with very little help around him, as the rest of the defense corps in Boston right now is at best a group of 5/6, bottom-pairing guys. That situation places enormous pressure on Chara and results in his minutes being much higher than they should be at this stage of his career.
So, to close out the thoughts on Chara- he’s clearly not the player he once was, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy answer to just trade him and be done with it. He can still be effective in the right situations because of his size, reach and experience, but his lack of foot speed and declining skill set means that the team that employs him as a top defender cannot rely on him to perform like the dominant No. 1 he was in his prime. That’s sad, but the team and fans, at least in the short term, must come to terms with that fact and look for options that include Chara for now, because with that NTC and a lack of a viable marketplace at present, he isn’t going anywhere.
Krug has earned his way this year as a very good No. 3/4 at the NHL level. He does all the things you want from a puck-moving defenseman, making a brilliant neutral zone pass to spring Patrice Bergeron for the first of his two goals. Krug also put on an impressive display of skill during the second period when he stickhandled through the Toronto defense and deked Jonathan Bernier out of the Leafs net before losing the handle at the last second. However, he saved his best for last when Rask got caught out of his net and lost the puck to Tyler Bozak, who flipped it back to P.A. Parenteau. Krug’s instant recognition of the unfolding play allowed him to go right to the crease and cover for Rask. He dropped into the butterfly and absorbed Parenteau’s shot (that would have broken a 2-2 tie late in regulation and likely crushed Boston’s spirit).
When we talk about how Krug can’t physically outmatch the bigger, stronger forwards but that he needs to play smart defense, there is your exhibit A. He could have chased the puck and tried to make a play on it himself, but he had the hockey IQ and situational awareness to cover the cage with Rask out and made a game-saving stop while doing a pretty passable impression of the former Vezina Trophy winner in the process. Krug is Boston’s best defenseman after Chara- if he was about 4 inches taller and 20 pounds heavier, he’d be that ideal heir apparent that Boston so desperately needs. As it stands, Krug’s tremendous character, competitive drive and ability mean that he is worth getting locked up after this season and if it were up to me, I commit the expected $5 million he’ll command on the market to do so- he’s worth it, and the team can’t afford to bank on unknowns like Matt Grzelcyk, Rob O’Gara or even Brandon Carlo right now by allowing Krug to follow Hamilton out the door.
Against Toronto, we saw flashes of what Joe Morrow could be, but we also witnessed the likely effect of not playing every night, as he mishandled pucks and turned them over in several instances when a better decision to move the puck out of danger would have been smarter. The more I watch Morrow, the more evident it is to me why Pittsburgh and Dallas both decided to trade him. He’s a complementary player- not someone who is likely to develop into a top-3 NHL option. Morrow’s impressive skills are clearly evident when you watch the way he can carry the puck and will jump into the rush, but he looks like more of a specialist than a heavy lifter, and that’s a shame.
C. Miller has the best potential of all the youngsters at the pro level currently, but he’s not a player who can play unsheltered minutes and expect to instill confidence especially late in close games. There’s a valid argument to be made that Chiller should be in the lineup over Kevan Miller and Zach Trotman, especially with Adam McQuaid out, but he gives away toughness and size, even if the difference is so trivial that it seems inconceivable that the Boston coaches would not use him more. Trotman is big and mobile…he can make the crisp first pass and it showed last night with a helper on Bergeron’s second goal. He doesn’t have a big NHL upside, but he’s a serviceable player. With more physicality in his game, he might get more recognition than he does.
Dennis Seidenberg is a warrior, and I’ll always respect him for what he did for the Bruins when they traded for him in 2010 and a year later, he was one of the stalwarts that helped bring Lord Stanley back to Boston. However, he’s playing far too many minutes for what he can bring to his team on a consistent basis. He was solid against Buffalo and Toronto, but those are two clubs behind Boston in the standings- when up against the higher-end teams like Washington and St. Louis, DS44 struggles with containment and coughing up the puck under pressure from the ferocious fore check those clubs can employ. If he was contributing on the bottom pair, that would be one thing, but like Chara, too much is asked of him.
Ditto Kevan Miller- as good and hard-nosed a guy that you will find, but who is simply being asked to do too much and play too many minutes. It’s too lazy to just point to him and say he’s unworthy as an NHL defenseman- that’s simply not true. However- the issue is with the role the B’s have him in. Like Hal Gill in the early 2000s when Ray Bourque was gone and Chara was several years away from signing as a free agent, Miller is in over his head. It’s a shame, because as a bottom pairing D- he’d be a fan favorite. He was when he first showed up in the 2013-14 season with a younger, better cast around him and went out and rocked opponents nightly. He didn’t just forget how to play- but you can’t expect a role player to evolve into a top-2 or 3 option if he isn’t suited for it. And so, that’s what we get with No. 86- a nightly adventure wherein we wonder what exactly we will get when he’s out there. That’s no way to set conditions for success, but given the team’s current state of affairs, it’s what we’re left with.
So- to wrap up. This defense is a gritty, gutsy group that does the best it can with the talent it possesses. Adam McQuaid is the embodiment of this defense both as a tough, rugged, character guy who gives you every ounce of what he has, but also as a limited talent who pays the price for his physical style and is asked to do more than he is capable of. It isn’t a lack of want to for the Bruins defense, but in pro sports, heart and will can only take you so far- if the other guys are more talented and have more of them, then your ability to separate from the pack is greatly hampered.
This B’s defense deserves credit for trying, but the NHL is a cold, results-oriented business. If teams won because of effort or grittiness, then the Buffalo Sabres would have won a Stanley Cup by now.
The Bruins have some potential help coming in the form of youngsters like Grzelcyk, Carlo, O’Gara…Jakub Zboril and Jeremy Lauzon look like they could infuse the roster one day with the blend of skill and ruggedness needed, but none of those players are ready. So Sweeney’s challenge is to try and find a player who can not only help now, but be the bridge to a better future than just staying in the middle of the pack and therefore not getting as good a chance at drafting and rebuilding that the league’s doormats get.
In a familiar refrain, the Boston Bruins dropped a close game late in regulation to the New York Rangers when a Jesper Fast deflection beat Tuukka Rask with less than two minutes left to break a 1-1 deadlock.
Despite the lack of offense, it was an uptempo game with both teams trading some good chances, perhaps none better than Max Talbot’s doorstep shot that Henrik Lundqvist somehow got his skate on while pushing left-to-right and essentially falling prone to the ice while his legs kicked up into the air in a fashion similar to a scorpion’s tail.
All in all, the B’s had just one goal by Jimmy Hayes (his 10th and set up by Ryan Spooner) on a heavy shot from high out in the slot to show for it. As was the case last year when Boston’s offense was among the league’s worst, that puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the goaltender to play a near-perfect game between the pipes.
The loss represented a missed opportunity- the Bruins carried the play in the second period but had only the one goal to show for it. As the cynics suspected, it was the Rangers who managed to capitalize when Claude Julien shortened the bench later in the third period, moving Landon Ferraro into David Pastrnak’s spot only to see defenseman Keith Yandle’s point shot sneak through when Fast got a piece of it and the puck changed direction.
We’re past the moral victories stage at this point of the season- every point counts and this is a game the Bruins should have had. To look for silver linings out of this one doesn’t get them any closer to the playoffs.
And, now- some thoughts and observations.
Designated scapegoat Kevan Miller had a rough night, on ice for both goals against and standing around when the winning goal was scored instead of clearing the much smaller Fast out of the crease. Miller has born the brunt of much fan angst and it is understandable- the undrafted free agent and former University of Vermont and Berkshire School captain has made some glaring mistakes throughout the season that get magnified because the puck has ended up in the net. However, much of the reason Miller is struggling is because he’s been put in a position to fail. The rugged, hard-nosed defensive defenseman is a serviceable 5/6 D when used correctly. Unfortunately, a lack of personnel and injuries have meant that the B’s have been using Miller as a 2/3 D for most of the year and he is simply not suited for that role- he’s in way, way over his head. This is not to absolve him of his errors- he’s had problems with his decisions and in basic execution, with gaffes that have cost the B’s in several instances, most notably in Boston’s 6-3 home collapse to Buffalo a few weeks ago. However, for anyone to think that Miller is not an NHL defenseman is a bit harsh: if he was on the bottom pairing and played somewhere around 17 minutes per night as opposed to the 20+ he’s been pressed into, there’s a good chance he’d be pretty respected because he plays the game hard, tough and works hard. Alas, for Miller, he’s limited and not capable of carrying the load, making him a magnet for fan frustrations. It happens to someone every year.
I wonder if Tuukka Rask has been checking the internet (10 years ago I would have said the Yellow Pages) for the numbers of good lawyers in Boston. He could sue the team for non-support after last night. He wasn’t able to do much on either the Fast winner or Derick Brassard’s rebound goal to tie it early in the third frame. But, Rask did what every good goalie must- gave his club a chance to win it.
Would like to see Julien give Pastrnak more of an opportunity to be a difference-maker late in games. Ferraro was not a terrible option to move up into his spot last night with a 1-1 game on the line, but the waiver pickup has cooled considerably since his first month as a Bruin.You live and you die by the talent you have, and when your team has only scored one goal in some 55 minutes of action, I’m not sure taking out the one guy who is arguably your most gifted scorer makes sense when you are trying to secure at least one point. Julien has coached 900 career NHL games, so there’s a reason he’s behind the bench and I’m not, but it’s about time to take the shackles off of No. 88. It’s really saying something about how woeful Boston’s offense was last night when Zac Rinaldo is in the conversation as your most effective forward. I don’t mean that as a slight because he’s been a pretty decent fourth-line option this season, but with just one goal and one assist- he is who we thought he is.
Frank Vatrano and Tyler Randell took a seat as healthy scratches last night after both being in the lineup against Ottawa Saturday night. Vatrano has a bright future ahead of him, but if this is to be his lot in life going forward for the rest of the season, then I suspect Butch Cassidy would love to have him back on the team in Providence. The undrafted free agent from Western Mass. has been a revelation, and his speed, dynamic shot and hustle are exactly what this Bruins team needs, but he had just 10 AHL games under his belt before going up to the big show, so there is more room for development on the farm rather than eating popcorn at press level. Just saying.
Keith Yandle is a Milton, Mass. guy and former Cushing Academy star who had been linked to the Bruins in rumors for a couple of years before Arizona traded him to the Rangers last year at the deadline. There’s been some real grumbling in circles about how Alain Vigneault has used him this season, and let’s be honest- defense was never really Yandle’s strong suit. That said- with time ticking down and his team needing a play, they got one when his point shot was tipped in for the winner. He’s not the player a lot of people thought he would be early in his career when he showed signs of developing into something special, but a team like the Bruins sure could use him in a No. 2 role right now. Yandle only has two goals (on 88 shots) but his 23 points lead the Rangers from the blue line. He’s still a good offensive presence, even if the defensive side of his game isn’t there. He’s an unrestricted free agent this coming summer and will cash in- the question is where, and for how much/long?
Hayes netted his 10th goal last night, which puts him on the same pace as last year, when he established a career high 19 goals. It’s the inconsistency that has bothered Hayes this season, however- he had a brutal November, enduring a nine-game pointless streak at one point, and he went without points in nine of 12 December games. However, with his big body and soft hands, he’s capable of bringing more to the table. Last night’s goal was a rocket of a shot- scored from out near the tops of the circles when Hayes does most of his damage in close near the paint. He’s a good kid and wants to do well. I criticized him the other night because he stood around while Patrick Wiercoch worked over Vatrano after the diminutive forward crashed the Senators net. I felt that some kind of response- not necessarily fighting Wiercoch but at the very least, trying to restrain him so that Vatrano could extricate himself- was warranted, but many feel that he was right not to intervene and risk a penalty late in regulation of a tie game. Even if I don’t like it- that’s a fair assessment and with the way the NHL’s referees call games nowadays, any kind of intervention would be risky. That said- if Hayes is not going to bring much of a physical presence, then he’s got to keep scoring because he won’t be doing much else for this team.
It’s been a quiet couple of games for Patrice Bergeron (he was beaten by Mats Zuccarello on Brassard’s tying goal) and Brad Marchand since the latter returned from his three-game suspension. The B’s need those two to get it going.
Ryan Spooner continues to play well in David Krejci’s absence. Later this week, I’ll do a post dedicated to him and address some of the things he’s done behind the scenes to make himself a better all-around player, along with the help he’s gotten to get him there.
And that’s it. The B’s are 1-1-1 on their current road trip. They’ve been a good away team this year but they’ve got to find ways to get more points in the final two games at Philly and Buffalo before returning home Saturday to take on the Leafs with an ever-tightening Eastern Conference.
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