On The Bruins, and Game-Breakers

New Hockey Primetime: What factors into motivation aside from winning and cash? (Haven’t even finished it yet, let alone submitted. Gimme a hot sec, will ya? )

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I had a little twitter conversation with the esteemed “Haggs” (Joe Haggerty) today, the gent who covers the Bruins (and Boston sports in general) so well.  He is also kind of a fan of the Bruins, and I support that – you always get better quality work from people who care.

Well hey there, you're an affectionate lil' feller aren't ya?

He expressed the idea that the East is wide open for the Bruins to take.  He’s almost right, save for Philly.  The other top teams are plenty scary, but they all have some minor deficiencies.  I just think Philly’s team might be good enough to overcome the inexperienced goaltending.

Still, it brought me to the Bruins roster, and I gave it a good once over, in hopes of finding a hole to reply to Haggs with after he picked apart the other top contenders (Philly: “goaltending.” Tampa: “lack of playoff experience after Vinny/St.Louis.” Washington: “picking up Boston’s castoffs – Wideman, Sturm – doesn’t wow me.” Pittsburgh: “No Crosby/Malkin.”)

It was damn hard to dig up any weakness - that roster is insanely deep.  I scanned down it from the top to find the first laugher of a player, and there wasn’t one.  My eyes stopped on Adam McQuaid (Darth Quaider, apparently), which is stupid, because it turns out he’s like, first in the NHL in +/- at +27.  Hardly a “laugher,” I just hadn’t noticed him before.

Anyway, the only thing I have is this: They don’t really have a game-breaker.  And my regular readers knowwwww how I loves me some game-breakers.  Never been a fan of “scoring by committee” …which is still about ten notches behind “goaltending by committee” on the Ideas That Won’t Work list.

The reason I think a team needs at least a game-breaker or  two to win is fairly understandable: in close games, defense tightens up, they’re on high alert, and they’re trying their hardest.  There’s more clutching and grabbing, and it gets more difficult for a middle of the road scorer to beat someone one-on-one and break the game open.  Ain’t nobody sleeping.  Oftentimes, these close games just drag out until overtime or a “bad goal.”

Thing is, that you have to score bad goals to win close games is another old-school misconception.  It happens occassionally, but look – when Patrick Kane juked Kimmo Timonen to score the Stanley Cup game winning goal in overtime, that wasn’t a bad goal.  The shot itself should’ve been stopped, but I’m pretty sure there isn’t a player on Boston’s roster could have got themselves in a position to score that “bad goal” - he got the puck flat-footed on the half-wall.  He made about 55 shoulder shimmies before getting the shot off.  Big time players come through in big time moments.

Last years Cup champs: Toews and Kane.

The year before: Crosby and Malkin.

The year before: Datsyuk and Zetterberg.

Okay, that line kinda look tough to play against. Jesus.

Before that: Getzlaf and Perry.

It’s just the way the NHL playoffs go (I stopped short of Carolina who really only had Eric Staal, but the one before that is right back to Tampa with Lecavalier and St. Louis).

Now, that’s not to say the Bruins can’t or won’t win the Cup.  I’ve picked them to go to the Finals since the season began.  I really like their team.  I was just trying to find a weakness.

I’m not sure Bergeron….Lucic? is going to cut it.  Krejci?  Their team’s strength is that I could play the Bergeron and ??? game for almost the entire length of their roster (the weakness might be that I’m pretty sure Bergeron doesn’t even qualify for the type of guy I mean).  But still…Horton? Peverly?  It’s a deep team, with a nice touch of grit.  Kaberle was just the addition they needed too.

I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’: if there’s anything I feel that could catch up to them it’s their ability to score goals……I say about the team who’s 5th in the NHL in goals-per-game, after a 6-0-0 road trip, the first since the Bobby Orr era. 

(Remember, the argument isn’t that the Bruins can’t score – it’s wondering if they have a guy who can do it consistently in the big moments of playoff games, AKA a game-breaker. Think back to the year the Pens won –  Crosby single-handedly won the Conference Finals, then Malkin the Finals.)

Anyway, that’s the best I could do at poking a hole in the theory that the Bruins are going to mow over the rest of the East.  You on board with that, or is there another reason we won’t see them in the Stanley Cup Final?

{Note: please refrain from just typing the name of your favourite team without evidence or argument.}

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Happy humpday.  The wifancee is trying out Zumba today.  Thoughts?

Bench Buddies

Isn’t that a chilling picture below?  Ugh. 

Also chilling – Chris Drury has been listed as “out indefinitely” due to “interment and severe post-consussion syndrome”.  As a frequent essay-length commenting friend of mine (Neil) recently pointed out, of all the head shots that deserve some attention, how has the Glencross/blindside/headshot/clippy-elbow-thing passed by without the usual horror?

And last, on head shots - this is my latest take on it, for The Hockey News.  When will the players do something about it?

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Sometimes, for some reason, your coach just thinks you mesh well with a particular player on your team.  Or that you’re the same type of player.  Or that you’re style’s don’t fit with other players.  Or something.  The point is, sometimes you just get stuck with some random dude on your team for like, the whole year.

And you hate the guy.

Not just playing with him.  But sitting beside him on the bench.  All year.  Maybe he’s a guy who likes to draw up plays on his glove between shifts (because we run so many set plays in hockey).  Maybe he’s an apologizer.  Sorry bout that pass man, it rolled on me.  That was my guy, sorry.  I thought the d-man had him.  And all you can think is ihateyou ihateyou ihateyou ihateyou…

Basically, I was thinking about how I bet I’d really dislike Milan Lucic (no offense to anyone, but in general, I found “major junior” players to be retarded, and thus, less likely to be people I enjoy), which got me thinking about sitting beside some big mook on your line who says cocky stuff like “he’s lucky he saw me at the end or I woulda killed him”.  How was I suppposed to respond to those comments?  Yep, you’re the toughest.

It’s nice that I don’t have to worry about pissing off too many major junior players by writing that, because not many of them can read….

Sorry.  I’m having random bench flashbacks here, and typing them unfiltered through they keyboard feels good. 

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Dear rec league players:

Isn’t stopping like, the worst thing ever?  Seriously.  How much of a pain-in-the-ass is it when you know “wow, if I don’t stop and get that puck I’m gonna look suuuper lazy“.  Kills your whole momentum.  By the time you get up to speed again, you’re tired and have to change.

uuugggghhh stopping succckkksss

Stopping wasn’t my forte as a player.  Not that I wasn’t good at it, as much as I much preferred the large, ineffective circling swoop until I needed to hit top gear.  Coaches call that move the ”getting benched” or something like that. 

So with no coach, how great is never stopping?  I’m like the olympic logo in rec league.  All circles.

Man. 

I’m really diggin’ it.

Love,

Bourne.