Posted in Recaps October 25th, 2007
Tim Thomas. Five starts, four wins, each one with him only surrendering one goal. In his only loss, he let in an astonishing two goals. What that translates to is the Bruins being tied for the 3rd most points (12) in the Eastern Conference as of this writing with only the even hotter Sens and Hurricanes ahead of them.
Performances like that almost make me forget Monday’s blowout loss to the Habs. Almost. Losses to the Canadiens always fester.
This has to mean that, much like Toivonen last year, Manny Fernandez must be close to having his portion of the time share greatly reduced. At this point, it’s simple math. In four games, Fernandez is sporting a porous 3.93 GAA and an .832 SV%. With tonight’s game, Thomas now has a sparkling 1.20 GAA and a .962 SV%. To me, it’s a no-brainer who should start Saturday’s game against the Atlantic Division leading Flyers.
Also of note, Kessel potted goals #4 and #5 tonight, putting him ahead of Marco Sturm and Chucky K for the team lead.
Posted in Rumors October 18th, 2007
The Boston Globe is reporting that the Bruins may be targeting Danny Markov to bolster their corps of defensemen. However, with a price tag of $3 million, getting him under the cap may be difficult.
I’m a bit torn on this rumor. I’m not 100% sold on Charo and the Awesome A’s (Andrew Alberts, Andrew Ference, Aaron Ward…and of course Wideman and Mark Stuart) but I’m not sure if Markov is the answer. While his presence would be welcome, you have to wonder what kind of worth he’s going to have. Is spending that kind of money really going to help the Bruins on their quest for the playoffs? Or could it potentially further hinder the development of their younger defensemen by reducing their ice time?
Through five games, the defense has performed somewhat better than last year, although they remain inconsistent. Chara has been pleasantly productive so far, so at least he’s performing up to expectations. Ference and Alberts are #2 and #4, respectively, in average time on ice for the team’s defensemen but have no points and a -3 +/- to show for it. Aaron Ward shockingly has two goals already, but he’s never scored more than six in a season. The defensive-minded Markov would more than likely help them on their side of the ice, but it still comes back to whether or not he’s worth it.
It all comes down to what your expectations of the Bruins are this year, and whether or not Markov can help them achieve that end result. For someone entering the season in playoff contention, and who could use a defensive defenseman to fill a need, the move makes sense. But for a team that’s coming off a season where they were the 8th worst in the NHL & making the playoffs will more than likely be a struggle, the answer isn’t so clear. The move *may* push them into contention…but more than likely at the cost of ice time for their younger defensemen like Mark Stuart.
As much as I’d love to take a gung-ho approach with this, I think it would benefit the B’s to pass on Markov, play Stuart some more to let him learn and possibly spend that cash more wisely down the road.
Posted in Recaps October 14th, 2007
After a wild west shootout in Los Angeles Friday night, the Bruins fired mostly blanks against the Sharks tonight…particularly from the 2nd period midway through the 3rd when they had ZERO shots on goal. However, they scored when it counted especially with a game winner from Aaron Ward with 12 seconds left…and just 26 seconds after Milan Michalek tied it up with 38 seconds left to play (a goal which, unfortunately I missed…I was watching the game bedside on my wife’s laptop via Yahoo. The battery had five minutes of life on it at the time of Michalek’s goal, so I powered it off to finish watching the game on my office computer, but by the time I got there the game was over!)
Thomas had a great game tonight, as did the posts behind him. Time and time again shots clanked off the cold metal on what appeared to be sure goals. There had to have been at least four shots saved by the posts, but it felt like fifteen.
So the Bruins have wrapped up their only West Coast trip this year with a winning record. Not too shabby! The only left now is to clean the elephant dung out of TD Banknorth Garden and get ready for next Thursday’s game against the Lightning.
Posted in Recaps October 13th, 2007
The Bruins won a wild one in Los Angeles last night, besting the Kings 8-6. If you had 13 and the over in this game, you won.
I was at work last night listening to the game on NHL radio and could barely keep up with it. Every time I stepped away from my desk and came back, the score changed. Luckily, it was the Bruins who potted the most goals in net last night and came away with the win.
A few observations:
- Nice to see that defensive genius Dave Lewis’ work in LA is already paying off
- Phil Kessel racks up a hat trick AND an assist
- Marc Savard with a sweet five-point effort
- Milan Lucic picks up the Gordie Howe Hat Trick
- Sucked to have Brad Stuart score the 1st goal of the game for the Kings
- Speaking of “suck”, thus far, Manny Fernandez is doing just that
And now, if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to see some of tonight’s Bruins-Sharks game broadcast on Yahoo.
Posted in Vacation October 10th, 2007
Well, as expected, I returned from my trip to Vacation Village in the Berkshires (Hancock, MA) with having experienced virtually none of the Bruins first two games. Being from central NJ, I was hoping that my trip to Massachusetts would result in being to experience SOME of the first two games, but it wasn’t to be.
The internet experience was actually somewhat better than I expected. With the lobby serving up wi-fi, I was able to spend my late nights hanging outside on the laptop in some pleasantly balmy (for October) weather after the kids went to sleep. On the other hand, Vacation Village did NOT offer NESN (presumably due to their reliance on satellite and not local cable due to the mountainous locale) meaning I was not able to watch either the Stars or the Coyotes game.
Game One found me switching between the Red Sox game and ESPN News so that I could glance at the ticker at the bottom of the screen to catch the Bruins-Stars score. I briefly debated hitting a local bar in hopes of catching the Bruins game, but two things stopped me: disconcerting glances from my wife and the fact that every bar in the New England area would have had the Sox game on TV. My meek request to watch the Bruins on at least ONE TV would have probably been shot down. When I resigned to the lobby for the evening, I was hoping to catch some insight from Neb (who was online) who had recorded the game, but he hadn’t seen it yet. He told me not to tell him anything (hah!) since he didn’t know the score.
For Game Two against the Coyotes, I was in a more desperate and aggressive position. Dammit, I was going to experience the Bruins game somehow, but an additional problem faced me…the game began at 10 PM and we were leaving the next morning. Still, all I wanted was a snippet…ANY snippet…to say that I was at least able to take SOMETHING out of this road trip. Suddenly, it hit me: I have Sirius and could probably catch the game in my car. After all, I was able to listen to Bruins games last year. But as I flipping through the channels there were no NHL games at all. Then it hit me: the NHL package was on XM and Sirius last year, but only on XM this year. Shut out again. Then, I tried to find WBZ on the radio. Success! The B’s were up 2-0, but there were about seven minutes left in the 2nd period and the reception was horrible. Worse than my reception back in NJ. I retreated to the lobby in disgust. And in the time it took for me to get from my car to setting up my laptop, the period ended, and with the Coyotes adding an insult goal (to me anyway) to halve the score to 2-1. Looking for some solace online, I found Russ. He game me some valuable insight on how the game had progressed so far, but he was exhausted and was hitting the sack. Stuck in intermission, and with a long day ahead of me on Sunday, I quickly wrapped things up and went back to my room.
Oh and one last thing about Massachusetts? It’s disturbing the lack of Bruins merchandise to be found at the major stores. I noticed this last year when I stopped by Salem and had it re-confirmed this year on the other end of the state (which, naturally, I expected to be even worse due to the distance). Red Sox and Patriots clothing everywhere, but not a stitch of Bruins stuff to be found. I know that the Bruins haven’t been serious contenders recently and the strike no doubt crippled them further, but c’mon.
But enough about my journeys. With a 1-1 start, the Bruins are where they were at last year record-wise. Oddly, Tim Thomas was shelled in the opener last year and Hannu Toivonen (remember him?) showed some redemption in game 2 against the Lightning. So far, it’s been a role reversal with Manny Fernandez having a subpar game on Friday and Thomas having a good showing Saturday. It’ll be interesting to see where this all heads. Hopefully, they won’t lose five of their next six games like they did last October.
As for tonight, the B’s will be in Anaheim to face the Ducks. Going against them: the champion Ducks will be receiving their rings tonight and will have an emotional home crowd advantage. Also, Marc Savard is nursing a strained groin and is doubtful for the game. The positives: the Ducks are even more banged up. Ex-#$@% Hab Mathieu Schneider, J-S Giguere and Sammy Pahlsson are all hurt.
