Posted in Recaps November 29th, 2008
Old chumps, meet new hunks
Joey MacDonald didn’t stand a chance. For the first two periods against the Bruins today, he looked like Tim Thomas, circa 2006-07. Then for the third period, the Islanders goaltender looked like Joey MacDonald, circa 2006-07. You remember Joey MacDonald…he was the backup goaltender late in the 06-07 season when the Bruins lost faith in Hannu Toivonen and the guy who used to wear the clashing Red Wings goalie mask. Actually, MacDonald really wasn’t all that bad that year for the B’s…in only 7 games, he had a 2.68 GAA and a .918 SV%…better than either Thomas OR Toivonen that year (although he DID sport a 3.46 GAA and .872 SV% in 8 games with Detroit that same year). Still, the man’s a journeyman goaltender, and it showed today late in the game when the Islanders needed him most.
The other Ex-B’s on the other side of the ice who were victimized: Bill Guerin and Andy Hilbert (who did, at least, get an assist). Maybe I’m just evil, but for once it’s nice to see ex-B’s floundering on bad teams as opposed to having to field a bad team with other teams’ castoffs.
Kudos to Michael Ryder for potting two goals. If the young guns keep producing and the veterans like Ryder start turning their mediocre game around, this team can go far.
Interesting stat: as of this writing, the Bruins have scored 78 goals in this young season, putting them behind only San Jose (89) and Detroit (81) in offensive production. And to think only a couple of years ago, us fans were trying to dream up trade scenarios that would give this team some offensive punch…ditto for management (Kris Versteeg for Brandon Bochenski, anyone?)
Speaking of the Red Wings, tonight’s game against Detroit is a huge test for the young Bruins. If they beat the defending Stanley Cup champs, the Bruins are going to really start turning heads.
This entry was posted on Saturday, November 29th, 2008 at 12:31 am and is filed under Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
3 Comments on this post
Posted by buff November 30th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Doob,
I take exception to you saying Ryder’s game is mediocre. He has been playing excellent all season in many aspects and has shown great character. He has been a serious boost to us all year. He is finally now just seeing the points and rewards for it but in no way could his play be called mediocre so far this season.
Posted by Doobie November 30th, 2008 at 11:27 am
The intangibles are there, but his play can be considering disappointing in the respect that he was expected to be the same 25-30 goal scorer that he was under Julien in Montreal. Prior to the 2-goal outburst the other day, he had only 3 goals in 22 games. That more resembles the 14 goal scorer he was last year, which is what the Bruins were hoping they weren’t going to get.
Posted by buff November 30th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Yes goal output is the same as last year (low) but he is WAY better defensively than ever, has tons more assists, is hitting and is actually fighting for pucks in the corner (all aspects that he never had before)- his style play mirrors the identity of this team - far from mediocre. I have only missed one game this season and despite low goals I am very, very impressed with him.