Friday, January 12, 2007

It's no longer *if* they're going to blow the lead...

...it's *how* they're going to do it.

The Bruins blew 3rd period leads THREE times last night. That's right, three. After blowing a 2-1 lead just 22 seconds into the 3rd, the B's engaged in a scoring tit-for-tat that ultimately resulted in a regulation tie and a shootout loss.

Hannu Toivonen got to see what Tim Thomas has been going through recently, giving up three impossible goals and a stoppable one that would have preserved the lead and the game.
  • Goal one: Wayne Primeau lost not only his stick, but also sight of the puck as it wound up behind him. Randy Robitaille, with his stick about a foot in front of Toivo, redirected a low shot about 40 degrees upwards and over a sprawling Hannu. Toivonen had no shot.
  • Goal two: Right before Toivonen was engulfed by a mass of humanity that overran him, he had to try to defend a shot while laying on the ground with Andrew Alberts standing/kneeling on him. Pinned to the ice, Toivonen was helpless to stop it.
  • Goal three: A slapshot from the point went over the net, bounced off the wall behind Toivonen and found it's way onto the stick of Tom Poti who was waiting on the opposite side of the net. Poti effortlessly popped it in. Another one that Toivonen had no chance at.
  • Goal four: A power play goal by Viktor Kozlov who was standing to Toivonen's right. Hannu tried to cover his open holes to protect the corner, but the puck squeezed through. This was the only goal of the night that Hannu should have stopped, but didn't. And it came at the worst time...with a 4-3 lead and 1:39 left on the game. Being on a penalty kill didn't help, but this is where your goalie needs to come through in the clutch.
Overall, this was an extremely solid effort by Toivonen. If this was being considered an audition as the Globe opined yesterday, then he should have passed it. The final goal was a killer but he was fantastic the rest of the night...at least on the goals he had a legitimate chance of stopping. Even in the shootout, he stopped two of the three first shots only to lose in the sudden death portion.

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6 Comments:

Blogger jimbuff said...

Goaltending is not the Prob!!! Our "D" is to inconsistent and in tight games with the lead they change how they play for some unknown reason and panic. Fix the probs on "D" and the same goalies will look like stars! Our "D" is fine skillwise but have to be able to play with more heart and more confidence!!!

7:29 a.m., January 13, 2007  
Blogger TreeBob said...

Jim, where in his post did he mention goaltending is our problem? e was blaming the team as far as I read.

8:02 a.m., January 13, 2007  
Blogger Doobie said...

The problem goes well beyond goaltending. I was just commenting on Toivonen's performance since the Globe had mentioned that his start against the Isles might have been an audition for him to stay on the team.

Toivonen put on a damn good show, but ran into he same issues that Thomas has run into all season...poor performance in front of him leading to very difficult shots to stop.

9:36 a.m., January 13, 2007  
Blogger jimbuff said...

treebob:
From what I gathered Doobie was saying that Hannu seen what Timmy was facing in the team in front of him. I was just stressing the point that Doobie was making and that what you seem to be making. I did say that goaltending was NOT the prob.

5:00 p.m., January 13, 2007  
Blogger jimbuff said...

Treebob:
My fault - I read both of doobie's posts together. I should have made the comment under his post previous to this one. Sorry.
I still don't think goaltending is our problem.

5:03 p.m., January 13, 2007  
Blogger TreeBob said...

Nobody of any real intelligence should think goaltending is Boston's problem. They do need a confident back-up though. Not that I would wish our D on any of them.

6:12 p.m., January 13, 2007  

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