MacDonald is a Nova Scotian, nuff said
Who are these guys? Make it two straight wins by the Bruins, with a another 3-1 win, this time over the New Jersey Devils. This is not the same team that lost to Philly, and gave up 55 shots on goal. It's looking like there was a game of adjustment needed for the "new" team to gel. As I mentioned in my last post; since Atlanta beat Carolina today, and the Bruins are now only four points out of 8th place. Our next game is on Tuesday, as we host the Colorado Avalanche, winners of their last three.
Some of the game highlights; amazing defence, great goaltending from Joey MacDonald, and another tremendous game from the 4th line (Kessel, Bochenski, and Chistov). I'm beginning to think we have the most dynamic 4th line in the NHL. Kessel and crew were buzzing all night, and the goal scored by Bochenski off the shot by Kessel was a beauty.
There was a play in the third where one of the Devils players was coming in all alone, with only York in his way. York was going to be beat but he made sure that he took out the player instead of allowing the unmolested breakaway. Yes he took a penalty but in my view it was a good one, almost a turning point. Right after that play, Langenbrunner got a double high sticking penalty and it was smooth sailing for the remainder of the game.
My three stars match the game picks:
1) Joey MacDonald (27 of 28 saved)
2) Brandon Bochenski (1g, 1a)
3) Phil Kessel (2a)
Some of the game highlights; amazing defence, great goaltending from Joey MacDonald, and another tremendous game from the 4th line (Kessel, Bochenski, and Chistov). I'm beginning to think we have the most dynamic 4th line in the NHL. Kessel and crew were buzzing all night, and the goal scored by Bochenski off the shot by Kessel was a beauty.
There was a play in the third where one of the Devils players was coming in all alone, with only York in his way. York was going to be beat but he made sure that he took out the player instead of allowing the unmolested breakaway. Yes he took a penalty but in my view it was a good one, almost a turning point. Right after that play, Langenbrunner got a double high sticking penalty and it was smooth sailing for the remainder of the game.
My three stars match the game picks:
1) Joey MacDonald (27 of 28 saved)
2) Brandon Bochenski (1g, 1a)
3) Phil Kessel (2a)
posted by TreeBob at Sunday, March 04, 2007
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7 Comments:
I don't even think you can call Kessel's line the "4th line" anymore, although Lewis may still view them as such. Great game by those guys tonight, and it was the often-maligned Cheese making the smart play to get the goal sequence started.
The D is looking MUCH better after the Flyers fiasco, and I hope this keeps up. York in favor of Allen is a wash IMO, but I was glad to see the ice time distributed a lot more evenly tonight.
Joey Mac. has to be the most famous person to ever come from Pictou.
It's nice to have a two game win streak after dropping three in a row. It's ironic that despite dropping three of their last five, they're closer to the #8 slot than they were before.
I think people read too much into the Bruins lines and the player's ice time. That goes double for the announced lineup. Lewis said he doesn't think in terms of lines so much as in pairs. He pairs Savard and Murry for instance. If you think about it, that gives him the chance to have four strong pairs, and those pairs can be mixed and matched with another player as the situation dictates.
As for ice time, it appears to me that the Lewis strategy is to get ahead and then play the "safe" defensive players like PJ and Donovan, Riech and Mowers. Players that are difficult to play against. Although that clearly doesn't work out as often as he likes, regardless, I think the ice time of a player is a strong function of the game situation.
And how about that Kessel and Buchenski combo? Wow! Kessel just keeps getting better and better.
One last thing: if you project the points for the teams in the hunt for that last spot to the end of the season, which is a way to take games in hand into account, you get Carolina and Toronto at 88 points, and Montreal, our Bruins and the Rangers at 87. Now that's tight!
number4 how are you doing your math on this one? Shouldn't Boston, via the 3 games less played, be 2 points ahead of Carolina? I may be just confused, it happens to me. ;)
It's a simple ratio. The idea is to take the current number of points and divide it by the number of games played. This gives you points per game. Then multiply by the number of games in a season and you get a projection for the final point total based on performace to date.
So for the B's that's:
69/65*82 = 87
Carolina is:
73/68*82 = 88
Of course this doesn't include the B's potential if they win a higher percentage of games in the final stretch. In that case they will end up with a higher point total. For instance if they win all 4 games in hand on Carolina, then what you say makes sense. My numbers are a projection based on performance so far.
But I think it's really good news! The numbers mean that even if the B's continue as they have all season they are still very much in the thick of it. If they do better, they may well get that 8th berth!
One more observation: I think the turning point in the game was when the glass broke. The B's were back on their heels prior to that, but regained their poise during the break while it was being fixed. Maybe the coach noticed this and will use his time outs less conservatively.
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