Flying in under the radar
Last night in the bottom of the 11th as most New Englanders suffered and wondered about their teams World series chances, a group of Boston Bruins prepared to catch a flight home. They would be flying home under the radar as most of the region worried about the teams that play with their respective balls. These puck heads could hold their heads high as they debarked for their own New England homes, they had finally also played with some balls.
The seasons first real milestone has passed and unlike previous seasons where milestones were also marked with disappointment, with this milestone these brewing Bruins could mark the seasons first and only west coast road trip as a positive, the proverbial something to grow upon, not the learning experience to take to heart in hopes of better results next time.
A 3-2 start to the season while most were expecting a 0-5 or 1-4 with the optimists amongst us predicting 2-3, well 3-2 this is more than acceptable after last year. Especially when you see how they lost last year and how they won the last two in this road swing. Giving up late leads is something we had become accustom to. Rallying back and winning these games, well this, this is something good teams do (somebody hit me I just used good and team in reference to the Bruins in the same post!).
Where the team goes from here will depend on how well management and the coaching staff can fix or mediate the issues revealed by these first 5 games. In no particular order.
Face offs, face offs, face offs, they are not winning enough of them.
Offense. If you throw away the LA game as the obvious anomaly that it was, they are scoring at 1.75 goals per game clip- not enough. Struggling to score in part stems from playing some pretty good teams, but is also something that will need to be addressed. The team looks like it can generate chances when it needs to but in the early going seems to stop generating chances once a lead has been garnered. Good teams learn to keep the foot on the pedal while also playing responsibly with the lead.
Manny being Manny, we will need Manny to be a reliable back up to Thomas, especially with his salary hit. How well he adjusts to be being a back-up (or split duty) will be one of the biggest keys to the season.
The Lucic decision, make it before the home opener. No more needs to be seen to decide. Reich and Bochenski are not better options and none are coming up route 95. Give the kid a stall, sign him up long term now, have him sleep at Cam's house, maybe they can bunk together, welcome to Boston Milan. Can you win a face off too?
Nice work boys, keep it up. Tampa Bay Thursday will be a tough game as Tampa has started out hot and has had good performances from their centers Prospal, Lecavalier and Richards with 6, 6, and 4 points respectively in four games.
The seasons first real milestone has passed and unlike previous seasons where milestones were also marked with disappointment, with this milestone these brewing Bruins could mark the seasons first and only west coast road trip as a positive, the proverbial something to grow upon, not the learning experience to take to heart in hopes of better results next time.
A 3-2 start to the season while most were expecting a 0-5 or 1-4 with the optimists amongst us predicting 2-3, well 3-2 this is more than acceptable after last year. Especially when you see how they lost last year and how they won the last two in this road swing. Giving up late leads is something we had become accustom to. Rallying back and winning these games, well this, this is something good teams do (somebody hit me I just used good and team in reference to the Bruins in the same post!).
Where the team goes from here will depend on how well management and the coaching staff can fix or mediate the issues revealed by these first 5 games. In no particular order.
Face offs, face offs, face offs, they are not winning enough of them.
Offense. If you throw away the LA game as the obvious anomaly that it was, they are scoring at 1.75 goals per game clip- not enough. Struggling to score in part stems from playing some pretty good teams, but is also something that will need to be addressed. The team looks like it can generate chances when it needs to but in the early going seems to stop generating chances once a lead has been garnered. Good teams learn to keep the foot on the pedal while also playing responsibly with the lead.
Manny being Manny, we will need Manny to be a reliable back up to Thomas, especially with his salary hit. How well he adjusts to be being a back-up (or split duty) will be one of the biggest keys to the season.
The Lucic decision, make it before the home opener. No more needs to be seen to decide. Reich and Bochenski are not better options and none are coming up route 95. Give the kid a stall, sign him up long term now, have him sleep at Cam's house, maybe they can bunk together, welcome to Boston Milan. Can you win a face off too?
Nice work boys, keep it up. Tampa Bay Thursday will be a tough game as Tampa has started out hot and has had good performances from their centers Prospal, Lecavalier and Richards with 6, 6, and 4 points respectively in four games.
Labels: growing pains, Lucic, Tim Thomas
posted by neb at Sunday, October 14, 2007
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4 Comments:
3-2 Road trip. Tough to call that anything but bad. Are the winds of change really blowing in Boston? Are the Bruins on their way to relevancy and a decent season (and Buddha forbid, a playoff appearance)?
Jake buddy! Nice to see ya.
While yeah it was not the best road trip I certainly would not call it bad. There were positives and negatives and neb was right about how the team is playing now compared to last season.
Now I think it is wrong to say that the way the team is playing now will continue but the fact that they played as well as they did against west coast teams is a good sign. Especially the games against Anaheim and San Jose. Anaheim was theirs if not for 2 bad bounces.
Fernandez may get better but they should be riding Timmy for atleast 3 out of 4 games until such time as he begins to falter. With Timmy hot there is no point in trying to get Fernandez to come around. That was a rambling thought process. oh well.
I don't see how this playoff trip could be seen as bad, no matter how one one looks at it. Maybe that was a typo? Thinking back to this time last year, this team was really struggling. Both goaltenders were awful. They were taking penalty after penalty, their power play sucked as did their kill. Compared to that this team is brilliant.
On the other hand they improved last year and even managed many impressive games and a streak or two. Just enough to raise expectations... Hell, they dominated the Leafs early on. It was downright funny. But then it all fell apart. The question in my mind is, can this team stay in it for the (very) long haul? They have proved they can play consistently over a five game road trip. But can they remain consistent for the rest of the season?
The important thing is the 6 points.
They look anything but dominant, but there is progress being made. I feel a lot better than I did 365 days ago about this team.
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