I’ve got to do something to change the momentum of my Christmas vacation. The Bruins, coming off a stinker of a home-stand, have dropped another game. This is putting me into somewhat of a funk. In the words of Clark Griswold “hallelujah, holy %$^&, where’s the Tylenol?” Hopefully Tom Brady hits the all time single-season TD record today. That might improve my spirits a little bit.
The first period had some decent hockey in it. Alex Auld played with poise and made a few big saves, including an impressive stop on Petr Sykora who fired the puck from the slot area. The Bruins actually killed off a two-man advantage, somehow. I could barely believe what I was seeing during the two-man advantage. The Bruins looked organized, won a key face-off, and they prevented the puck from even entering the zone on more than one occasion. If you don’t believe me, I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t believe me either if I didn’t see it for myself.
P.J. Axelsson scored the period’s lone goal with the assists going to Savard and Chara. A piece of the rink glass fell over off of a solid hit on Matt Hunwick. At least I think it was on Matt Hunwick. I was too busy staring at the glass falling to be sure. One interesting thing about the Mellon Arena is that the back-up goalies sit at the corners of the rink, away from the team benches. It’s interesting but also a little pathetic (when do you see back-up players sitting on a barstool amongst the fans in other sports due to lack of room). The Pens can’t get a new arena soon enough.
The second period was a little livelier in the physicality department. Unfortunately for the Bruins, it was also livelier in the goals department. The Bruins are a really generous team, you know. They take pity on their opponents a lot. For example, upon hearing that Andy Hilbert was struggling to score, they promptly allowed him a goal. When they found out that Luke Richardson hadn’t scored in around a hundred games, they let him pop one in. The Bruins clearly took pity on Gary Roberts and Georges (bonjour les Georges and stuff les Georges into a locker) Laraque because they were nice enough to gift-wrap a couple of lay in goals for them. Jabba the Malkin also scored in the second (on one heck of a nice shot) and the Pens took a two goal lead into the third.
When I said the physicality was lively, I meant a couple of things by this. Firstly, Sobotka was skating around and hitting everything that moved. Secondly, Mark Eaton was injured just because Marco Sturm happened to sweep his feet from under him while bashing him into the boards. Whatever. You know what, Mark Eaton? If you can’t take being slew footed into the boards at breakneck speeds, then you shouldn’t be in this league. After all, Eaton never should’ve allowed himself to be in a position where he could be slew footed by a shady guy like Marco. That line of thinking always makes me think of Grandpa Simpson in the toy store, stomping on toy soldiers while saying “look at these cheap toy soldiers, they break the moment you stomp on them.” Seriously though, what was Sturm thinking?
One funny moment came when Gary Roberts tripped up Marc Savard and was sent to the box for it. The FSN announcers insisted that Roberts made Savard fall over because of his “incredible stick on stick strength.”
The third period was filled with uninspired hockey (on the Bruins’ side of things). George Laraque and Gary Roberts continued to cause the Bruins problems. Crappy defense and uninspired offence were the themes of the third for the black and gold. The Bruins looked like they were just biding their time, waiting for the Christmas break until the final two minutes where they stepped on the gas pedal. Of course if they had played the entire third period that way, who knows how the game would’ve ended up. At no point during the third period did I have any hope remaining that the Bruins would make a comeback, even when Schaefer managed to score in the final minute.
Continuing the theme of Christmas giving, Gary Roberts scored an empty netter on the Bruins to bring the final score to 4-2.
So, in a game where Chara and Laraque failed to make up for their embarrassing display last game and give the fans a do-over, where Andrew Ference looked afraid that Crosby might still want a piece of him, and where the crowd was the loudest when the score to the Cleveland Browns game was announced (at least that’s how it came off on TV), there wasn’t a lot to get excited about if you’re a Bruin fan.
Player evaluations:
Sobotka: Vladimir has been a real good checker and it’s like he keeps getting more physical with every passing game.
Chara: I thought he had a fairly average game. No big gaffes today but he also didn’t impress much.
Wideman: Wideman was on the ice for more than thirty minutes this game. At times he made solid plays like when he stopped Malkin from chipping the puck into the net in the first but Wideman also had some serious defensive issues. He also fired the puck into defending players, causing short-handed chances against, far too often.
Ference: Ference hasn’t been right since the knee sprain. He is letting guys have way too much room with which to operate and he just looks like he’s out of rhythm. For a guy that started the season off with a solid killer instinct, he’s been soft around his own net. I often catch him just staring as the play goes by.
Sturm: All Sturm has to show for his 20 minutes of play today is essentially a cheap shot on Eaton and a slash on Sith Lord Malkin. Sturm has to start finding the net again and not just on empty netters or lucky deflections.
Stuart: Stuart looked strong all game. He had four blocked shots and two official hits and was a plus one. I still don’t understand why he isn’t given more ice time, especially since I think it would help him develop.
Kessel: Kessel hasn’t been producing point wise but at least he’s not giving the puck up as much. Still, Phil really needs to get going here. He seems to be on the outside of the slot far too often and he should be using his skating ability to get himself in and out of the slot quickly so that his line-mates can set him up.
Some observations:
The Bruins are really missing Ward and Murray. Murray has the best shot on the team and the power-play looks a lot better with him threatening in the slot. Ward’s high energy and experience really could’ve come in handy today.
Why is it that the Bruins never seem to deliver a full sixty minute game? It’s so obvious that good things happen when they try hard but we still don’t ever seem to get a full sixty out of them. I think this is something most teams in the NHL can complain about but it’s really frustrating to see your team dog it for 50 minutes and try for 10.
Hopefully the short Christmas break can let the Bruins rest up mentally and physically and come back with a more determined attitude.
-Gerz
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