Dear Marc Savard,
Welcome to the NHL playoffs! After waiting 10 years and playing in 659 regular season games (a league record for players with zero playoff experience), you’re finally here. You took a cheap cross checking penalty in March up in Montreal that left you with a broken bone in your back. Many of us feared, if we made the playoffs, we’d have another Joe Thornton-like dilemma on our hands like we did in the 2004 1st round series vs. the Habs (Thornton, playing with a cracked rib, failed to put up a single point). But look at you Savvy, coming to the rescue.
You got your feet wet in game one as you worked your way back up to speed following a seven game absence. In game two, you started to look like the Savvy of old, creating chances in the offensive zone, thanks in large part to your stellar awareness and crisp tape-to-tape passes. In game three, despite the fact you’re still hopping over the boards with Glen Murray for every shift (huge heart, great leader, but headed for the junk yard soon) you managed to set up the first tally (fired home by Milan Lucic, newcomer to the top line).
Then as we all know, you joined the play in overtime as the extra skater on a delayed penalty and Wideman dished you the puck. You sent the Garden into a frenzy (and sent me sprinting into the break room at work, in the midst of a 14 hour shift, to catch the replay). You buried the puck, and brought this team back to life. You have been nothing but a godsend since the Bruins signed you and Big Z in the summer of 2006, and we’d be nowhere without you. You’ve waited your entire career for this opportunity. No one deserves to shine in the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs, when it matters most, more than you.
Jesse Connolly
THE NUMBERS GAME
Despite the fact I majored in English during my tenure at college, I’ve always been a big statistics guy. I figured I’d share some enlightening numbers on how clutch Joe Thornton simply isn’t come playoff time. I wanted to compare him to someone who had been in the league for a significant amount of time, but was not a renown scorer. I decided on Georges Laraque. Kudos to the Internet Hockey Database for the following information:
JOE THORNTON – 752 regular season games, 240 goals, 125 points in 2005-2006
GEORGES LARAQUE – 634 regular season games, 52 goals, zero 30+ point seasons
JOE THORNTON – 3 goals in his last 32 playoff games
GEORGES LARAQUE – 3 goals in his last 27 playoff games
JOE THORNTON – Art Ross and Hart Trophy winner, extraordinary in regular season
GEORGES LARAQUE – Can boast he turns into Joe Thornton in the postseason
Ouch. Well that’s all for me today. I’ll be heading into Boston tonight with my Dad for game 4. Time to tie this series up!
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