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TALE OF THE TAPE: 3/14/09 Islanders @ Bruins + My 20 Random Hockey Facts |
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TALE OF THE TAPE
BOSTON BRUINS vs NY ISLANDERS
3/14/09 (1:00PM) at TD BANKNORTH GARDEN
JUST THE FACTS: BOSTON
STANDINGS: 1st in the Eastern Conference (44-16-9, 97pts)
LAST TEN: 4-5-1
STREAK: Won 1
GOALS PER GAME: 3.29 (2nd)
GOALS ALLOWED PER GAME: 2.23 (1st)
PP%: 22.6% (4th)
PK%: 82.1% (12th)
JUST THE FACTS: NYI
STANDINGS: 15th in the Eastern Conference (23-37-8, 54pts)
LAST TEN: 6-2-2
STREAK: Won 1
GOALS PER GAME: 2.47 (28th)
GOALS ALLOWED PER GAME: 3.18 (27th)
PP%: 16.8% (21st)
PK%: 82.5% (10th)
TEAM LEADERS: BOSTON
GOALS: Phil Kessel (29)
ASSISTS: Marc Savard (54)
POINTS: Marc Savard (75)
PIM: Steve Montador (125)
+/-: David Krejci, Dennis Wideman (+33)
WINS: Tim Thomas (29)
GAA: Tim Thomas (2.08)
TEAM LEADERS: NYI
GOALS: Kyle Okposo (16)
ASSISTS: Mark Streit (36)
POINTS: Mark Streit (48)
PIM: Tim Jackman (131)
+/-: Mark Streit, Dean McAmmond (+7)
WINS: Joey MacDonald (13)
GAA: Yann Danis (2.41)
ON A ROLL: BOSTON
Phil Kessel: 5g in last 10gp
Patrice Bergeron: 2-6-8 (+3) in last 9gp
Chuck Kobasew: 8g in last 15gp
ON A ROLL: NYI
Sean Bergenheim: 7g in last 9gp
Kyle Okposo: 4g in last 4gp
Yann Danis: Has allowed 2g or less in 7 of last 8 starts
ICE COLD: BOSTON
Blake Wheeler: 0 points in last 6gp
Andrew Ference: 0-0-0 (-6) in last 3gp
ICE COLD: NYI
Andy Hilbert: 0g in last 13gp
Joey MacDonald: 3+ goals allowed in 6 of last 7 starts
RECENT/UPCOMING GAMES: BOSTON
3/8: 4-3 LOSS @ Rangers
3/10: 2-0 LOSS @ Blue Jackets
3/12: 5-3 WIN vs. Senators
3/15: @ Penguins
3/19: vs. Kings
RECENT/UPCOMING GAMES: NYI
3/8: 3-2 WIN vs. Coyotes
3/10: 3-2 LOSS (OT) @ Maple Leafs
3/12: 3-2 WIN @ Canadiens
3/15: @ Blackhawks
3/20: @ Hurricanes
10 OBSCURE STATS
1. Mark Streit leads the Isles with 25:10 of ice time per game.
2. Streit, +7, never finished w/ a positive +/- in his first three NHL seasons in Montreal.
3. Brendan Witt is a team worst -32 on the year.
4. Witt is also sporting a 0.0 S%, failing to find twine on his first 39 attempts.
5. Former Bruin Andy Hilbert, still just 28, has a career best 10g this season.
6. Former Bruin Nate Thompson is the only healthy center with a faceoff W% above 50% (50.2%)
7. The Islanders win .154% (29th) of their games when trailing first.
8. On average, NYI allows 33.4 shots per game (2nd most)
9. The Isles have a league high 710 takeaways, "518" of which have come at home.
10. The Islanders as a team have won 45.8% of their faceoffs (29th).
ENTIRELY RANDOM INFORMATION ABOUT TODAY'S OPPONENT
* Yann Danis, who went undrafted, had a 1.86 GAA and .942 Sv% in his senior season at Brown University.
* During his two seasons at the University of Minnesota, Kyle Okposo was a teammate of Bruins' rookie Blake Wheeler. Okposo was 2nd on the team in scoring during his freshman season with 19-21-40 totals in 40 games.
* Andy Hilbert, Freddy Meyer and Rick DiPietro were all teammates on the U.S. Jr. National Team in 1998-1999. In 1999-2000, Meyer and DiPietro reunited at Boston University.
* In 2002, Dean McAmmond was packaged with Jeff Shantz and Derek Morris and sent from Calgary to Colorado in exchange for Chris Drury and Bruins' center Stephane Yelle.
* Less than 6 months after the trade, McAmmond was shipped back to the Flames for a 5th round pick.
* The Avalanche used the pick on Mark McCutcheon a center. McCutcheon was a teammate of Bruins' forward Byron Bitz during all four seasons of his collegiate career at Cornell.
KEYS TO VICTORY FOR THE BRUINS
1. Remember that the game starts at 1:00pm. If you want to prove you can play a full 60 minutes, coming out of the gate strong is just as important as finishing in the same fashion.
2. Score 1st. Cause if you do...statistics say the Isles are pretty much cooked when that happens.
3. Don't underestimate the Isles. They're 6-2-2 in the last ten and Danis has been spectacular. The Bruins can't afford to get complacent at any point.
4. Fire away. The Isles allow the second most shots on goal per game so there is no reason why the Bruins can't generate some quality chances. Throw a lot of rubber Danis' way. The more shots the merrier.
5. Manny Fernandez. Last weekend I bet on Fernandez getting the start on Saturday with another matinee on tap Sunday. Well, I was wrong, but I'm making the same wager with the Penguins looming Sunday. All I ask is for him to not do anything to LOSE the game. He certainly doesn't need to steal one, but just play a positionally sound, focused 60 (+) minutes and I'll be a happy camper.
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As many of you have seen, Eklund recently generated an extremely entertaining thread, asking readers and bloggers alike to post 20 random hockey facts about themselves. So assuming you didn't find my reply buried among the other 1000 or so posts, I figured (as Jon Jordan and possibly other writers have done) I'd share mine with you:
1. The first hockey game I can actually remember going to was at the Fleet Center in 1997, a matinee the day after Thanksgiving between the Bruins and Canucks. Joe Thornton, then a rookie, got in his first NHL fight. The Bruins lost 5-2 but hey, I can still tell people that I saw Big Joe's first fight (it may have been against Dave Scatchard, I'm too lazy to look it up).
2. I once, in frustration, broke my goalie stick in half and hurled the remaining shaft over 200 feet into a nearby lake while playing street hockey. I immediately regretted it.
3. Byron Dafoe was my favorite player growing up (no matter how much you may insist he consistently sucked during third periods).
4. Jarome Iginla is easily my favorite non-Bruin.
5. My Dad, as many of you know, won the 7th player Award in high school.
6. Former Bruins' defenseman Don Sweeney once literally ran into me in the men's room at the Liberty Tree Mall movie theater in Danvers. It was just hours after the Bruins were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention so I hadn't a clue what to say.
7. I sold a router to Dave Lewis the day after the Bruins had one of their few wins during his stint as Head Coach in Boston. I failed to tell him what an awful coach he was and how he nearly ruined this organization.
8. I didn't realize until visiting the Hockey Hall of Fame that Mexico had a hockey team. I have photographic proof if you do not believe me.
9. I was never more embarrassed as a hockey fan as when I told the lady at the hair salon "Hey, that's a really cool picture of Joe Thornton!" ...It was Hal Gill. I got glasses shortly thereafter.
10. Since my David Krejci jersey arrived in the mail in early February, he has gone from being the hottest player in the NHL to one of the most invisible. Whoops.
11. I was a big time Rangers fan for a while there as a kid. I'm not sure why, but I think the names Messier, Graves, Gretzky, Leetch, Beukeboom and Richter had a lot to do with it.
12. When I was 14 I recognized PJ Axelsson while at Macy's in Peabody. I made my family follow him around and forced my Dad to verify my sighting while my sister and I hid behind a clothes rack. PJ couldn't have been any friendlier. He scored an OT winner a few days later.
13. I was once lucky enough to sit in the front row at a game against Buffalo. Unfortunately Dafoe and Martin Biron both posted goose eggs and I got to see one of, if not THE last 0-0 tie in Bruins' history.
14. I once got knocked out and bloodied while playing street hockey. The assailant? Our air conditioner. The location? My driveway. My opponent for the day? Our garage door. I will keep my head up the next time I go chasing after a rolling ball while wearing rollerblades.
15. I always create myself in every NHL video game as a small speedy right-handed LW, with a 99 rating for every attribute (you were guilty of doing it too) while wearing #17. I'm much happier feeling represented by Lucic in that particular number than former Bruin Rob Zamuner or anyone else who has worn #17 in my lifetime.
16. Julie Robenhymer once saved my life at my first game covering the Bruins for hockeybuzz as I nearly made the fatal mistake of stepping on the sacred spoked-B on the carpet of the B's locker room. Thanks Jules!
17. I have never smelled a more foul stench than while in the visitors locker room during a summer tour of the (then) Fleet Center back in 8th grade. When I say the place wreaked, I truly mean it.
18. While at a Bruins game, I made sure I would have a shot at the 50/50 raffle by buying a ticket from every color available: red, white and blue. The winning ticket was green. It's true when they say life isn't fair.
19. I was in attendance for Mario Lemieux's first game back in Boston after his initial retirement and also present for Sidney Crosby's first game in Boston during his rookie season.
20. Jim Craig, the winning goaltender for the 1980 US Olympic Squad, was the speaker at my graduation from Lynn English High School in 2003.
Should be a good one this afternoon at the Garden against Gordon's Isles squad. If you guys feel like sharing some of YOUR random hockey facts, I'd love to hear them. I'll be back tonight with a post-game recap of game #70 of the season. Is this year flying by or what?
JC
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