Ty Anderson: Bruins fall to Wings; Zdeno Chara update

Is Vatrano legitimately challenging for a spot? He looked good with Spooner and Hayes. Better than Connolly has. Krug, Morrow and CMiller continue to look awesome too. We might actually have a dangerous/exciting blueline this year

Marchand Bergy Eriksson
Belesky Krejci Pasta
Connolly/Vatrano Spooner Hayes
Kelly Kempainen Rinaldo/Talbot

Chara CMiller
Krug Trotman
Morrow McQuaid
Irwin KMiller

Rask
Smith

That's my guess for opening night, I like it. Someone's gonna have to get traded though I feel like.

Is Vatrano legitimately challenging for a spot? He looked good with Spooner and Hayes. Better than Connolly has. Krug, Morrow and CMiller continue to look awesome too. We might actually have a dangerous/exciting blueline this year

Marchand Bergy Eriksson
Belesky Krejci Pasta
Connolly/Vatrano Spooner Hayes
Kelly Kempainen Rinaldo/Talbot

Chara CMiller
Krug Trotman
Morrow McQuaid
Irwin KMiller

Rask
Smith

That's my guess for opening night, I like it. Someone's gonna have to get traded though I feel like.
- Shaundre93

This preseason is killing me, either can't find a feed for streaming, or the feed is choppy and blurry without a play by play. It was like watching a foreign music video on mute while hammered last night.

I think just to save face on the trade Connolly makes the team by default. And unless they're trading Talbot, I don't think there's anyone they'd ship out. Although I did have a dream that they traded Marchand, Erikson, and some prospects for a 3rd round pick... Foreshadowing?

This preseason is killing me, either can't find a feed for streaming, or the feed is choppy and blurry without a play by play. It was like watching a foreign music video on mute while hammered last night.

I think just to save face on the trade Connolly makes the team by default. And unless they're trading Talbot, I don't think there's anyone they'd ship out. Although I did have a dream that they traded Marchand, Erikson, and some prospects for a 3rd round pick... Foreshadowing?
- Videoj

Haha, yeah, its a little awkward watching the game on mute but its better than nothing.

And I've thought this whole time Connolly was a shoe in for the roster. Vatrano looked awesome last night though and brings basically the same skills. I'm loving the competition this camp

Haha, yeah, its a little awkward watching the game on mute but its better than nothing.

And I've thought this whole time Connolly was a shoe in for the roster. Vatrano looked awesome last night though and brings basically the same skills. I'm loving the competition this camp
- Shaundre93

I remember thinking Vatrano would become a decent roster player, if nothing else at least he'll put a fire under Connolly. Competition can only help any laziness.

I was at the game last night, and was a bit confused by the goalie interference play Ty mentioned. When I saw the replay I got all psyched because I thought, okay here we go... coaches challenge! But they didn't announce anything at the arena about the play being under review, or that there was a coaches challenge or anything... and I definitely didn't see the red flag come out of Julien's sock and get tossed on the ice. I believe the referees were just in front of the benches talking to the coaches the whole time, and I got the vibe that they were saying it wasn't able to be challenged for some reason. In Julien's quote he mentions "My instinct was to challenge that had I had an opportunity to." Also, the Bruins used a time out in the 3rd period, which they would have lost if they lost the coaches challenge... correct?

I agree with you, for all the uncertainty I think the D looks good.

They're only going to carry 7 D which unfortunatly either Morrow or C Miller might be sent down.

Is Vatrano legitimately challenging for a spot? He looked good with Spooner and Hayes. Better than Connolly has. Krug, Morrow and CMiller continue to look awesome too. We might actually have a dangerous/exciting blueline this year

Marchand Bergy Eriksson
Belesky Krejci Pasta
Connolly/Vatrano Spooner Hayes
Kelly Kempainen Rinaldo/Talbot

Chara CMiller
Krug Trotman
Morrow McQuaid
Irwin KMiller

Rask
Smith

That's my guess for opening night, I like it. Someone's gonna have to get traded though I feel like.
- Shaundre93

I remember thinking Vatrano would become a decent roster player, if nothing else at least he'll put a fire under Connolly. Competition can only help any laziness.
- Videoj

Yeah I can't see Connolly getting put on the back burner for Vatrano... and if the team is going to be carrying 8 defenseman, I would guess they would use the last roster spot for a center? I would say Kemppainen looks pretty good, and I wouldn't mind seeing him center the 4th line.

Someone mentioned it in a previous blog, but I thought Beleskey was pretty much a ghost last night. He had the one play crashing the net where he almost put his face into the crossbar, and the other play on a stretch pass where he just couldn't get to the puck for the breakaway. Other than that he seemed to just cruise around all night... I wasn't too impressed. Hopefully he steps it up if he's going to be playing 1st line minutes.

Other than that I thought Morrow looked pretty bad last night actually, I remember seeing a few bad plays and looking to see who it was afterwards only to be revealed that it was #45. But admittedly, when watching a game live, there's a lot of stuff that goes on that you don't see, so I could have just been paying attention to him at his worst moments.

Colin Miller looked pretty good, but he still looks young and inexperienced... He made some plays that I just sort of scratched my head at. Also ever after he landed that wicked hip check in the first game, he's tried it in every game since and totally whiffed on the dude allowing him to carry the puck into the zone, so that's a bit of a bummer. I hope either he starts landing those consistently, or changes up his methods. I love seeing that hip check land though.

Overall it was a pretty weak game by the B's... with most of their NHL lineup playing, they looked flat and couldn't get anything going offensively in the first period. Hopefully it's not a sign of things to come

Yeah I can't see Connolly getting put on the back burner for Vatrano... and if the team is going to be carrying 8 defenseman, I would guess they would use the last roster spot for a center? I would say Kemppainen looks pretty good, and I wouldn't mind seeing him center the 4th line.

Someone mentioned it in a previous blog, but I thought Beleskey was pretty much a ghost last night. He had the one play crashing the net where he almost put his face into the crossbar, and the other play on a stretch pass where he just couldn't get to the puck for the breakaway. Other than that he seemed to just cruise around all night... I wasn't too impressed. Hopefully he steps it up if he's going to be playing 1st line minutes.

Other than that I thought Morrow looked pretty bad last night actually, I remember seeing a few bad plays and looking to see who it was afterwards only to be revealed that it was #45. But admittedly, when watching a game live, there's a lot of stuff that goes on that you don't see, so I could have just been paying attention to him at his worst moments.

Colin Miller looked pretty good, but he still looks young and inexperienced... He made some plays that I just sort of scratched my head at. Also ever after he landed that wicked hip check in the first game, he's tried it in every game since and totally whiffed on the dude allowing him to carry the puck into the zone, so that's a bit of a bummer. I hope either he starts landing those consistently, or changes up his methods. I love seeing that hip check land though.

Overall it was a pretty weak game by the B's... with most of their NHL lineup playing, they looked flat and couldn't get anything going offensively in the first period. Hopefully it's not a sign of things to come

- mixturebill

Hard for me to judge, because other than the weak blurry feeds from atdhe last night, I have only seen highlights. If Connolly is this stale, that is quite upsetting, but he was a risk coming in. If Kempainnen is doing that well, and Belesky isn't, I'm wondering if they're willing to really shake things up and move spooner to the wing? Something like

Spooner-Krejci-Pasta
Marchand-Bergeron-Erikson
Belesky-Kempainnen- Hayes
Connolly-Kelly-Rinaldo
Talbot?

Again, haven't seen much of anything, But Talbot's name doesn't seem to come up...

Yeah I can't see Connolly getting put on the back burner for Vatrano... and if the team is going to be carrying 8 defenseman, I would guess they would use the last roster spot for a center? I would say Kemppainen looks pretty good, and I wouldn't mind seeing him center the 4th line.

Someone mentioned it in a previous blog, but I thought Beleskey was pretty much a ghost last night. He had the one play crashing the net where he almost put his face into the crossbar, and the other play on a stretch pass where he just couldn't get to the puck for the breakaway. Other than that he seemed to just cruise around all night... I wasn't too impressed. Hopefully he steps it up if he's going to be playing 1st line minutes.

Other than that I thought Morrow looked pretty bad last night actually, I remember seeing a few bad plays and looking to see who it was afterwards only to be revealed that it was #45. But admittedly, when watching a game live, there's a lot of stuff that goes on that you don't see, so I could have just been paying attention to him at his worst moments.

Colin Miller looked pretty good, but he still looks young and inexperienced... He made some plays that I just sort of scratched my head at. Also ever after he landed that wicked hip check in the first game, he's tried it in every game since and totally whiffed on the dude allowing him to carry the puck into the zone, so that's a bit of a bummer. I hope either he starts landing those consistently, or changes up his methods. I love seeing that hip check land though.

Overall it was a pretty weak game by the B's... with most of their NHL lineup playing, they looked flat and couldn't get anything going offensively in the first period. Hopefully it's not a sign of things to come

- mixturebill

Good info. I'm betting that some of these O-defensemen may need to adjust to the speed of the NHL game. So it could take some time for them to understand the passes and pinches you make, to the ones you don't make.

We probably don't notice it with the "stay at home" D-men because they are not making those riskier passes or trying to join the rush as often.

These kids are going to make some mistakes, every rookie does, we should just hope they all learn from them and hopefully, they all make them this year so we can continue to build to the future.

EDIT: Wonder how long they keep the Spooner with Connolly and Hayes mess together?

I may be in the small minority here but I wouldn't mind seeing a bunch of guys packaged up and shipped away to a team like the leafs or Devils who've made it know they want to get younger. I think we could afford to ship off Connolly, Koko, Kevan Miller, talbot(just becuase) and Jeremy Smith. all in one monster deal for someone like JVR (just an example) or even break it down for some picks. I think we missed the boat on moving seidenberg. I think we could even stand to move on from trotman as C Miller and Morrow have way more upside, even without a body in return we could still ice a pretty decent looking group.

Marchand- bergeron- Eriksson
Belesky-Krejci-Pasta
Griffith-Spooner-Hayes
Kelly-Kempainnen-Rinaldo
Ferlin/Vitrano

Chara- C Miller
Krug- Trotman
Morrow-Mcquaid
Irwin/Seids

Rask
Gustavson

Well there goes the thought of Vatrano making the team. However, I'm a little confused at the recalls. Why did Sweeney bring back 3 players?

I may be in the small minority here but I wouldn't mind seeing a bunch of guys packaged up and shipped away to a team like the leafs or Devils who've made it know they want to get younger. I think we could afford to ship off Connolly, Koko, Kevan Miller, talbot(just becuase) and Jeremy Smith. all in one monster deal for someone like JVR (just an example) or even break it down for some picks. I think we missed the boat on moving seidenberg. I think we could even stand to move on from trotman as C Miller and Morrow have way more upside, even without a body in return we could still ice a pretty decent looking group.

Marchand- bergeron- Eriksson
Belesky-Krejci-Pasta
Griffith-Spooner-Hayes
Kelly-Kempainnen-Rinaldo
Ferlin/Vitrano

Chara- C Miller
Krug- Trotman
Morrow-Mcquaid
Irwin/Seids

Rask
Gustavson
- Burnsy613

The other ELEPHANT in the room this season will be Ericksson.

Is he in the Bs future? If so at what price? If we are a borderline playoff team, do we trade him or hold him?

Ericksson could fetch a sweet haul. I know many Bs fans don't think he is that great, but his "two-way" play would be HUGE for a team like Edm, Dal, Win, etc.

I wonder if the Bs have even approached him on what his thoughts on a contract are.........$4.5-5.5 for 4-5 years?

Ty Anderson: Bruins fall to Wings; Zdeno Chara update
- tyanderson

Any chance the B's sign the Monster to be the back up?

The other ELEPHANT in the room this season will be Ericksson.

Is he in the Bs future? If so at what price? If we are a borderline playoff team, do we trade him or hold him?

Ericksson could fetch a sweet haul. I know many Bs fans don't think he is that great, but his "two-way" play would be HUGE for a team like Edm, Dal, Win, etc.

I wonder if the Bs have even approached him on what his thoughts on a contract are.........$4.5-5.5 for 4-5 years?
- JIwasinskiJr

I agree that people undervalue him, especially due to him being the return for the Seguin trade. But at 5 million for a multi-year deal, I would opt to keep him around for the future. Him and March and Bergy is possibly the best 2nd line/two-way line in the league.

I agree that people undervalue him, especially due to him being the return for the Seguin trade. But at 5 million for a multi-year deal, I would opt to keep him around for the future. Him and March and Bergy is possibly the best 2nd line/two-way line in the league.
- Videoj

If the Bruins pay Loui Eriksson $5 million a year then they (frank)ed up BIG TIME.

I may be in the small minority here but I wouldn't mind seeing a bunch of guys packaged up and shipped away to a team like the leafs or Devils who've made it know they want to get younger. I think we could afford to ship off Connolly, Koko, Kevan Miller, talbot(just becuase) and Jeremy Smith. all in one monster deal for someone like JVR (just an example) or even break it down for some picks. I think we missed the boat on moving seidenberg. I think we could even stand to move on from trotman as C Miller and Morrow have way more upside, even without a body in return we could still ice a pretty decent looking group.

Marchand- bergeron- Eriksson
Belesky-Krejci-Pasta
Griffith-Spooner-Hayes
Kelly-Kempainnen-Rinaldo
Ferlin/Vitrano

Chara- C Miller
Krug- Trotman
Morrow-Mcquaid
Irwin/Seids

Rask
Gustavson
- Burnsy613

I like the way you're thinking. I really would like to see Connolly play with the team, but I'm not expecting anything GREAT from him, so I would be okay with moving him out. Koko I think is done here, so he's as good as gone in my eyes, and everyone agrees K Miller is McQuaid Jr. so if they already wrapped up McQuaid then maybe we could move on for him to. I like Talbot on that 4th line though... I wouldn't mind seeing him stick around, though the pieces are there to replace him if they shipped him out. I think putting together a package to get one "star" would be what I would like to see. It certainly seems like they have the proper prospects/picks to make it happen.

I agree that people undervalue him, especially due to him being the return for the Seguin trade. But at 5 million for a multi-year deal, I would opt to keep him around for the future. Him and March and Bergy is possibly the best 2nd line/two-way line in the league.
- Videoj

I think at his age we'd be foolish to sign him to anything other than a 4 yr 16 M deal. he's no where near his old scoring but offers some different elements. but the B's are desperatly in need for a 30+ goal scoring winger and should look to invest their money into some offense for the moment.

still too early to tell...

I may be in the small minority here but I wouldn't mind seeing a bunch of guys packaged up and shipped away to a team like the leafs or Devils who've made it know they want to get younger. I think we could afford to ship off Connolly, Koko, Kevan Miller, talbot(just becuase) and Jeremy Smith. all in one monster deal for someone like JVR (just an example) or even break it down for some picks. I think we missed the boat on moving seidenberg. I think we could even stand to move on from trotman as C Miller and Morrow have way more upside, even without a body in return we could still ice a pretty decent looking group.

Marchand- bergeron- Eriksson
Belesky-Krejci-Pasta
Griffith-Spooner-Hayes
Kelly-Kempainnen-Rinaldo
Ferlin/Vitrano

Chara- C Miller
Krug- Trotman
Morrow-Mcquaid
Irwin/Seids

Rask
Gustavson
- Burnsy613

If the Bruins pay Loui Eriksson $5 million a year then they (frank)ed up BIG TIME.
- mixturebill

Erik was what 2nd last year in scoring? Sure if Krejci was healthy he would have beat him, and perhaps Marchand will this year, But with an inflating cap, big money coming off the books in the next three years. (Kelly, Chara, Seids) and with Krejci and Bergeron signed for a while (and Belesky and Hayes signed for good money depending on how they develop) Erikson and Marchand are the only two big name forwards that need to be handled sooner rather than later. Erikson has two seasons with the Bruins, and one he was basically concussed the entire time . 22 goals, 27 assists. You really don't think he's worth 5 million as a top 6 winger that can play either side, PK and PP?

For what it's worth, I see Erik, March, and Bergy all getting in the 50-60 point range. 5 million for 4 or 5 years for a 20-25 goal scorer sounds good to me. Hell, we paid Belesky 4 million for ONE 20 goal season. And Erik is only in his twenties!

Erik was what 2nd last year in scoring? Sure if Krejci was healthy he would have beat him, and perhaps Marchand will this year, But with an inflating cap, big money coming off the books in the next three years. (Kelly, Chara, Seids) and with Krejci and Bergeron signed for a while (and Belesky and Hayes signed for good money depending on how they develop) Erikson and Marchand are the only two big name forwards that need to be handled sooner rather than later. Erikson has two seasons with the Bruins, and one he was basically concussed the entire time . 22 goals, 27 assists. You really don't think he's worth 5 million as a top 6 winger that can play either side, PK and PP?

For what it's worth, I see Erik, March, and Bergy all getting in the 50-60 point range. 5 million for 4 or 5 years for a 20-25 goal scorer sounds good to me. Hell, we paid Belesky 4 million for ONE 20 goal season. And Erik is only in his twenties!
- Videoj

Ahhhhh it's tough... my kneejerk reaction was to go right to the direct comparison of Seguin at $5.75 million for the Stars and Loui at $5 million for us, and damn.... that deal SUCKS. But when looking at the other players in the $5 million range, I guess there's not many I would want more than Loui.

The free agent class (if they all make it to free agency, which they won't) is looking pretty good for 2016. There's some guys on that list I wouldn't mind the Bruins kicking the tires on. So it's tough to say... I'd like him for less, but I wouldn't hate it at $5mil.

Ahhhhh it's tough... my kneejerk reaction was to go right to the direct comparison of Seguin at $5.75 million for the Stars and Loui at $5 million for us, and damn.... that deal SUCKS. But when looking at the other players in the $5 million range, I guess there's not many I would want more than Loui.

The free agent class (if they all make it to free agency, which they won't) is looking pretty good for 2016. There's some guys on that list I wouldn't mind the Bruins kicking the tires on. So it's tough to say... I'd like him for less, but I wouldn't hate it at $5mil.
- mixturebill

Yeah, and I mean Seguin was a salary shed (along with Peverly) at the time an Erikson is/was underpaid compared to most guys. Seguin will get 8 million when his contract is over. Erik at 4 or 4.5 would be amazing. But anything under 5.5 works for me. I think he has so much upside, and can score 30 again if he stays with Bergy (or Krej)

Yeah, and I mean Seguin was a salary shed (along with Peverly) at the time an Erikson is/was underpaid compared to most guys. Seguin will get 8 million when his contract is over. Erik at 4 or 4.5 would be amazing. But anything under 5.5 works for me. I think he has so much upside, and can score 30 again if he stays with Bergy (or Krej)
- Videoj

Now if all the media would stop pushing all the BS of "is he Bruin's enough" he might actually want to sign and stay, if not maybe he wants out of BOS as fast as his legs can take him.

I would easily pay 25-27M over 5 years for Loui without questioning it twice.

Now if all the media would stop pushing all the BS of "is he Bruin's enough" he might actually want to sign and stay, if not maybe he wants out of BOS as fast as his legs can take him.

I would easily pay 25-27M over 5 years for Loui without questioning it twice.
- MrBeanTown

I think they should try to extend him now before the season starts. 25-35 +20 is super realistic and he's gonna get PAID if he does that. But yeah 5x5 would be solid

Any chance the B's sign the Monster to be the back up?
- tomburton99

That'll be decided tonight. IMO they should sign him either way, as Jeremy smith is no upgrade on svedberg from last year, who was not good enough.

Also Gustavsson could be a guy that pushes Rask, whereas smith will likely be fine with just being the backup