The Ditch part deux

Bruins are tough to figure out. They have all of the pieces but they haven't all been working well at the same time very often. They've played complacent hockey for a while now and it seems like they're under the impression that they'll be able to turn it on when they want. that didn't work out real well for them last year and probably won't this year. but here goes....

F
Up front the only real high performance consistency (sounds like a luxury automobile term) they have is Bergeron and Marchand to a lesser degree. That line w/ Seguin on the right is one of the better all around lines in the league. They don't score as often as they probably should but their puck possession and +/- is phenomenal. Then there was the former 1st line of Bigfat-Krejci-Horton. Bigfat was playing......well, too big and fat and was demoted. He has come back and was paired w/ Krejci again recently and I think thats what Claude will stick w/ for Weds night for better or worse. Horton has been out since fighting Iginla, looked like a broken hand or knuckle. No timetable there and thats a big loss because he can really help control the flow out there and has the knack for scoring timely goals. Not sure who he fills that line out w/. Chris Kelly is a poor man's Bergereon and is the kind of player that every coach in this league would want on their roster. Peverley has completely lost his way and should probably be a healthy scratch. Jagr has been better than had I anticipated but they haven't been able to pair him w/ anyone that works well with him consistently. He'll probably play w/ Kelly and the one-eyed angry Swede. So Soderberg has been alright, the move to the smaller ice has had him out of position regularly and he gets beat off the puck sometimes by smaller players. Hes a big meaty dude out there though. Paille and Cambell are pretty consistent 4th line high energy guys. Shawn thornton??? ehhhh, Im not a fan of goons in the playoffs but he was sat in 2011 and coincidentally the team went on the run after he was back in the lineup. Question marks abound up front.

D
Chara hasn't been great this season. Not sure if he's taking it as a marathon as opposed to a sprint but he needs to step it up if this team expects to make a serious run. Seidenberg is built for playoff hockey, Im not worried about him. Mcquaid has been a shell of himself since coming back from his latest injury, they need his sandpaper badly back there. Not a Boychuk fan, he seems to just get lucky out there all game long. He hustles but shouldn't have to as much if he was more sound positionally. Redden seems like a solid #6 guy. Ference is one of the only guys that can skate the puck up ice but he gets tossed around in the D zone. He's another battle tested guy though so I think that he'll be ok. Then there's Dougie, a healthy scratch over the past week or 2. I understand resting him because he's played more hockey than anyone else on this tea,m and he's only a kid but I feel strongly that he should not only dress for the playoffs but play top 4 minutes including #1pp. The kid has amazing gap control and is so strong defensively. One thing that might hurt him come playoff time is his knack to pinch offensively, just not really how CJ's teams operate. Give me Hamilton over Redden and Boychuk all day.

G
think Boston will never be at a disadvantage in net.


Bruins are constructed for the tighter hard hitting more clutch n grab playoff hockey but this team seems to have lost its identity. Currnetly not as confident in them as Ive been over the past 3 or 4 seasons

 

Catch that Cutter?

 

I still loved the spin-o-rama.

I was wondering if he's losing a step because of age or if the compressed schedule hit him a bit. The "marathon approach" makes sense.

I wish I watched more Boston games. I'm always reluctant to watch a rookie getting top 4 minutes at the blueline in a big game. Hamilton looks (from what I've seen) like he's going to excellent for a whole bunch of years, I still cringe at putting a rookie dman out there with big responsibility. I haven't seen Hamilton or Boychuk enough to have an opinion. Redden is a 6 or 7 and nothing more, but he's good there.

 

what am I supposed to catch?

maybe if Thornton got more ice time that wouldnt have happened. not sure how it happened but Horton cant fight anyways, hes a free swinger and has poor balance. Iginla is tough even at his advanced age. If this is supposed to be in any way an argument against fighting its pretty weak

 

well, u can't give 5 stars, so you'll have to settle for a single thumbs up.

 

Do you know why Thornton is out? (insert Bettman laugh here).

I'm sure Bruin fans are happy he fought.
It's more to support my point about how the overwhelming majority of fights do nothing to make the NHL product better and how they don't make a team more likely to win anything. I can appreciate good players like Horton and Iginla fighting.

 

That's not a bass!

 

that's nice. now tell someone who cares

 

Tommorow night:


Chicago vs Minnesota 8 pm


Detroit vs Anaheim 10 30 pm



Good Luck.

 

I'm stockpiling foil.

Which player makes the dirtiest hit first?
Which teams paid the officials enough?

 

I'm stockpiling foil.

Which player makes the dirtiest hit first?
Which teams paid the officials enough?

FOIL? better bring some Kevlar if you want to sit in on the Pens glog. better yet, just lock yourself in a lead box. apparently, that's effective for kryptonite too.

Dirtiest Hit: go with the usual suspects - Cooke, Chara or any other Boston player for that matter.
Who Gots Paid? well, the Islanders are in the playoffs for the second time in 20 years... 'nuff sed!

 

Dirtiest hit - Chara?

come on now. Chara? is this from the Max Pacioretty hit? not sure about any other 'dirty' hit from Chara throughout his career and that hit wasn't as bad as advertised. Matt Cooke and Zdeno Chara are not in the same stratosphere.


Lulz, I forget about St Looch. Funny.

 

me too. the way he trains is well documented but age will eventually catch up. we will see.


As for the Hamilton/rookie thing, Id rather have Dougie in there learning from mistakes made on the job than a Boychuk or Redden doing their best to minimize their many mistakes. Sure a rookie can learn from watching the game from above but the learning curve will be quicker if its from actual game play. I understand your point but in my opinion, in this specific scenario, Id rather have him in there. Doesn't matter what i think because Claude will probably agree w/ you.

 

uh-oh, looks like i ruffled the fur of a Broon. i'll change my pick to PK Subban... happy? <waits for Mercury to respond>

 

i do agree with Matty on the Hamilton move. i think Redden has some value on both sides of the ice (like Hamilton), where Boychuk... i don't know what that guy is doing anymore. he seems to be fading into oblivion. even though Hamilton is a youngster, he doesn't make a lot of big mistakes. he's gonna be a good one for a long time.

 

Down goes Brown has their playoff preview. The captions for the pictures are excellent.
My favorite quote:

Western conference:
http://www.downgoesbrown.com/2013/04/nhl-playoff-preview-western-conference.html

Favorite quote from the EC preview:

http://www.downgoesbrown.com/2013/04/eastern-conference-playoff-preview.html

I liked the caption for the Bruins-Leafs photo.

 

I can't believe that you think #81 is currently the best player from that deal. I know youre not a huge fan but Seguin has already past his Phatness, in my admittedly biased/trying to be impartial opinion anyway.


This is a good opportunity for Kessel to shut a lot of people up. He was benched the last time he played in the post season and came back to have a monster series. This time I think he folds like a beach chair against the Bruins....once again. Very intriguing matchup for everyone.

 

smart man that halo!

 

i caught a PBR beer truck in a roadside snare just a short while ago... was trying to load the photo of my haul, but i guess my snares are way M0AR savvy than my online skillz.

 

open a new tab/window for http://tinypic.com

upload pic. copy the text where it says "IMG Code for Forums & Message Boards". paste that into a post here.

lather.

rinse.

repeat.





BBCode is wonderful stuff. if you're not familiar with it, click it where it says "You may use: BBCode" at the upper right of the posting box. i cheated and made this image clickable by nesting IMG and URL tags.