These are troubling time to be a Bruins fan. Upon return from the bye week, the Bruins have played their first two games to OT, losing both in the extra period. Something isn’t working well enough to win the games in regulation.
A looming trade deadline (February 25th!) is not helping the Bruins right now either. Boston media and fans aline are calling for some crazy ass trades that involve several young Bruins players for veteran players like Artemi Panarin and Wayne Simmonds. While upgrading talent and skill would be great, is there anything that the Bruins can do to improve their chances of beating Tampa Bay? Probably not.
With that, let’s talk about the Bruins week in easily digestible terms.
The Good
Tuukka Rask returned to duty after only missing one game with a concussion. Of course, the extended break from the bye week and ASG helped his recuperation. According to something Jack Edwards said last night, a week on the beach in the Caribbean also aided his recovery. That is some concussion protocol.
Tuukka looked pretty sharp last night in the loss saving 38 out of 41 shots, allowing 3 goals, one of which was the game-winning power play goal in OT. Still .927 save percentage upon return from a concussion is not too shabby.
The Bad
The Bruins got two out of four possible points this week.
The lack of secondary scoring is killing the Bruins right now. This week, the B’s scored 5 goals which can be attributed to two players, both of which play on the top line and with the first power play unit: David Pastrnak (3) and Patrice Bergeron (2).
The Ugly
The worst is yet to come: the Bruins face the Capitals in Washington in a Sunday matinee game on NBC. That probably means Doc, Eddie, and this guy:
“Tampa’s going to be on your left, Pittsburgh’s going to be on your right … we’re paying you to be an analyst, not be a fan tonight.”
Pierre McGuire with a cringe-worthy exchange with Kendall Coyne Schofield (H/T @NHLBlinn). pic.twitter.com/sdaWBGd4DJ
— Cristiano Simonetta (@CMS_74_) January 31, 2019
The Gritty
So much Gritty from which to choose. How about this from the ASG last weekend, doing what we expect Gritty to do, kill off other mascots.
RIP @Caps_Slapshot. pic.twitter.com/5XDqpMsNNs
— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) January 31, 2019
Happy weekend!
Gotta love Tuukka:
Also, what the hell did I miss last night? Cassidy is going to town on Chara and Killer.
And also, at least one person doesn’t blame Tuukka. He’s Tuukka’s #1 fan!
Hi All!
The break was supposed to help the Bs snap out of the funk, not yet mired deeper in it!l
Anyway, might have found a way to make dough off the ice. Skate hangers. Apparently not readily available and there’s a market for them. The prototype is a hit. First order for 30 in. It’s already been shown to some pro and college coaches…. don’t want to get too excited, but fingers crossed, eh?
Getting started!!
Anonymous Long Winded Entrepreneurial Pimpin’ Striped Mofo!
That’s brilliant! Fingers crossed it takes off.
Skate hangers – I like it! Good luck with it.
Morning all. Dang cold but I really can’t complain because I’m not in the mid west. They can complain.
Hi folks.
Well, scoring first six matches in a row and winning one of them. Not good enough, guys.
I was thinking about this the other day. Realistically, Boston aren’t winning the Cup this year so is there any point picking up a rental? Should they be sellers at the deadline? Just stand pat, maybe. Is the trade deadline a good time to pick up longer-term players or is the off-season the time to do that? I don’t know.
The snow has arrived! About an inch of it. Over 1,000 schools are closed! I’m not joking.
Little Bear watches the BBC Childrens TV channel in the mornings and they have a news programme (probably the most reliable news service available anywhere, but that’s a different conversation). Anyway, this morning they did a bit about the weather in Chicago! Apparently it’s -29C there. They didn’t show any burning railtracks though, unfortunately.
Who could the Bruins move? Backes, I guess. Halak? Jon Moore? I wouldn’t mind parting with any of them, if it helps in the next few years.
I think a team in the hunt might want one of more of those three.
Who knows? Maybe this team will go on a tear and shock us.
Disclaimer: I know nothing about these guy’s contracts or the business of hockey.
The Flyers might take Halak – they’ve tried pretty much every other goalie!
Heh! But seriously, I think they’re insane if they don’t take the guy they’ve used during their win streak – Hart. He seems solid.
Though they do have the reverse Midas touch in goal.
Agree with you about a rental. Maybe they can make a deal for something longer term? I don’t know.
If you don’t usually get it, it’s a big deal until it melts, so I believe it.
NHL GMs are afraid to stand pat because it looks to others like they’re either (1) not doing anything to improve or (2) they don’t believe in their team. To be honest, I’ve gone from when the secondary scoring happens to if it happens. We have a lot of talent that isn’t breaking through but it’s also too inexperienced to make a deep run. They can probably still beat Toronto, but you want to beat Tampa Bay. I don’t think they should make a big deal unless they know they can get Panarin and sign him, otherwise it’s a waste.
Yeah, the Kuraly line got hot for a while but they seem to have cooled off again.
Maybe they need to change the tactics? Come up with more set plays, maybe? Also, I don’t have any stats to back it up, but it doesn’t seem like the D-men are scoring many goals. I know that’s not their primary job but I’m sure in previous years they’ve scored more.
We’ve discussed this a little in person, but I feel like I gotta say publicly, Panarin is fools gold. He’s not re-signing with anyone (because he wants his money in free agency). He’s probably only gonna seriously look at long term offers from NY, LA & Chi (because he wants the night life). He’s going to demand super premium money in a boat-anchor contract, and in the short term, CBJ is going to demand a king’s ransom (because they can, and because they are still a playoff contender).
So yeah, you get another Pastrnak-quality player but he’s an ass and he’s going to drain your prospect pool and then not be around next year.
I hate the trade deadline, because it is a seller’s market. The buyers always get squeezed, and then have nothing to show for it. For every Getzlaf-to-the-Kings Cinderella story, there are 30 Jagr-to-the-Bruins disappointments.
This is my favorite part of that.
Because I’ve totally met you.
You have?
When?
It wasn’t like over 21 years ago, was it?
Or was it that time we got married?
The states in “the south” get so little snow that they just don’t budget for it. No sand & salt spreading equipment, no plows, etc. So every couple of years, when they get snow or ice, it is a disaster. No one knows how to drive safely in it, and the roads are super slippery. The closest thing they have to plows are front-end loaders with weird plow attachments which eat fuel and are only capable of travelling at 50kph
We ‘hardy northerners’ in our all-wheel-drive vehicles with buckets of sand & salt in the trunk laugh and laugh & laugh.
(Of course the dirty little secret is that during the first snow of the year everyone has forgotten how to drive in it and slides around.)
Haha! That sounds familiar. In fact it sounds like they’re even worse prepared than us!