Five Minute Major – 11.3

After skating away from the first three games following the massive roster shakeup with 5-of-6 possible points, there was a good feeling around the Bruins. A few comeback wins and good overall team efforts will do that to a club. However, the next three-game stretch was not as kind to the Bruins, as the B’s went 1-2-0 over the weekend (Thursday counts as the weekend as any good college student will tell you) to remain stagnant at .500 for the season .

The main cause for concern after the losses to New Jersey and the Rangers? Goal scoring. After scoring nine goals in three games last week, the Black and Gold scored just three goals over the contests with the Devils, Oilers and Rangers this weekend. Two of those goals came in the 2-0 win over Edmonton on Saturday. It would be foolish to assume that a team that lost its leading scorer over the last three years in Marc Savard as well as its biggest space clearer in Milan Lucic to injury in addition to the trade of 20-goal man Chuck Kobasew would not struggle to light the lamp. The extent of those issues may have been greatly misjudged, however.

With the loss of Savvy and Looch for the next month, it is no shock that the B’s would resign themselves to playing a grinding, defensive style of hockey where goals are a premium and puck possession becomes paramount. The problem with committing to a style of play which favors 1-0 or 2-1 games is that it is very, very easy for one mistake to cost your team the game. That has happened twice now to the B’s over the last three games and has caused precious points to find their way into conference rivals’ totals.

The week ahead is even more important to the Bruins. They take on perennial league powerhouse Detroit in the Motor City tonight. Last year, a win against the Winged Wheels in Boston proved to the hockey world that the Bruins were for real. Tonight, a good effort and points on the road against Detroit will hopefully instill some confidence in the team that they are still in a solid position as they traverse these troubled waters. After that, the B’s return home for two crucial divisional games. On Thursday, the first matchup of the season with the Montreal Canadiens awaits. If anything is able to charge some life into this team, a visit from Les Habs should do that. On Saturday, upstart Buffalo heads to Causeway St. for another Northeast matchup. The main focus of the Bruins right now has to be taking points from these divisional games. Keeping within striking distance while their superstars rehab will allow the Bruins to focus on regaining peak position after the New Year.

With that, it’s time for you to serve your “Five Minute Major.”

1. Very frustrating game for the Bruins last Thursday against David Puddy’s favorite team, the Devils. Both of New Jersey’s goals were scored in the same fashion. Tim Thomas made the first save and then the puck squirted through him to stand in the crease unattended, allowing for a Devil to swat home the loose puck. One time in the first period is allowable, but when it happened a second time – in the final two minutes of a tie game – that just breaks a team’s heart. The B’s were 86 seconds away from a big point and saw it disappear. It was really a boring game (shocker when the Devils are involved) and the Bruins had to feel like they were the favorite coming in off the big win in Ottawa and facing a Devs team with no Martin Brodeur. Instead, Brown University product, Yann Danis came up with 31 saves and the Devils won a 2-1 game like they have been doing since 1996.
2. The B’s responded with a workman-like 2-0 shutout of Edmonton on Saturday in a nice matinee for all the non-college football fans in the area. The line of Blake Wheeler-Vladimir Sobotka-Daniel Paille contributed both goals, with Wheeler and Sobotka scoring about five minutes apart in the second period. The defense did the rest of the work, limiting a listless Oiler attack to 19 shots and watching as Tuukka Rask stopped all of them for his first shutout of the season. Perhaps the biggest development was Zdeno Chara putting on his big boy pants and throwing his weight around. He led the B’s with eight hits, shutting down Edmonton’s top line. The trademark snarl had been missing from his game all season and he seemed to be overextending himself and taking too many bad penalties. If he can lock down his physical play and make it the menacing style that keeps players from engaging him in the corners, that is good for everyone.
3. The Bruins had a quick turnaround on Sunday, heading to the Big Apple to play the Rangers less than 24 hours after the win over Edmonton. Waiting for the Bruins was King Henrik Lundqvist and his ridiculous abilities. Arguably the best goalie in the game, Lundqvist stopped all 29 Boston shots en route to the shutout in a 1-0 loss for the B’s. Two matinees in two days isn’t the normal schedule for hockey players so I am sure there was a weird aura around the game from the get go. Claude Julien went with Timmy Thomas in net rather than Rask who was hot after the blanking the day before. Thomas played well enough, making 22 stops to keep the B’s in the game. In the end, King Henrik was the difference, making some big stops for the Blueshirts on the PK and in the final minute when the B’s pulled the goalie. The Bruins were aggressive, outhitting New York, 41-28, with only two players not registering a hit. Strangely, one of those players was Shawn Thornton, who plays on the crash line for the B’s.  He did put two shots on goal, but his calling card is his physicality on the forecheck, and the Bruins need that.
4. Yesterday at practice, Julien switched the lines around again, hoping to jumpstart the anemic offense. He went back to a few old combinations to see if they still have any juice left. Tonight in Detroit, look for Patrice Bergeron and Marco Sturm to reunite on the top line along with Mark Recchi. Bergeron and Sturm had success together a few years ago when both were healthy. Now that they are back at 100%, it is worth a shot to see if they still have it. On the second unit, look for last year’s trio of Wheeler-Krejci-Ryder to get back together. All three had success last year when playing together. With Krejci finding his offensive game a bit more over the past week, he may be able to jumpstart Ryder again. After that, the Bruins are pretty much rolling out two “energy lines.” Paille-Sobotka-Brad Marchand have a little bit of scoring in them, but there is no true threat. Same with the fourth line of Trent Whitfield-Steve Begin-Thornton.  To put it nicely, as long as these guys don’t get scored upon, that’s a good night. If they can draw a few penalties and maybe score a goal, that is gravy. Never a good sign when you have two lines where the mere thought of a goal being scored gets you all hot and bothered.
5. After this week, with a big nonconference game and two huge divisional skates, the Bruins will be three weeks into the 4-6 week timeframe of Savard and Lucic’s injuries. They will be 20% through the season and at best, hovering around the fifth seed in the conference and at worst somewhere around 10^th or 11^th. A 3-0 week and the status quo on Causeway is fine and will live to fight another week. An 0-3 week, and hands should be inching closer to the panic button. The problem is, there isn’t much the Bruins can do. Players like Zach Hamill down in Providence have been deemed not ready for primetime by Peter Chiarelli. With Savard and Lucic on LTIR, their salaries do not count against the cap, so the Bruins have some space to work with at the moment if they wanted to make a trade. But, when those players are ready to return, you need to clear money for them. Unless you trade Bergeron, Ryder or Sturm, adding a big-time player right now will be difficult. Situations like the one facing the Bruins right now are why GMs make the big money, and Peter Chiarelli has to be hard at work looking for solutions. If goal scoring continues to ail the B’s, then you have to give Hamill a look or maybe even Mikko Lehtonen. Veteran role players like Whitfield are nice luxuries when you have three potent lines, but the Bruins do not have that. Truth be told, between Thomas and Rask, the Bruins actually have one of the better goalie tandems in the league. Thomas is a veteran who can carry the load if needed and Rask is a young keeper on the verge of stardom. He would be the top guy on about 15 teams in the League right now (getting Rask for Andrew Raycroft from Toronto was an absolute steal, by the way.) With Chara picking up his game and Dennis Wideman getting back to full speed after his injury, the defensive aspirations of this club may be realized soon. However, if you can’t put the puck in the net, the pressure on the back end is even more intense. Again, two mistakes in two games resulted in a four-point swing for the Bruins. Runs like those kill a team’s playoff chances.

A few loose pucks to finish up today…

Bruins are 13-for-13 on the penalty kill over the past six games … While 100% on the PK is pretty good, allowing just over two power play’s a game is even better when you are having trouble scoring … Speaking of offensive futility, the B’s are a woeful 1-for-19 on their own man advantages over the past seven games … If any area misses Savard, it is the PP … Overall, the B’s are 6-for-49 on the PP (12.2%), which ranks 29^th out of 30 in the NHL … B’s are 2-for-41 on the man-up if you take out the 4-for-8 night against Carolina in game two of the season … Bergeron is 16^th in the League in faceoff percentage, winning 132-of-235 (56.2%) … He has the ninth-most wins and is sixth-best on the road when opposing teams can match up whoever they want against him … Would like to see video of Chara going over to Sean Avery during warm-ups and telling the pest to shut up and stop yapping at the Bruins, love the leadership.

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