Five Minute Major: The Bruins Take Two

Posted by Chas in Bruins on November 11th, 2009 | no responses

5mm ribbon Don’t go engraving the name Zdeno Chara on the Stanley Cup just yet, but the languishing Boston Bruins have just rattled off their best three-game stretch of the 2009-10 season. Okay, it was really their best 2.09 games of the season, but we will round up here. Starting with a well-designed play in the final minute against Montreal to tie the game and sneak out a point, the Bruins have found a semblance of an offense and continued to bear down on defense to the tune of five-of-six possible points in their last three skates.

With back-to-back wins for the first time all season over Buffalo and Pittsburgh, the Bruins have climbed over the .500 mark for only the second time in 09-10. In the process, the B’s have actually vaulted over Montreal into the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference, keeping pace for the playoffs despite a boatload of injuries.

Now, for a team looked upon as a Stanley Cup contender before the season, a .500 record and the final playoff spot would be somewhat of a disappointment if it was the end result in April. However, for a team that has only played 20% of the season – much of which has been skated without your best forward and your prime young player – it is a pretty decent option. Milan Lucic has missed 11 games and Marc Savard has sat out 10. Both are expected back around the beginning of December, with Looch closer than Savard. We all know that Phil Kessel was traded in the offseason and fellow goal-scorer Chuck Kobasew was dealt three weeks ago – partly as a salary cap issue and partly as a kick in the pants issue. The result of four key components of the offense either toiling elsewhere or in the press box? Shuffled lines and undefined roles. Add in David Krejci taking a trip on the U.S.S. H1N1 just as he found his form after offseason hip surgery and developing a consistent offense has been overtaken by fielding an actual team on coach Claude Julien’s daily task list.

After two shutout losses to New York and Detroit, and 59 minutes of goal-less action against the Habs, the last-ditch goal by Patrice Bergeron to secure a point for the B’s seems to have jumpstarted the Bruins’ attack. On Saturday against division-leader Buffalo, the B’s popped in four goals in a 4-2 win. Two of those strikes came on the power play – one which was on the short list for government bailout after a six-game scoreless streak. Last night, with defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh in town, the B’s added another three goals in a shutout of the Penguins.

The Bruins have few viable, proven offensive options at the moment, and the good sign for Julien is that those options have started to produce. The even better sign for Bruins fans is that the goaltending tandem of Tim Thomas and Tuukka Rask have upped their games to a higher level, taking control of games and making the offense the B’s produce stand up.

With that, it’s time for a trip to the sin bin and this week’s “Five Minute Major.”

Thomas

The Bruins owe a lot of the minimal success they have had this year to the reigning Vezina Trophy winner they have between the pipes in Thomas. He made 25 saves to get the B’s to overtime against Montreal and then came up with 27 stops to blank the Pens last night. ESPN has this fancy feature where they list a team’s top performer in each game, and so far this year Tank has been chosen seven times out of 17 games. He has quietly posted the NHL’s seventh-best GAA at 2.23 and his save% is eighth best at .922. As a team, the Bruins are again one of the best in the league in goals allowed, with 2.29 a game – fourth in the NHL. For a team that is 28th in goals scored, keeping them out of the net is huge.
The one major positive of Savard being injured is that Patrice Bergeron has risen to the challenge and become the complete player he was before the devastating concussion in ’07. He leads the Bruins in scoring with 6G-6A-12 Pts and is in the top-10 in the league in winning faceoffs (56.4%) while lining up opposite the other team’s best line. Against Montreal, he scored the tying goal in the last minute after winning a draw in the Habs’ end and going to open space to collect a rebound. Against the Sabres, he picked up an assist while leading all forwards in ice time. Last night, after shutting down Sidney Crosby, he scored an empty-netter to ice the win – doing so from the slot in his own end. He leads the team in shots with 45, showing that he realizes he needs to be a catalyst for the offense right now. His overall game is putting him in line for recognition as the league’s best defensive forward with the Selke Trophy at the end of the year.
Can’t say enough about the play of Steve Begin. Originally thought off as a fourth-liner with some jam who would antagonize other teams and give a solid 8 minutes each night, he has contributed offensively like no one imagined. His eight assists are tie for the team lead and are the second best in any season of his seven full NHL seasons. His value to the team as a penalty killer has risen and his ice time is higher than it has ever been. This past week, he was named as an alternate captain for the next month by Julien, a true sign of his importance to the team and the respect he has earned.
Bergeron
Speaking of penalty killing, after allowing two power play goals to Phoenix on 10/17, the B’s were 23-34(68%) on killing penalties. Since then, the Bruins are 27-28(96%) and have climbed from 30th to 13th in the league in that category. Players like Bergeron, Begin, Daniel Paille, Blake Wheeler, Chara, Mark Stuart and Andrew Ferrence deserve a lot of credit for fixing a fatal flaw this team had. The renewed effort to blocking shots and clearing a sight line for the goalies as kept the Bruins in games where before the PK was their downfall.
Saturday’s game against Buffalo was a very entertaining affair and was a glimpse back into the glory days of 2008-09. It really is the blueprint for how the Bruins are successful. They scored two power play goals early at home to put a team on its heels. They outshot, outhit and outworked a team in all three zones. The B’s were nasty all night, with Shawn Thornton dropping the gloves twice – once when asked to by old friend Steve Montador and once when he didn’t like a hit on a teammate by Paul Gaustad. Caveman Mark Stuart then took umbrage with a late poke on his goalie and forearm smashed his way to a fight win over Jochen Hecht. Even Big Z got a misconduct after he got into it before a faceoff with Tim Kennedy who had swatted at Zdeno’s stick as they lined up. The look on Kennedy’s face when he turned to engage the player next to him, not knowing it was Chara, was priceless. Besides the Carolina game early in the season, this was the only true total team effort the Bruins have put forth in terms of scoring, defense and team toughness. Efforts like that can spur a team through troubled times, and it appears the Bruins may have found that energy.