Five Minute Major: Savvy Thinking

Wednesday was certainly an interesting and exciting day for the Hub of Hockey. In the morning, the Bruins locked up top center Marc Savard for the next seven years with a $28 million dollar contract through the 2016-17 season. We will get to the deal in a minute, but it is truly one of the biggest things to happen to the Bruins in recent memory and if things play out like they could, Savard could have just etched his name in the higher echelon of Boston sports figures.

Then, Savard went out and started earning his paycheck with a goal in the first period as the B’s rolled the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-1, at the Garden. The win was Boston’s sixth in seven games and flipped them back into first place in the Northeast Division after Buffalo had flopped over them a few days ago. There was lot to like about this game if you are a Bruins fan. Timmy Thomas rebounded from a soft goal at the end of regulation last time out to make 39 saves in the win. The line of Marco Sturm-Patrice Bergeron-Mark Recchi combined for eight points. The penalty kill unit was again perfect. The most important thing, however, is the growing presence of a swagger surrounding this team. With the exception of Milan Lucic, everyone is healthy and playing their game at a high level. This recent stretch is the one this season that most closely matches the way the Black and Gold played in 2008-09. That good feeling is coming at just the right time, with a pair of emotionally-charged games on the docket for this weekend against Montreal and Toronto.

In preparation for those two big rivalry games sure to feature a tussle or two, sit down for this week’s “Five Minute Major.”

1.  There are so many reasons to like the signing of Marc Savard. His willingness to sign a long-term deal before he even reaches free agency clearly demonstrates how badly he wants to play in Boston. His agreeing to a contract structured in a way that ensures a low salary cap number for the duration of the deal shows how much he wants to win in Boston. By lowering his cap hit from $5 million a year to $4 million a year, he frees up space for the Bruins to sign other key players from the current team or look for free agents. If he made it to July and went on the open market, a team like Toronto or Ottawa could have easily come at him and offered more money. But, Savard chose to stay where he is comfortable and successful. Other players in recent Boston sports history that have taken less money to stay in Boston? Tom Brady and David Ortiz. Those two guys – at the time the best in their sport at what they do – extended their contracts in Boston in a way that didn’t cripple their teams. How’d that work out? Make no mistake. If the Bruins win the Stanley Cup in the next seven years (an increasingly possible scenario) then the unselfishness of Marc Savard is one of the major reasons. Would the Bruins have signed Savard if he asked for $6-7 mil a year? Probably. He is that good. But it would have resulted in the B’s losing other players like Blake Wheeler or Mark Stuart who are vital to this team. Savard, in a very savvy way, realized that he needs a good team to win a Cup and did what he could to help make that a reality.

2.  Another reason to believe in the Savard signing? His durability. In his 10 full NHL seasons, he played in 712 games. He was injured for a while this year with a broken bone in his foot, but in three of the last four years he played all 82 games. Savard is a playmaking center who isn’t called upon to play an overly physical game. He has taken the body a bit more over the past two seasons, but he won’t be confused for Alex Ovechkin in that department any time soon. This contract will bring him to his 40^th birthday, and concerns about whether he will still be a viable player at that age are understandable. However, players are playing longer now because of better conditioning and Savard has no lingering injuries at the moment which forecast a body shutdown. A player who Savard is often compared to, former Bruin Adam Oates, is a good example of how the Bruins hope Savard’s career goes. Oates was the best passer in the league for a five-year span from 1989-1994. He had 97 assists in 92-93 as he fed Cam Neely for over 50 goals. While Savard may not equal the 45 goals Oates also scored that year, he should hope to continue the career arc Oates followed after he was traded from Boston. Oates played until he was 41 years old, and at the ages of 38 and 39 led the NHL in assists. Those two years, he was nearly a point-a-game player, almost exclusively in the assist column. If in 2015, Savard is still registering 70-80 points, then this will be an absolute steal of a signing for the B’s.

3.  The commitment by the Bruins to Savard over the next seven seasons show how much they value what he means to the team and how much he has evolved over his time in Boston. Much has been said and written about how Savard would never have been confused with a defensive specialist before he came to Boston. Only three of his 11 NHL seasons ended with him in the plus. But, two of those came in a Boston jersey – including a +25 last season. He has developed a responsible game in his own zone, giving his coach confidence to put him out there late in games when the Bruins need a stop. He has become an efficient penalty killer, combining his faceoff acumen with puck knowledge to snuff out passes and shots before they reach goal. He is a complete player with a knack for scoring quirky goals from bad angles because teams play him to pass so much. A smaller guy, he is willing to come to defense of a teammate as shown last year when he jumped on Sean Avery after he gave Lucic a cheap shot. He has rid himself of 90% of the whining and complaining that followed him around in his career, saving just a few choice words for opposing players at the opportune time instead of harping on refs. Some players take longer to develop to their true potential. Some thought Savard was a flash in the pan who played like a star in his contract year in Atlanta before the Bruins signed him. Today, he is firmly entrenched as the franchise forward on an Original Six team reclaiming its glory.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese

4.  Which brings us to a franchise forward on an Original Six team far from its glory. A date with Montreal on Friday night in Canada notwithstanding, the majority of the focus from Bruins fans this weekend is on Saturday’s game against Toronto at the Garden. This will be Phil Kessel’s first game back in Boston since he stomped his feet, held his breath and stuck his fingers in his ears until the Bruins traded him to Toronto. Kessel was convinced he was worth $5-6 million a year despite not once scoring more than 60 points. The Bruins, realizing that they needed to field a team of more than one player, had a number lower than that – somewhere between $3.5-$4.5 million a year it is believed – and tried to convince Kessel that doing that would benefit him and the team long term. Kessel, who will never be confused with a Rhodes Scholar, either didn’t understand what that meant or didn’t care. For whatever reason, he didn’t like playing in Boston. It most likely had something to do with Claude Julien, you know … the head coach of the team, requiring his players to play defense and attempt a body check every now and then. Those two components of the game weren’t high on Phil’s list of priorities, and the coach and the player were at odds pretty much since the playoffs in 2008 when Julien benched Kessel. So, Phil the Thrill started hinting he might sign an offer sheet this summer and the Bruins had their hand forced into trading him to the Maple Leafs. Now, the Bruins have made out okay in the deal. They acquired two first-round picks from the Leafs and a second-rounder for Kessel. Toronto is the second-worst team in the League and seems destined for a spot in the lottery this year which gives the Bruins a chance at the top pick. The tough part is watching Kessel electrify an otherwise terrible team and score his patented flashy goals. When the B’s were struggling to score goals in early November and Kessel was whipping up and down the ice (more up) it was a tough pill to swallow. However, now that the Bruins are playing good hockey again, the wishing and hoping for a player like Kessel is diminished a bit. There is no question that the Bruins would be a more potent offensive team with Kessel on it. There are few players like him in the NHL who can shoot the puck with such quickness and accuracy. Still, there not once has been a player in the Bruins dressing room who opined for him to return. It is evident that not many players liked him or miss him now that he is gone. In fact, one fun story from the season is that a player on the Bruins came to their Halloween party dressed as Kessel. The identity of the player and what the costume entailed hasn’t been revealed yet, but I am sure it wasn’t complimentary.

5.  Saturday’s game with the Leafs is looking to be one of the more entertaining at the Garden this season. Bruins fans haven’t had a player to singularly vilify in a while. Sure, there is always a hatred for the Habs, but not since Claude Lemieux or Ulf Samuelsson has there been such a bull’s-eye attached to a player. Add in the fact that the Leafs are the second-worst team in the league, more known for fighting and truculence than for winning games and this could be fun. Of course, it is more likely that Bobby Orr comes out and scores a goal than Kessel ends up in a fight or anything, but the Leafs have more than enough players ready to defend their star’s pride if called upon. Another fun side story is Tim Thomas playing in front of his potential bosses in the Olympics in Toronto GM Brian Burke and head coach Ron Wilson. The Tank is looking to get the starting nod in Vancouver, and playing well against the Leafs is a good audition for Team USA.

I don’t know much in this world, but I do know that back-to-back games against Montreal and Toronto on a weekend in December is what hockey is all about. I am sure that Julien doesn’t have to remind his players of that fact either.