Hello boys and girls, welcome back to another installment of this blog series following the events of the Bruins and their 2015-16 season. Last week I decided my post would be better used to discuss some of the issues I have had with the Department of Player Safety and their incompetence when it comes to handing out supplementary punishment. It is an issue that I believe goes even deeper than the spearing incident that occurred a couple weeks ago and I may revisit the topic in a longer post in the future. For now however, lets talk about how the Bruins have collected points in 12 of their last 13 games and are now second in the Atlantic division and gaining ground fast on the Montreal Canadiens.
After the Thanksgiving break and Black Friday game the Bruins traveled to the western most regions of Canada to do battle with some of the most mediocre teams in the league. Feeling confident after a gut-check style win over the Rangers, I myself saw nothing less than 6 points out of 6 coming from this road trip. However the team seemed to think they could gather these points with almost no regard for quality of play, which is something the Bruins seem to have done a bit too often this year for my liking. The Bruins barely seemed to be awake for their first game against the Oilers and it showed as, although they held the lead in shots most of the game, they trailed the Oilers 2-1 late into the third period. Only thanks to a late goal by captain Zdeno Chara were the Bruins able to force overtime, which led to a shootout which led to a disappointing loss for the black and gold. The lackluster play continued into Calgary as the Bruins played one of their most defensively lax game of the season. Although the Bruins had a 4-3 lead with less than a minute to go, a late penalty on Chara led to a 6 on 4 situation and Calgary was able to tie the game with 1.3 second left in regulation. Johhny Guadreau did what he usually does which was magically stick handle behind the defense in OT and score the game winner assisted by none other than Douglas Hamilton. At this point many Bruins fans were groaning at the prospect of flushing what should have been easy points down the toilet that was this road trip. Thankfully, the Bruins came out swinging in Vancouver and pummeled the already bruised and lackadaisical Canucks by a score of 4-0. That win singlehandedly turned what could have been an awful 2 point 3 game swing into a 4 point swing and gave the Bruins some confidence heading back home.
This confidence however was met and equally matched by a defensively adept Nashville Predators team that was able to skate circles around a seemingly jet-lagged Bruins team. Even still, the Bruins made a game of it, only losing by a score of 3-2 on a late goal by Nashville. This loss set the team back on the road for an extremely important meeting between the Bruins and the Habs. This being the last meeting before the winter classic, both teams wanted to be the ones to carry momentum heading forward into the month that could see the Atlantic division turned sideways by the time January rolls around. Although the Bruins came out flat in the first 2 periods, a stellar effort by Tuukka Rask kept the game 1-0 until midway into the third period where Loui Eriksson scores a shorthanded goal off a beautiful pass by Chara. Just 40 seconds later the Bruins scored again to make it 2-1 with only 7 minutes to go in the game. With a goal by Bergeron in the final 5 minutes, the Bruins walked out of the Bell Centre with their first win over the Canadiens since March of 2014 and all the momentum on their side heading into the outdoor game at Gillette on January 1st. The Bruins would then go on to win 2 of their next 3 games in convincing fashion, leap frogging their way into second place in the Atlantic with 2 games in hand on almost the entire division, meaning the Bruins could prospectively be only one point away from their arch rivals within the next couple of weeks. The Bruins have 6 more games in the month of December, 3 of which are against divisional opponents making the points in these next few games absolutely vital to the Bruins success going forward. If the team is able to continue their ever strengthening defensive play as well as scoring at a league leading clip I can very confidently see this team being atop the Atlantic division within a month. The Bruins next play against Pittsburgh on Friday.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Bruins Beat: Spearing and the DoPS
Hello boys and girls, welcome back to another installment of my blog series following the Boston Bruins season. This week, rather than talking about the games the Bruins played this past week I would like to take the opportunity to discuss and share my feelings on a play that happened earlier this week during the Bruins and Canucks Saturday night game. Near the end of the third period as the Bruins gained possession and skated out of the zone Canucks left wing Brandon Prust skate up to Bruins left wing Brad Marchand and speared him in the groin with the blade of his stick. Marchand had to be helped up by the trainer but was able to skate off under his own power. Prust was given a ten minute misconduct, essentially ejecting him from the game. Later on that week the NHL Department of Player Safety fined Prust 5,000 dollars yet did not suspend him. After a week of readin response posts around the internet and doing some thinking of my own I wanted to share my opinion of the play and the overall effectiveness of the DoPS.
To put it bluntly, I feel the way the NHL handled this was completely unacceptable. The play itself is extremely dangerous due to the fact that, other than your standard athletic cup, there is little padding in that area to protect from odd angle bumps and hits. Combine that with the speed and power that NHL caliber players are able to handle their sticks, it is all to easy for someone to badly injure another player in one swift motion. Taking that into account, I applaud the referees for at least handing out a misconduct penalty to Prust although I feel there should also have been a 5 minute major penalty for spearing assessed as well. I understand why there was not in this case though as the event happened away from the play and I don't believe any of the referees saw the incident play out in real time. Where the NHL completely dropped the ball was when it came to handing out supplementary discipline. As stated before the DoPS decided to only assess a fine of 5000 dollars to Prust, which is a measly 0.2% of his current 2.5 million dollar annual salary. Prust took to twitter after the fine was assigned, referring to the fine as the "best money I ever spent". All of this put together makes it pretty obvious that the DoPS failed to do their job of enforcing the rules that are supposed to keep players safe. This is not the first time the DoPS has had trouble with punishing spearing in the league. A couple years ago, Milan Lucic committed a similar act against the Red Wings Danny Dekeyser in the playoffs and was similarly fined 5000 dollars with no other supplementary discipline. In my personal opinion, due to how egregious and dangerous these incidents can potentially be, there should be a minimum fine in place of at least 25000 dollars as well as a one game suspension. Only with harsh punishments will we see this gutless play removed from players repertoires which can only be a good thing in a league already struggling with dealing hits to the head and slew footing. If there is one thing about the league that I wish was more consistent it would be how the DoPS deals with protecting the players that play this magnificent game and punishing those who take liberties with the rules that are there to ensure player safety as well as the integrity of the sport as a whole.
To put it bluntly, I feel the way the NHL handled this was completely unacceptable. The play itself is extremely dangerous due to the fact that, other than your standard athletic cup, there is little padding in that area to protect from odd angle bumps and hits. Combine that with the speed and power that NHL caliber players are able to handle their sticks, it is all to easy for someone to badly injure another player in one swift motion. Taking that into account, I applaud the referees for at least handing out a misconduct penalty to Prust although I feel there should also have been a 5 minute major penalty for spearing assessed as well. I understand why there was not in this case though as the event happened away from the play and I don't believe any of the referees saw the incident play out in real time. Where the NHL completely dropped the ball was when it came to handing out supplementary discipline. As stated before the DoPS decided to only assess a fine of 5000 dollars to Prust, which is a measly 0.2% of his current 2.5 million dollar annual salary. Prust took to twitter after the fine was assigned, referring to the fine as the "best money I ever spent". All of this put together makes it pretty obvious that the DoPS failed to do their job of enforcing the rules that are supposed to keep players safe. This is not the first time the DoPS has had trouble with punishing spearing in the league. A couple years ago, Milan Lucic committed a similar act against the Red Wings Danny Dekeyser in the playoffs and was similarly fined 5000 dollars with no other supplementary discipline. In my personal opinion, due to how egregious and dangerous these incidents can potentially be, there should be a minimum fine in place of at least 25000 dollars as well as a one game suspension. Only with harsh punishments will we see this gutless play removed from players repertoires which can only be a good thing in a league already struggling with dealing hits to the head and slew footing. If there is one thing about the league that I wish was more consistent it would be how the DoPS deals with protecting the players that play this magnificent game and punishing those who take liberties with the rules that are there to ensure player safety as well as the integrity of the sport as a whole.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Bruins Beat: 2 Week Recap
Welcome back boys and girls, time to get the ball rolling once again on this blog. I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving because I sure did. Not only was I able to stuff my face for a whole day, but I was also able to watch possibly the best game the Bruins have played all season on the Friday after. Before I get ahead of myself however let me breakdown the week before that game as well to put in perspective why that Black Friday game was such an important win for the Bruins moving forward.
In my last post I was able to breakdown how the Bruins successfully ended their 5 game home stand with a positive win/loss ratio as well as winning two games in a row with strong, dominating efforts over one strong team (Wild) and one not so strong team (Leafs). The week following the Bruins traveled to Toronto to complete a home and home stint against the Leafs, hopefully with two wins. Although that ended up being the case, it was only just barely so. The Bruins got pretty badly out shot in all but the third period and gave up a lead twice in the game (2-0 lead and 3-2 lead). No scoring in the third or overtime meant the game went to the shootout, the first time the Bruins had encountered the shootout all season. This had been a blessing for Bruins fans as last season the Bruins had an abysmal 4-10 record in shootouts. Fortunately, this one did not follow the same pattern as David Krejci scored the lone shootout goal and the Bruins walk out of Toronto taking both games in the series but only barely. The Bruins once again had disciplinary issues as they took 7 total minor penalties in the game. All that can be thrown under the rug however cause a wins a win and that win extended the win streak to 3.
Two days later the Bruins travel to Detroit with hopes of keeping the ball rolling and the win streak alive. However, the ball seemed to roll right off a cliff as the Bruins got absolutely manhandled by the Red Wings for 55 minutes of that game. After scoring quickly in the first to give themselves an early lead, the Bruins subsequently got pummeled by the Red Wings with both shots and hits alike. Only thanks to the wondrous play of Jonas Gustavsson were the Red Wings only up by one goal heading into the last 5 minutes of the 3rd period. Thankfully it was at this point the Bruins remembered they were hockey players and a beautiful passing play lead to Colin Miller tying the game with slightly less than 2 minutes to play. Fast forward to 2 minutes left in overtime and, wouldn't you know it, Colin Miller yet again takes a slapper from the point, tips off Frank Vatrano in front and boom, 4 game win streak.
The Bruins headed home to enjoy their Thanksgiving as the league held no games on that day, but were back at it on national television nice and early on Black Friday as they have been for the past several years. Their opponent this go around was the third best team in the league New York Rangers who had just come off of their own 9 game win streak being snapped a few days earlier. This game was nothing short of fantastic hockey as the Bruins were able to hold their own in terms of skating with the Rangers and trading chance for chance with one of the more solid offenses in the league. The goalies in this one were huge as Tuukka and Lundqvist both made sensational stops and each only allowing 2 goals heading into the third period. Unfortunately the Bruins took a goaltender interference penalty on a pretty bad embellishment by Lundqvist and allow a goal with just over 10 minutes to play. The good thing that came out of that goal was that it lit a fire under the Bruins I have not seen in a long time. Those ten minutes of Bruins hockey were absolutely sensational with Bruins playing offensively and holding offensive pressure for almost that entire span. It pays off just as 5 minutes ticks onto the clock and Jesper Fast takes a penalty which allows the best powerplay in the league to do what they do best. Shot to the net by Eriksson, scrum at the goalmouth and Ryan Spooner swoops forward to pot the goal and tie it with 4 minutes left. I thought at that point that oh boy that means overtime for the third game in a row but thankfully the Bruins once again find another level of offense and after 2 minutes of nonstop scoring chances David Krejci rips it toward goal where it tips off of a Ranger and in with just less than 2 minutes left. Fast forward two minutes and the Bruins win streak is at 5 games.
The only blemish on that game other than the embarrassing dive by Lundqvist to draw the goalie interference call came when Matt Beleskey hit Derek Stepan late in the 2nd period. Stepan wasn't looking and since Beleskey is one of the strong Bruins he was able to send Stepan flying into the boards. Dylan McIlrath takes exception to the hit and proceeds to pummel Beleskey in the ensuing fight. Many people are saying the hit is suspendable but I myself think that it wasn't much in terms of a dirty play. Stepan was unfortuantely caught admiring his pass and, although the hit is a tad late, it wasn’t high and didnt seem to be intentional boarding and I chalk it up as nothing but misfortune for Stepan. Unfortunately that misfortune lead to 2 broken ribs and 4 weeks recovery time. I will leave a video below of the hit and I’ll let you guys decide for yourself if it was dirty or not. On that note I will bring this entry to a close. The Bruins next play the Oilers on the day before I submit this but as the game is a late start I have not watched it yet but I will definitely cover it in next weeks post.
In my last post I was able to breakdown how the Bruins successfully ended their 5 game home stand with a positive win/loss ratio as well as winning two games in a row with strong, dominating efforts over one strong team (Wild) and one not so strong team (Leafs). The week following the Bruins traveled to Toronto to complete a home and home stint against the Leafs, hopefully with two wins. Although that ended up being the case, it was only just barely so. The Bruins got pretty badly out shot in all but the third period and gave up a lead twice in the game (2-0 lead and 3-2 lead). No scoring in the third or overtime meant the game went to the shootout, the first time the Bruins had encountered the shootout all season. This had been a blessing for Bruins fans as last season the Bruins had an abysmal 4-10 record in shootouts. Fortunately, this one did not follow the same pattern as David Krejci scored the lone shootout goal and the Bruins walk out of Toronto taking both games in the series but only barely. The Bruins once again had disciplinary issues as they took 7 total minor penalties in the game. All that can be thrown under the rug however cause a wins a win and that win extended the win streak to 3.
Two days later the Bruins travel to Detroit with hopes of keeping the ball rolling and the win streak alive. However, the ball seemed to roll right off a cliff as the Bruins got absolutely manhandled by the Red Wings for 55 minutes of that game. After scoring quickly in the first to give themselves an early lead, the Bruins subsequently got pummeled by the Red Wings with both shots and hits alike. Only thanks to the wondrous play of Jonas Gustavsson were the Red Wings only up by one goal heading into the last 5 minutes of the 3rd period. Thankfully it was at this point the Bruins remembered they were hockey players and a beautiful passing play lead to Colin Miller tying the game with slightly less than 2 minutes to play. Fast forward to 2 minutes left in overtime and, wouldn't you know it, Colin Miller yet again takes a slapper from the point, tips off Frank Vatrano in front and boom, 4 game win streak.
The Bruins headed home to enjoy their Thanksgiving as the league held no games on that day, but were back at it on national television nice and early on Black Friday as they have been for the past several years. Their opponent this go around was the third best team in the league New York Rangers who had just come off of their own 9 game win streak being snapped a few days earlier. This game was nothing short of fantastic hockey as the Bruins were able to hold their own in terms of skating with the Rangers and trading chance for chance with one of the more solid offenses in the league. The goalies in this one were huge as Tuukka and Lundqvist both made sensational stops and each only allowing 2 goals heading into the third period. Unfortunately the Bruins took a goaltender interference penalty on a pretty bad embellishment by Lundqvist and allow a goal with just over 10 minutes to play. The good thing that came out of that goal was that it lit a fire under the Bruins I have not seen in a long time. Those ten minutes of Bruins hockey were absolutely sensational with Bruins playing offensively and holding offensive pressure for almost that entire span. It pays off just as 5 minutes ticks onto the clock and Jesper Fast takes a penalty which allows the best powerplay in the league to do what they do best. Shot to the net by Eriksson, scrum at the goalmouth and Ryan Spooner swoops forward to pot the goal and tie it with 4 minutes left. I thought at that point that oh boy that means overtime for the third game in a row but thankfully the Bruins once again find another level of offense and after 2 minutes of nonstop scoring chances David Krejci rips it toward goal where it tips off of a Ranger and in with just less than 2 minutes left. Fast forward two minutes and the Bruins win streak is at 5 games.
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