Bruins Beat: Vessey's Decision

As today is Ivy Day, the day which all the ivy league colleges around America release their decisions for who will become a freshman at their school this upcoming fall, it seems almost natural to talk a little college hockey today. As fate would have it, I would also like to address a certain decision recently made by a Harvard hockey star and soon to be Bruins property Jimmy Vesey. Vesey Recently made a very controversial decision which works out great for the Bruins in the fact that they get to sign him right out of his senior year at Harvard where he is currently nominated for the Hobey Baker award for top NCAA hockey player in the nation. Funnily enough however, Vesey was never drafted by the Bruins like most other prospects are when they go back to finish school, he was drafted high in the first round 3 years ago by the Nashville Predators. Vesey decided not to join the team when he was drafted and committed to finishing his Harvard education which also took up all 3 years of his eligibility as Nashville's property. Usually when this happens, the player respects the fact that the club used a draft pick on him and would resign with the team, but instead Vesey has decided to not resign with the Preds and instead is in talks with the Bruins so as to sign in mid August when his rights expire. Many people in the hockey world are calling him out as disloyal and disrespectful to his parent club as he does not want to resign and failed to give proper notice so as they could try and trade his rights. Personally I don't agree as Vesey had an amazing opportunity to finish a 4 year tenure at Harvard and, allegedly, gave the Preds organization notice before the trade deadline that he would not be resigning. Honestly, I don't see why people believe Vesey should have a blind loyalty to the Preds just because they drafted him, it was their decision to draft him and if he wants to pursue a career somewhere else he should have the opportunity. Also, I personally am super excited to see this kid in the Black and Gold next year.

Bruins Beat: F*** The Refs

Due to a  recent string of questionable calls in the past couple Bruins losses I am unable to write a regular Bruins Beat without succumbing to fights of violent rage and incoherent babbling. Instead, I have decided to write a little poem in order to work on refining my understanding of our current English unit as well as take my mind off the fact that the Bruins are blowing up at the exact worst time for the second year in a row. Anyways, here it is:

Referees

Oh what a joy it must be to be a ref

Able to alter the game, even if blind or deaf,

With stripes like zebras you prance about

Ruining everything I care about, 

I do not even think you know the rules

Yet you continue to officiate like mules,

To compare you to an ass might be too good

And I would call you much worse thing if I could,

It is here that I must bid you all adieu

And to the refs, I can only say...

F***

You

Bruins Beat: Upcoming Expansion

Hello boys and girls, welcome back to another Bruins Beat blog post. Today is once again going to be a little off topic as there is not much to talk about in terms of the Bruins right now as they have played, and lost, one game since my last post. So instead I'm going to talk a little about a subject that is rapidly becoming more and more relevant which is the NHL expanding to new markets.
This past week many of the NHL owners met in Florida to discuss present and future happenings with the league and its teams. One of the more tentative topics that was discussed during this meeting was the possibility of the NHL expanding to one or two new cities in North America. This past year, two cities, Las Vegas and Quebec City,  completed the three stage process which allowed them to be considered for an NHL team. This included putting down a large non-refundable deposit as well as taking in a minimum of 10,000 season ticket pre-orders in order to gauge interest that city would have in accepting an NHL franchise. Although both cities completed the process, the league is much more in favor of expanding only to Las Vegas or another United States city due to the fact that the Canadian dollar is in the toilet. This means that most likely only Las Vegas will be getting a team in the next year or so and another team will follow suit in the upcoming few years after that. My bets are on the fact that Seattle will get a team before Quebec City does because the NHL has expressed interest in expanding there but have been blocked multiple times by the owners of the largest indoor arena in Seattle who do not want to accept any new sports into the area that is not basketball. regardless, this means that an expansion draft will most likely be coming up in the next two years which brings about expansion draft and protection list guidelines, the baselines of which were set during the owners meetings this past week. The only two major rules set so far is that either one or two players will be chosen from each team and each team is allowed to protect either 7 forwards, 3 defense man and 1 goalie or 8 skaters and 2 goalies. Also, all players on their second or fewer year of a professional contract will be automatically protected. That leaves the Bruins with a big question coming up which is who stays and who gets hung out to dry and possibly snatched up. Personally if I had to choose right now, assuming the draft was happening this off season, I would protect Bergeron, Marchand, Krejci, Beleskey, Pastrnak, Loui (if he re-signs) Spooner, Chara, Krug, McQuiad and Tuukka. Key players that were left off this list who could be picked up in the expansion draft would be Seidneberg, Griffith, Kokolachev, Malcolm Subban and Colin and Kevan Miller. I would pray that some of these players we could move before this draft happens but if not I would not be sad to see this guys go other than Subban and Colin Miller who may have real potential to be studs in the league within 10 years time.

Bruins Beat: The Oilers Rule

So this post will be a little more off topic than the others as it will have nothing to do with the Bruins, at least not for the foreseeable future. In my post a week back or so I discussed how the coach's challenge was becoming an integral part of the game, and with every new aspect of the game comes scrutiny and cry's for it to be reviewed and possibly removed form the game. One place where these talks and complaints come to a forefront is when the owners of all 30 teams come together and meet to discuss the current state of the game and what they believe they should bring to the commissioner as items that should be implemented, changed or removed.
Now although the coach's challenge will undoubtedly be on the agenda when the owners meet, one of the more surprising actions to have come to light in the past few days is the fact that many of the owners have banded together and expressed curiosity in creating a rule that would not allow a team to win the entry draft lottery more than one or two years in a row. To quickly explain, at the end of the season all teams that did not make the playoffs are entered into a lottery to see who will draft first overall, second overall and third overall in that years entry draft. The teams who finished with worse records overall have a significantly higher chance to win the lottery and draft in one of those positions which usually guarantees an NHL caliber and sometimes even franchise type player for that team. One small problem with this system is that one team has completely dominated the NHL entry draft for the past 6 or 7 seasons, the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers have been the NHL's punching bag for the better part of a decade, finishing with terrible records and seemingly unable to ice a competitive team. Here in lies the problem however as this run of mediocrity has net the Oilers 4 first overall picks and 8 picks in the top ten in the past 10 seasons. The owners are obviously becoming quickly fed up with this as even though the Oilers have had a constant stream of young and sensational talent come through their system they are still one of the worst teams in the league to date and look to have another strong opportunity to win the first overall pick for the 5th time. The strongest leg the other owners have to stand on in this proposal is that if the Oilers are seemingly not serious about icing a quality team with the amount of talent that has been handed to them, why do they deserve to have another fine player shipped off to Edmonton and waste the best years of his career in a mediocre purgatory of a team. I for one am all for this rule as I am sick and tired of the Oilers cleaning up at the draft only to do nothing the following year. Hopefully a majority of the owners and the league see it the same way and some other teams may have a chance to inherit a generational talent that they desperately need (I'm looking at you Carolina).

Bruins Beat: First Place

Hello boys and girls and welcome back to another installment of Bruins Beat, a blog written by me in order to release all my pent up rage and happiness about this Bruins team (most of the time it happens simultaneously). In this post I will discuss how the Bruins are currently the best team in the Atlantic division and how hard I would have laughed if someone had told me this at the beginning of the season.
Simply put, I had little to no hope for this Bruins team at the beginning of the year mostly because it lacked not only the depth you tend to see throughout the forward and defense on playoff teams, but also because the team had lost several key players that had been integral in the Bruins success in the past few years. This team was largely unproven, full of rookies and top AHL players on all lines yet somehow this team was able to find a rhythm that has carried them to the point they are at now. Although it took the team almost half the season to find a consistency that playoff teams are able to produce night in and night out, the fact that the Eastern Conference was quite weak this year and also an epic collapse by the Montreal Canadiens allowed the Bruins to stay in the hunt for most of the beginning of the season even though they put up mediocre numbers, most notably in the goal tending and defense situation. Thankfully, both Tuuka Rask and the Bruins defensive pillars like Krug, Chara and Seidenberg have exponentially improved their game in comparison to how they played only a couple months prior. If it wasn't for Rask's mediocre start to the season, I would even put him as one of the top contenders for the Vezina trophy for best goaltender (especially since the leagues best goaltender Carey Price has been injured for three quarters of the season). Funnily enough the most consistent part of the Bruins game this whole season has been their ability to produce offensively, something that has plagued Bruins teams of the past especially under the coaching of Claude Julien. Stellar performances from Patrice Bergeron, Ryan Spooner, Brad Marchand and Matt Beleskey have pioneered the team and have reshaped how the Bruins play around the puck in both the offensive and defensive zone. One of my favorite Bruins this year has also been David Pastrnak who recorded his 11th and 12th goals of the season Saturday against the Islanders. If only he hadn't missed three months with a broken foot he might have been in the running for the Calder trophy this year as the leagues top rookie. Combining this exciting young core with the Bruins newest pickups in John-Michael Liles and Lee Stempniak have proven to be money in the bank with the Bruins riding a 7 game point streak since the trade deadline. Needless to say I have nothing but hope that this Bruins team can perform with the best of them and may have a chance to go deep into the playoffs and satiate my thirst for the most exciting and addicting thing in the world; playoff hockey.

Bruins Beat: Challenging the Coach's Challenge

This week, rather than looking back at what was a phenomenal set of 5 games for the Bruins, I would like to take a moment and share my feelings on one of the newer aspects of the game which is the ability for Coach's to challenge a play and force the refs to review the play and look to see if it was within the rules or not. Coach's are only allowed to challenge a play in two instances, when they believe the play was offside and was not blown dead as well as if they believe a goal should be called back due to goaltender interference. At the beginning of the season I was one of the many fans who were pushing for challenges to be implemented as I was tired of seeing illegal goals stand when just a simple review would change the whole complexion of a game. After over three quarters of the season I feel like I have a decent enough sample size to truly deliver my verdict on the current state of coach's challenges.
Now unfortunately I don't have an exact number for how many goals have been called back this year in the NHL due to Coach's challenge but I can estimate that it is somewhere between 25 and 75 goals total, which is a substantial amount considering the highest scoring team in the league is barely averaging 3 goals a game so far. This shows that these reviews have been very impactful in their first year of existence yet I don't believe that they have always been positively impactful. In fact, I would personally say only about half of the goals that were called back actually deserved to be called back which is due to problems interpreting the rules of why a goal should be disallowed. On the off sides front many goals are called back due to one player being only inches offside, a distance that really should not have as much impact on the game as it does. Because of this, many coach's will use their challenge whether they think the play was off sides or not because there is such a large chance that one player might have been a few inches over the blue line when the puck enters the zone. to fix this, I believe the league needs to redefine what it means to be off sides and they should not call back goals that are preceded by a player being technically offside because his skate was in the air while entering the zone, a rule I find absolutely ridiculous. On the goaltender interference front I think that goalies should be persecuted more when they dive, as many times goalies will dive just to draw a goaltender interference call on a goal that should have counted. Also, slight nudges to the goalie (especially when hes outside the blue paint) should not in anyway be considered goaltender interference because in many cases the goalies are never actually interfered with on this plays. To summarize, I still am in favor of allowing coach's to challenge plays but the rules need to be more clear cut and consistent otherwise these challenges will continue to be abused which could effect the overall flow of play which hockey fans like myself love so much about this great game.

Bruins Beat: Trade Deadline

Hello everybody, welcome back to another installment of the Bruins Beat where I take a look at the goings on in the NHL, more specifically the Boston Bruins. This past month has been crazy for the Bruins as the word inconsistency continued to be the perfect description of the team wearing black and gold. The Bruins would go from beating one of the best teams in the league 7-3 on the road to losing 6-4 at home to one of the worst and yet somehow the Bruins hold on to a playoff spot with a somewhat comfortable cushion between them and the golf courses in April. In this installment I will be looking less at the teams most recent games and more at the teams most recent trades as the NHL trade deadline has come and gone as of March 1st.
The trade deadline itself was pretty uneventful and quite boring partly due to the asking prices for some of the more quality talents around the league being quite high as well as several key players being traded prior to the actually trade deadline. Overall, the closest the league and its fans got to witnessing a blockbuster this year was when veteran centerman and former Carolina Hurricanes captain Eric Staal was sent to the New York Rangers in exchange for a prospect and two 2nd round picks in the upcoming Entry draft(s). Other than that the deadline saw a total of 19 trades, most of which were for 3rd or 4th line depth players or just straight up AHL roster swaps. the Bruins however did make two trades on deadline day that were a little more than just depth pickups.
The first trade the Bruins made was sending Prospect Anthony Camara and a 3rd and 5th round pick in the draft to the Hurricanes in exchange for lefty defenseman John-Michael Liles. Prior to the deadline Liles had played 64 games on the Hurricanes, primarily on their 2nd pairing, and had 16 points to show for it and a +/- of -3. Although he was a net minus player, that most likely stems from the fact that he was playing on a Carolina team that had basically been written out of contention the day before the season started. His advanced statistics seem to prove this as his cfor and c60 stats both project him to be a top pairing defenseman on a decent team. Seeing as the Bruins had been floundering on defense for a better part of the year, this trade makes a whole lot of sense and I am quite happy with it seeing as we gave up next to nothing of value in the trade other than maybe the 3rd round pick.
The second trade the Bruins made was sending a 2nd and a 4th round draft pick to the Devils in exchange for veteran winger Lee Stempniak. Stempniak had played 63 games with the Devils this year and had notched an impressive 41 points with a +/- of +3. Stempniak was the one piece that I had completely overlooked when comparing past successful Bruins teams to the team that was hitting the ice for a majority of this season. Every season since the Bruins had won the cup and including that season as well the Bruins had always paired an aging, salty veteran with a scoring touch on a line with Bergeron and Marchand, the two most potent offensive players on the team. This year that position had been filled with Brett Connolly who, although he looks to be well into his 30's, is actually only 23 years old and has shown quite a few signs of inexperience in his play this season. Now however the Bruins can fill that position that has been missing and at the same time bring some veteran presence to a surprisingly young roster the Bruins have iced this year.
In all, I quite liked the deals the Bruins made at the deadline and I really do think they improve the chances the Bruins have at being a threat in the playoffs, especially since the Eastern Conference seems to be wide open this year minus the Washington Capitals. I am glad Sweeney decided not to sell the farm in order to bring talent to an uncertain team and I really don't see any of the pieces the Bruins lost in the trades as valuable. Time will tell if this team can push ahead through their most difficult scheduling stretch of the year and still maintain a playoff spot, but seeing the moves that were made to improve the team, I am slightly more optimistic than I was the Sunday before the deadline.