Bruins Beat: Eriksson Leads Booming Offense

First off I would like to apologize for this post being late a few days but I personally wanted to wait for the Bruins five game home stand to end on Saturday so as to deliver a more informed recap of the five games the Bruins played on home ice the past week and a half. Because I will be going over five games in this one post I won’t so much be doing a recap of each game but instead a more general recap of the teams play over the course of the five games. Without further ado, let us begin.
I ended off last post by mentioning the games upcoming for Boston, specifically how the B's would be starting their home stand against one of the statistically worse teams in the league, the Colorado Avalanche. Unfortunately the Bruins must have looked too deeply into the standings and believed a minimal effort would be enough to down the lowly Avalanche, and it almost seemed like they might have been right as they jumped off to an early 2-0 lead within the opening six minutes of the game off goals by Chara and Spooner. Those first 6 minutes were the only quality hockey the Bruins played that game however and with each passing minute looked slower, lazier and overall more apathetic then the previous minute. The Bruins would allow 3 unanswered goals in the next 2 periods and went on to lose to the Avs 3-2. An extremely disappointing game that left Bruins fans and head coach Claude Julien displeased with the quality of effort shown by the Bruins squad, as well as a lack of consistency that has plagued them the whole season. Continuing the theme of inconsistency the Bruins came out two nights later firing at all cylinders and were able to take down fellow Atlantic Division contender the Detroit Red Wings with a score of 3-1. All 3 of Boston' s goals came in the second period, coming off the sticks of Patrice Bergeron, Torey Krug and David Krejci who at this point in the schedule lead the Bruins in points as well as being ranked as one of the top 10 point producing forwards in the league. Couple this offensive surge with a solid effort from Tuukka Rask allowing only one power play goal and the Bruins come away with a solid W to end the week.
The Bruins had two days off between the game against Detroit and their game against San Jose and one of their most disappointing games of the season. The Bruins came out of the first period tied after allowing a goal in the opening two minutes which seemed like a victory within itself as they were heavily out pressured and outworked. The following period was nothing short of disastrous as the Bruins undisciplined and sloppy play lead to 3 minor penalties within a span of 4 minutes. These penalties resulted in 3 San Jose goals and left the Bruins floundering and down 5-3 after 2 periods. They would add one goal in the final ten minutes but were unable to equalize and fell to a Sharks team that has also struggled this season with playing consistent and disciplined hockey (although as I write this the Sharks have beaten the Blue Jackets to extend their winning streak to six games.) Of course, as has somewhat become a tradition or a law of this year’s Bruins, the next game against a much more powerful and ferocious Minnesota Wild team was leagues better in the effort department as well as the defense aspect of the game and the Bruins were able to outwork the Wild on their way to a 4-2 architected offensively by Loui Eriksson’s 3 goals which makes him the top scorer for the Bruins highly ranked offense as of this moment. To cap off the home stand the Bruins were finally able to put 2 wins together and blanked the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-0 with goals coming late in the third from Chara and Marchand. Overall, the Bruins had a good home stand, winning 3 of 5 and staying in the race for playoff contention which heats up every year around the whole league come American Thanksgiving. It was disappointing that the two teams the Bruins lost to seemed to be the most exploitable, which deepens my concern for the Bruins as they continue to play with inconsistent effort on a night to night basis. The overwhelming positive for this home stand was Kevan “Worse Than Stalin and Hitler Combined” Miller was injured with an upper body injury and will be out for the next four or five games. Seeing as Miller has played like nothing short of hot garbage fills me with hope that during his injury one of our young defenseman will be called upon to (permanently) fill his spot in the roster and allow him to (permanently) rest and recover.

Bruins Beat: Bipolar Play Continues

Needless to say I am pretty happy that I'll be able to write about what I want on this blog in the foreseeable future and as far as I'm concerned that means the consummation of a weekly Bruins beat writing blog. As the regular season grinds on I'll be happy to share exactly how I feel about all aspects of the team, from roster moves to overall play. I hope you guys enjoy reading my opinions and sharing with me the elation and sometimes devastation that will come with being a fan of an in-between team like the Boston Bruins. Anyhow, lets talk about the week that was in terms of this Boston hockey club.
Unfortunately for myself and all Bruins fans, the past week since my last blog post has been dull beyond belief with only two games being played in a back to back road stint this past weekend. on Friday the Bruins traveled to the Centre Bell for the first time this season to challenge the league-leading Montreal Canadiens for the second time this season. There was a greater feeling of anticipation this time around for Bruins fans because Montreals stud goalie Carey "Literally Perfect" Price was sidelined with a lower-body injury. Unfortunately for the Bruins they instead had to face a red hot rookie net minder, and Hollistons own, Mike Condon who had been brick wall-esque in his first 6 starts with a 5-0-1 record and a save percentage of .941. The game that ensued that night turned out to be one of the worst officiated games that either Boston or Montreal has had the displeasure of playing this year. The Canadiens were subject to 4 minor penalties that night, 3 of which came early in the first period and allowed the Bruins to jump ahead on a power play goal by Loui Eriksson. The next period and a half was an example of great end to end hockey by both teams that were left tied at 2 after goals by Montreal Lars Eller and Bostons Frank Vatrano, his first NHL goal. However what looked to be a solid game for Boston that was headed for overtime was ruined quickly and concisely by one David Krejci who took his third minor penalty of the night with a little more than 2 minutes to go in regulation. Seeing as the Bruins had the worst penalty kill in the league heading into that night, many fans including me were left dumbfounded at how Krejci could be so undisicplined in the waning minutes of an important game. Boston of course subsequently allows the go ahead goal to Montreal with little more than one minute into the game, souring what could have been an amazing character-building win for the Bruins, or at least a much needed point. I myself felt almost obligated to put my fist squarely through my tv at that point but thankfully resisted that temptation.
The following day the Bruins played once again on the road but this time in the heart of Brooklyn facing off against the New York Islanders, a team that has been playing somewhat subpar in comparison to the big expectations the team had coming out of the gate. The game was quiet in the beginning with each team playing tired hockey for a solid ten minutes. Two quick minors for the Isles found them in a 5-3 situation which the Bruins powerplay, still ranked number 1 in the league, quickly cashed in on. The goal came off a nice passing play between David Krejci and Ryan Spooner and gave the Bruins the first goal in the game for the 13th time in 14 games. The Bruin would score again in the second when Patrice Bergeron tipped home a hard shot by Kevan Miller. This game was a great confidence builder for a strugglin Tuukka Rask who was able to play hockey reminiscent of last years domination he showed while in net. The Islanders only goal came from one dearly missed Johnny "Johnny Rocket" Boychuk late in the third which allowed the Bruins to coast to their 7th win of the season. One of the only negative things about the Bruins play on Sunday was their lack of discipline in the 3rd period, taking 6 minor penalties but were able to successfully kill of 5 of the 6.
All in all, not a bad set of games from the Bruins in a slow week, but I have a feeling that that Montreal game is going to stick in the back of Krejci's mind for a good part of the next month, which will hopefully lead to more disciplined, although most likely more careful play from him, which may turn out to be a blessing rather than a curse. The Bruin start a 5 game home stand tonight as I am writing this, taking  on the basement dwelling Colorado Avalanche.

Straying From the Norm

Throughout the course of this blog I have currently not strayed away from the topics that we cover in our everyday English classroom. Today I would like to change that as I was told that I could write about anything I wanted for this particular blog post and I decided this would be a good time to talk about something I am very passionate which is sports, in particular the Boston Bruins and hockey as a whole.
The Boston Bruins this year a fickle team. They are a team comprised of old hats, new faces and plenty of young blood in place of griseled veterans like Greg Campbell, Danny Paille and Milan Lucic, who were shipped out hastily by the newly appointed GM Don Sweeney. Sweeney was hired at the end of last year when previous GM Peter Chiarelli was shipped out of town due to a disappointing season that saw the Bruins missing the playoffs for the first time in 7 years. A more prominent factor in the Bruins decision to end relations with Chiarelli however may be the fact that in those 8 years as Bruins GM Chiarelli was able to manifest one of the most disgusting salary cap situations currently in the NHL. Chiarelli was notorious fro being too generous with his payment of older veterans that brought little to the table in terms of scoring and offensive production, as well as handing out no-trade clauses to every pylon that has passed through the Bruins bottom 6 forwards. This culminated in a team in 2014-15 that was, on most nights, physically unable to put pucks in the net which provided some of the most frustrating hockey I have ever seen in my 9 years of watching an understanding the game. This, combined with terrible drafting in the past 4 or 5 years had left the Bruins at the end of last season with little to no offensive production, an ageing top defensive pair and a barren minor league prospect pool. Therefore, Chia went out the door and Sweeney entered the fray.
Sweeney made some interesting moves over the off season, like trading Dougie Hamilton and Milan Lucic for picks and prospects as well as Riley Smith for good ol' Dorchester boy Jimmy Hayes. This combined with surges from young Bruins forwards David Pastrnak and Brett Conolly had the Bruins suddenly looking very potent on the offensive end of the spectrum. Unfortunately, the defense was left mostly unchanged and with Dennis Sidenberg going down in preseason with a back injury, the Bruins are currently left with what looks like there worst defensive set up since captain Zdeno Chara first joined the team. So far in 12 games this season the Bruins have notched 6 wins, 5 loses and 1 overtime loss and are situated right smack in the middle of the eastern conference. The major issue that I can see with the team right now is our inability to solidify and regulate our defensive play which is especially difficult with Sidenberg, one of the Bruins most powerful veteran presences, out for at least another 2 weeks. The rookies that are spotted throughout the lineup have had flashes of greatness, but remain inconsistent and until these inconsistencies are addressed, I'm afraid the Bruins this year will be nothing more than a .500 team able to beat up on lesser teams, but unable to hang with the big boys in the conference and will most likely be heading to the driving ranges in mid-April with the rest of the playoff excludees.

The Ending of Winesburg

Winesburg Ohio was one of those books in English that I really believed wouldn't be able to hold my attention. There were a couple stories that I highlighted in my previous blog posts that stood out to me as being interesting and intriguing but other than that I didn't feel much of a connection to the characters or the strife they were faced with during daily life in the small Ohio town. One of the major reasons why I failed to connect with the characters was that many of the themes and motifs that drove the members of the town to become grotesque beings were characteristics I have never experienced before. Thoughts like complete isolation and utter hatred for others was something alien to me and in some cases I didn't understand what led the characters to develop these feelings.
Two of the major themes that reoccurred the most during the story were the feeling of isolation and alienation. Many of the characters in the stories felt isolated because they lacked connection with the other members of the town. These connections were never formed or were broken for many different reasons, but one theme that stayed constant with why these connections were broken was a form of alienation or exclusion for some reason. This reason could either be a detestable act that happened in the past or it could have stemmed from an overall discomfort that was given off by the character. In the case of characters like Kate the schoolteacher, she felt isolated and alienated because of her physical appearance as well as her seemingly unnatural attraction to George Williard, a boy she used to teach. Anyway you look at it, the characters in Winesburg felt alone, with little to look forward to in their lives doing nothing but waiting for the sweet embrace from their future lover death to swallow them up and end their suffering.

Respectability of Man

In the two weeks it has been since my last post here, our class has continued to make headway with the book we started and that I discussed in my last post, Winesburg Ohio. In the classes since that last post we have examined and vigorously fondled the short stories about the people of the small Ohioan town and the reasons why there lives are nothing but pain, suffering and horribly grotesque truth. Similarly to Wing Biddlebaum in the story Hands, each character featured in the book has their own issue that needs to be worked through, whether it be physical, mental or social. In just about every case, however, the townspeople are unable to come to terms with the issues they wrestle with and instead continue to live their lives ailed by mental and social stigmas that they themselves are unable to solve, or sometimes even understand that they have a problem at all.

One of the stories that I have read since Hands that has stood out to me was the one titled Respectability. Respectability centers around a man named Wash Williams, the telegraph operator for the town of Winesburg. Wash is one of the more ironically named members of the town as he is described as the ugliest, fattest and dirtiest people in Winesburg. It is also well known throughout the town that Wash despises all women, going so far as to describe them as emotionally dead, deceitful creatures. It is not until Wash sits down with George Williard that we understand why he holds this animosity towards woman. When Wash was younger he had a wife that he loved very much, but later found out that she was cheating on him with multiple men while he worked. Disgusted, Wash packed up and left his wife, yet still showed signs that he cared for her by sending her money that he got from selling the house they once lived in. Months later, Wash was invited to his ex-wife's mother's house to try and patch things up. Wash arrived with almost complete intentions of reconciling with her until hes ex was sent into the room completely naked. His mother in law had decided the simplest way to get a man back was simply through sex and thought nothing of manipulating her daughter into doing this. Wash snapped and almost killed his mother in law for the reason that he believed that this act showed that not only was his wife deceitful, but that all woman were deceitful and were not to be trusted or dealt with at all. One of the more interesting parts of this story I thought was in the first paragraph, where Anderson spends time describing a dirty little monkey that lives in a cage in the center of town. Particularly, the comment that described how the women of the town spent time relating the monkey to the various men in their lives. This aspect foreshadows the misogynistic views that Wash would developed after dealing with his wife and mother in laws deception, and  also perhaps reflects how Anderson himself feels towards women in his own life, that they are indeed deceitful or untrustworthy.

The Woes of Winesburg

This week in English class we started reading a new book called Winesburg, Ohio. It was written by a man named Sherwood Anderson, a man who lived anything but an ordinary life. Anderson lived in many small Ohio towns in his lifetime before getting married and starting up his own very successful mail order business which made him pretty wealthy in early 1900's standards. However, due to a couple significant nervous breakdowns, Anderson completely dropped his current job, family and life altogether to go and become a novelist, much to the chagrin of his wife and children. He wrote Winesburg as a reflection of one of the towns in Ohio he had lived in in the past and created characters to fill the town, all of which had certain ugly truths that they wished not to be so but were. These truths were called Grotesques in literary terms and created depth within each person who called Winesburg home.

The first story in the novel is called "Hands", a story told through the eyes of a young reporter and Winesburg native as he talked with and observed a man named Wing Biddlebaum. Wing had an interesting relationship with the towns people as his best known attribute was his hands, which were known for their incredible speed and precision most notably while berry picking. Wing wasn't always his name however, for before he moved to Winesburg he was known as Adolph and was a school teacher in one of the neighboring towns. Wing was wrongly persecuted by the townspeople for touching and fondling the boys he taught and was promptly run out of town. He changed his name and forsook the hands that he had once held close to him. Wing's grotesque is that, as he does not know exactly why he was run out of town, he believes that him caring for and nurturing young minds was shameful and wrong, and lived his current life so as not to offend anyone else by doing it again. I thought this story was interesting because it actually isn't the first time I've read it and I missed a lot of details the first time around that, when put together, make the story much more engaging and thought provoking than before.

When Dreams and Reality Cross Paths

This week, our English class dove into the history of psychology specifically focusing on one individual who's work and study helped make the study of the mind what it is today. That mans name was Sigmund Freud and he was an Austrian born neurologist who had a particular fascination with the brain and its many functions and intricacies.  One particular facet of the brain that fascinated Freud was the subconscious. Freud's research helped to break the mind into three parts, the Id, Ego and Superego, and analyze what each part of the mind is responsible for in how people think and act. One example of this would be that the Id is more responsible for primal instincts, like arousal or anger, while the ego is more responsible for intellectual and cognitive thinking and decision making. Freud studied the mind further, particularly focusing on defense mechanisms which are ways the human mind deals with stress or traumatic events.  Some mechanisms can be as subtle as suppressing any thoughts of the event or conflict and can be as drastic as tearing the subconscious apart and creating split personalities.

Another thing we learned about that I found particularly interesting was dreams and how one can interpret their dreams to understand how they feel on certain aspects of their life. Dreams act as sort of "wish fulfillment" as they portray what or how the person wants to deal with a traumatic event or conflict. These dreams are filled with symbolic meaning and metaphors to help avoid facing problems head on and this is the part of dreams that can be interpreted. I particularly liked when Ms. Baskin interpreted both of Anthony's dreams of focusing around phallic symbols and animosity towards his father.