Boston Sports Then and Now

The Boston Bruins and New York Rangers are set to collide in the semifinals of the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.

While some of us fans are still thinking about the “miracle on causeway”, the Bruins turn their attentions to the New York Rangers. The Rangers moved on to the second round of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs after beating the Washington Capitals in 7 games. The Toronto Maple Leafs certainly challenged the Bruins in a variety of ways during their first round playoff match-up. Had it not been for spectacular comeback, the B’s would be sitting at home watching this series with Toronto in their place.

The Rangers are whole different type of animal, they pose a greater challenge to Boston in a bevy of areas, and the Bruins will have to bring a much better effort overall if they hope to keep up. I am going to break down the preview into three areas and discuss the advantages, and disadvantages both teams have in this series.

Forwards:

I think the Bruins match-up really well here. David Krejci leads the NHL in playoff scoring right now, and his linemates have been excellent thus far into the post-season. Milan Lucic has all but erased his miserable regular season with an impressive showing, and he is currently ranked 5th in the NHL playoff scoring leaders. Nathan Horton has also been up to the task with 4 goals, 3 assists, and a league leading +11 in the post season.

The real question here is the rest of the Bruins offense. Patrice Bergeron’s line with Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand was basically none existent in the first round against Toronto, and it wasn’t until game 7 that they finally contributed offensively. Seguin finally broke his scoring slump against the Leafs with an assist on Bergeron’s series clinching goal. Hopefully it lit a fire underneath him, and the rest of that line. Seguin has been reportedly playing with Rich Peverley and Chris Kelly on the third line in practice, while Jaromir Jagr has been moved up in his place. I think creates more balance throughout, and will take pressure of the young winger, while letting Jagr have a more important role in the top six. The Bruins’ bottom six was invisible against the Leafs, and to beat the Rangers they will need to elevate their play, and give Claude Julien the ability to role all four lines.

It has been somewhat of an unexpected season for the New York Rangers. The off-season addition of Rick Nash had many thinking the Rags would be an elite Eastern Conference team. Unfortunately for New York, inconsistent play from some pretty big players led to some pretty big changes. Brad Richards hasn’t been the same scoring machine he has been throughout his career since joining the Rangers, and was virtually non existent throughout the first round against the Capitals. In his debut in New York, Rick Nash was better than expected. He scored 21 goals, 21 assists, and a +16 in 44 games. Unfortunately he has yet to turn his good regular season into post season success. He only registered 2 assists in the Rangers’ series win.

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Boston Bruins forward #46 David Krejci scores the game winning goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime in game 4, the goal capped off his 2nd career playoff hat trick

The Boston Bruins have put themselves in an excellent position for game 5 tonight at the TD Garden. After a big overtime win in Toronto, the B’s head home with a 3-1 series lead having won both games at the Air Canada Center. They have played much better than they have all season in this series, and look more like champions and less like the pitiful excuse for a hockey club we got down the stretch into the playoffs.

A big part of there turn-around is the ever reliable David Krejci in post season play. While Tim Thomas was shutting down every team the Bruins faced in the 2011 Stanley Cup Run, it was Krejci who was quietly leading the NHL in playoff points. While Timmy soaked up all the spotlight, Krejci put up 12 goals, 11 assists, and a +8 in all 25 of the B’s playoff games. He also added 4 game winners in that run, and a hat trick against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The hat trick from 2011 was important to bring up because he scored his second NHL playoff hat trick in game 4 against the Leafs. His performance as been incredibly valuable to the Bruins in the first round of the playoffs, and it is a big reason they lead Toronto 3-1 with a chance to win the series tonight on Garden ice. He is also leading the entire NHL in playoff scoring with 5 goals, 5 assists, and a +7 in 4 games.

Not to be overlooked in his performance Wednesday night is Zdeno Chara. Chara had a 4 assists playoff game which is a Bruins playoff record. That’s right, not even Bobby Orr, Ray Bourque, and Brad Park had more assists in a single playoff game. Big Z is also averaging a monstrous 27:30 minutes of ice time a game.

Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton continue to erase their roller coaster seasons with solid performances every night. Some credit does go to David Krejci here again, but we have seen a more aggressive Lucic, and another clutch showing from Horton. In fact, Horton already has 2 game winning goals against Toronto, which brings him to 5 in 25 career playoff games.

Tuukka Rask’s numbers may not show how outstanding he has been, but anyone who has watched him in this series will tell you. Rask has allowed 10 goals in the Bruins first 4 games against Toronto on 147 shots against. His save percentage is stellar at .932, but his goals against average is 2.39. I tend to place more emphasis in value on the save percentage in this situation though, given Rask had to face 45+ shots in both games in Toronto. Regardless of how you look at it, Rask has been good for the Bruins, and he has likely put to rest any concern for his playoff abilities.

All is not well in Toronto though, despite what was arguably their best game in game 4, they came away with an overtime loss. They will be up against it in a big way when they take the ice in Boston tonight. Its win or go home for the Leafs tonight, and they have to do it against a experienced Bruins team which has had their number for the better part of the last five seasons.

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Bruins goaltender #40 Tuukka Rask has been outstanding in the #1 role this season

The Boston Bruins have gotten off to an excellent start in the lockout shortened 2012/13 season. Having only lost one game in overtime and none in regulation; the B’s have been performing at level similar to that of their Stanley Cup run in 2011. Here are six thoughts in reference to their start to the season both positive and negative.

Tuukka Time: Tuukka Rask’s tenure in Boston has been somewhat of a roller coaster. He won the job from Vezina winner Tim Thomas in 2010 and promptly lost the job the following season due to a historic season from Thomas. Last season wasn’t much better for Rask despite having pretty good numbers with a .929 save percentage, a 2.05 goal against average, and a line of 11-8-3 with three shutouts. The Bruins failed to get him any support on the scoreboard in just about all of his starts. His season was also ruined when the team needed him most as he suffered a season ending injury when it was expected that he would play the majority of the games down the stretch to rest Thomas.

Now that “Tank” has decided he needs to spend more time with the three F’s; Rask finally has the number one spot all to himself and so far he has not disappointed in the early going. In just five games the young Finn has a line of 4-0-1 with a stellar .932 save percentage and 1.74 goals against. Rask has been so good this season that he has the Bruins and the fans asking “Thomas who?” If Rask continues to play at the level he has so far, he may have a shot at a Vezina and possibly a Stanley Cup at the end of the season.

Seguin Underwhelming: After torching the score sheets in the Swiss league during the lockout, the expectation for Seguin was that he would walk onto the Bruins and immediately start leading the team in just about every offensive category. Why wouldn’t the fans expect this? Seguin scored 25 goals, 15 assists, and a minus 4 in 29 games. He finally began to look like he was ready to reach his potential as a franchise center, after his major improvements the season prior. Maybe the expectations for him were unfair given the differences in play styles between the European leagues and the NHL. Euro leagues emphasize skill set, skating, and have larger rinks. The North American game has smaller rinks, and is focused more on a tight checking/hard hitting game.

In all honesty, Seguin really hasn’t been that bad. In fact he has been pretty solid through the first six games with 1 goal, 2 assists, and a plus 4. My biggest criticism of Seguin so far is his failure to take control of the powerplay and make it his own. This is something the Bruins’ maligned extra-man unit has desperately needed. It is clear that Seguin is still transitioning to the smaller NHL rinks after being able to put on a skating exhibition in the Euro leagues. Fortunately the B’s haven’t needed him to become the offensive superstar he is expected to be but they will eventually and when that time comes, Tyler Seguin will need to be better.

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Boston Bruins Die Hards were out in full force Thursday night for the Hockey Resurrection Party at the Harp Boston.

As the much anticipated puck drop for the Bruins’ season opener on Saturday the 17th approaches, many B’s fans gathered at The Harp in Boston Thursday night for the Hockey Resurrection Party. The event was organized by Ring Communications and Boston Sports Then & Now/Big Bad Bruins. 98.5 The Sports Hub and Coors Light were there for giveaways and a silent auction was held with items supplied by Sports World USA.  Among the esteemed guests were legendary TD Garden anthem singer Rene Rancourt, Bruins enforcer Shawn Thornton, and former Bruin and WAAF personality Lyndon Byers.

The Bruins faithful were out in full force tonight as most of the night saw many fans shoulder to shoulder, donned in black and gold, just happy to celebrate the return of their beloved Boston Bruins.

CSNNE‘s A. Sherrod Blakely stopped by the party, and despite admitting to only having gone to one Bruins game, was still impressed by the turnout of the fans. “The Bruins are obviously a big deal in Boston” said Blakely “It’s a great, great atmosphere”. He wasn’t kidding, over 600 fans packed into the Harp Thursday night for the event.

“When I used to cover the ACC in North Carolina, the fans were very rowdy” Blakely continued “Bruins fans remind me of that, they become a part of the game”.

Among the many Bruins die-hards in attendance was a man with a Viking’s helmet and a shield sporting the Bruins’ logo, a gentleman with a fake beard and a Winter Classic jersey with Eddie Shore’s number 2 on the back, and an uncountable amount of Bruins jerseys featuring the numbers of current, former, and retired players.

Those in attendance were treated to an early preview of something they knew all too well. Rene Rancourt sang his rendition of the star spangled banner for the crowd prompting them to sing along. He then said he would be singing the Canadian anthem Saturday in French asking “anyone in here speak French?”. One man in the crowd could and Rancourt gave him the mic. After allowing the fan to sing a few lines Rene took the mic back and said to the crowd “Let’s throw this guy out of here”.

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The NHLPA and NHL have reached a tentative agreement to end the 2012-13 NHL Lockout

Most people are pretty unhappy when they have to be awake at six in the morning, and usually I am right there with them. Today is different though, not because I woke up on the “right” side of the bed this morning, but because the NHLPA and NHL have reached a tentative agreement to end the NHL Lockout.

The news broke early this morning by the media in attendance including TSN analyst and former Bruin Aaron Ward, TSN’s Darren Dreger, and ESPN’s Pierre Lebrun. The story from TSN can be read here.

“We have reached an agreement on the framework of a new collective bargaining agreement,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman confirmed to reporters early Sunday morning. “I want to thank Don Fehr. We still have more work to do, but it’s good to be at this point.”

While details are few at this time and are the typical “more to follow” variety; it is known that the new deal is 10 years in length. The tentative deal was finally reached after a marathon session of negotiations which eclipsed nearly 16 hours and led into the early morning of today.

It also appears as if the deal features a salary cap of $64.3 million in the second year which is a common ground for both parties as the owners wanted for the cap to be $60 million. It is this concession that is believed to hold major significance in reaching a deal between both parties.

According to ESPN and TSN analyst Pierre Lebrun, the NHL has both 50 game and 48 games schedules drawn up depending on how long it takes to ratify the new CBA. It is unknown at this time as to how long that process will take. What I can tell you is that the NHL Lockout is all but over. There are still some minor things to be done, but for all intents and purposes, we will be seeing hockey pretty soon.

More information will come out over time and we here at Boston Sports Then & Now will keep you all abreast of it as it is released. For now you can all sit back, relax, and think about your beloved black & gold taking the ice at the TD Garden sometime in the next couple of weeks.

You can follow me on twitter for any and all NHL, Bruins, and hockey related news here: Mattjacob64

Boston Bruins goaltending prospect Malcolm Subban seen here with his OHL junior team the Belleville Bulls, has had an excellent start to the 2012/13 season

While the drudgery of the lockout looms over the owners, players, personnel, and the fans; there is still enough Bruins related news to keep you and I busy. Various B’s have taken to the various European leagues around the globe, while others have decided to stick it out on the home front in hopes of a resolution sooner rather than later.

Unaffected by all of the lockout turmoil are the various OHL and minor league players throughout North America. Players in the AHL, CHL, QMJHL, and WHL are all still playing their seasons without limitations of a CBA negotiation. Here we are going to look at a few Bruins prospects and their seasons to date.

Malcolm Subban: The Bruins hoped to hit a home run with Subban when they took the young goaltender with the 24th overall selection in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. With Tim Thomas deciding that hockey wasn’t for him anymore, the Bruins felt that this was an excellent time to add to their organization goaltending depth. The move wasn’t without its drama as Malcolm is the younger brother of Montreal’s PK Subban who is despised in Boston. Despite the feeling for his brother throughout New England, Bruins fans everywhere welcomed the young net minder with open arms.

Subban has the incredible athletic ability to be both an upper echelon goaltender in the NHL and a “draft bust”. I am pleased to say that Malcolm’s start the 2012/13 OHL season has indicated that he will be leaning towards the high-end potential area as opposed to the dreaded bust territory. As the starting goaltender for the Belleville Bulls, Subban has the opportunity to work on a consistent level and work on refining his game. As you may or may not know, Malcolm began playing goaltender far later in his development than any other player in his position. This has caused his game to lack some of the traits of a more refined and traditional style.

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