Boston Sports Then and Now

New York Rangers forward #20 scores the overtime game winner against Boston Bruins goaltender #40 Tuukka Rask to force game 5

What is that old saying in sports? The fourth game is always the hardest to win? Well that was certainly the case last night for the Bruins as the Rangers were able to force game five in Boston. It is unclear to me though as to whether or not the Rangers beat the Bruins, or the Bruins beat themselves in this game. I’m not trying to take anything away from the Rangers, they certainly played like a team that is on the brink, but Boston shot themselves in the foot in a big way in this game, and it ultimately cost them a series sweep.

Game four started out well enough for the B’s. They scored twice early in the game on goals from both Nathan Horton, and Torey Krug. Horton’s goal was a result of some excellent puck movement by Brad Marchand and David Krejci. Krejci found Horton near the bottom of the circle, and he shot the puck through a sliding Henrik Lundqvist. The goal was his 1st of the series. Krug continued his excellent play against the Rangers last night with yet another goal, this one coming from a blast from the point. The goal was his 3rd of the series, and it was assisted by Tyler Seguin and Nathan Horton.

Get this though; both of Boston’s first 2 goals were on the powerplay. The Bruins’ powerplay has been outstanding in the postseason so far, and is actually ranked 5th in the NHL (3rd including teams still in contention). That is a far cry from the regular season where they were hilariously bad on the man advantage at times. What’s weird though is the fact that no one has mentioned their powerplay and its success so far in the playoffs. It has been big for them.

The Rangers managed to add a goal of their own in the first period when Tuukka Rask slipped on the ice and a Carl Hagelin shot went right by him. The thing that hurt about that one was the fact that he could have stopped it as he time to recover, unfortunately he missed it and the Rags got some momentum out of it. Rask would be subject to another soft goal from a Derek Stepan wrap-around. Stepan stole the puck from Zdeno Chara behind the net and tucked it by him before he could react. Tuukka’s temper showed here a little bit, and it was a result of the lackluster play both he and his teammates were showing in game four.

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Matt Bartkowski played in Games 5 and 7 in the first round of the playoffs against Toronto.

As we all know, the Bruins skated past the Maple Leafs by the hair on their chins with an unbelievable comeback win on Monday night. What may not have been quite as obvious or even quite as important at the time was how they were able to get it done. Obviously, they needed to be able to score two goals in less than two minutes, but there was a reason they were within striking distance – if you want to call it that.

Through six games, the B’ had been 3-0 with both Andrew Ference and Wade Redden in the lineup and were 0-3 without both of them in there. In Game 7, however, neither veteran was on the ice and it came down to two rookies – Matt Bartkowski and Dougie Hamilton – playing well enough to get the win. Bartkowski even chipped in with his first career NHL goal in the first period and with Dennis Seidenberg leaving the game very early on, they each played big minutes and logged a lot of ice time.

By no stretch of the imagination were either of these players amazing, but they did enough to help the team win. They combined for just three hits and one blocked shot as well as five shots on goal, but they minimized their mistakes. For Hamilton, especially, he was much better than he was in Game 2 and even late in the regular season, though he was on the ice for the second Toronto goal in Game 7. In Bartkowski’s case, he took advantage of his ice time from Game 5 nearly tripling to make an impact on the game both offensively and defensively.

With returns from Seidenberg, Ference and Redden not looking too likely before the Eastern Conference Semifinals begin Thursday, these two will obviously be counted on for a lot of mistake-free minutes again. Not that it matters, but on the final two Toronto goals in Game 7, mistakes were made by Johnny Boychuk, Adam McQuaid and Zdeno Chara – none of whom are rookies. Boychuk couldn’t seal of Phil Kessel for the rebound on the third goal and after Chara pinched up to allow a Leafs two-on-one, McQuaid was unable to get to Nazem Kadri quick enough to prevent him from putting home the rebound.

So, looking forward to the next series, a lot of the Bruins’ success will weigh on how well Hamilton and Bartkowski will be able to play. As I have said, they did all right in Game 7 when the team had just five defensemen left on the bench. Now, they have had two days to practice with Torey Krug, who is likely to go in Game 1 tonight, as well. This means new partners for almost everyone except Hamilton, who is fairly used to playing with Chara.

The key against the Rangers will be how well the makeshift defense of the Bruins stacks up against some of the tougher forwards in the league from New York. It’s not just Rick Nash, who was not even close to their most productive forward in the first round, but New York has more than a few forwards who can make plays and score goals. Sure, Chara may be on the ice for most of Nash’s shifts, and as we saw in Game 1 of the Kings-Sharks series, that can be effective, but there are other ways this team can beat you. The young defenders will have to step up since Chara cannot play 60 minutes a night.

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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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Wow

I remember watching Toronto’s Matt Frattin skate towards Tuukka Rask in the third period on breakaway with the Leafs already up 4-2, and thinking to myself “This ought to do it”. A 2 goal lead with three minutes left to go in regulation is usually enough to win a hockey game, especially when your opponent has simply not played to the best of their abilities. However, Rask turned Frattin aside, and two minutes later the Bruins completed a historic comeback to tie the game.

As all Bruins fans watched the team in the waning minutes of the third period, I am sure thoughts like “are they going to fire Claude”? or “Are they going to trade Lucic and Seguin”? crossed all their minds. The Bruins had something different in mind, they were focused and determined. It might have taken 50 minutes of game time to wake up the bear, but when it did wake up they did something truly special, and I don’t think anyone is ever going to forget it.

The Bruins got on the board first in game 7. Recent call-up Matt Bartkowski wristed home a nice shot from the top of the circles to give the B’s the early lead in the first. From then on it would be all Toronto Maple Leafs heading into the midway point of the third period. With two goals from Cody Franson, Phil Kessel, and Nazem Kadri; the Toronto Maple Leafs squeezed all of the hopes and dreams out of the Bruins faithful.

The B’s would add another goal on an excellent effort from both David Krejci and Milan Lucic, to find Nathan Horton for his 4th of the playoffs so far. This goal got the Bruins going a little bit, and they picked up their play as a result. The only real dark spot on the Bruins’ final ten minutes of play was the above mentioned breakaway by Matt Frattin. With 1:22 to go in the game, Lucic knocked in a Zdeno Chara rebound from the point to put the Bruins within one goal of tying the game. 31 seconds later, Patrice Bergeron would tie the game after some excellent cycle work at the point with Jaromir Jagr and David Krejci. It was truly a site to behold.

The Bruins forced overtime against a team that had had them on the ropes the entire game. In overtime, a great job in front of the net from Tyler Seguin would allow Bergeron to skate onto a bad clear attempt from Jake Gardiner, and win the series for the Black & Gold. The TD Garden lost their minds in a good way, while those Leafs fans watching the game outside the Air Canada Center lost theirs in a bad way. A young inexperienced Toronto Maple Leafs choked in a big way last night, but they should be proud of the way they played. Sometimes a big loss can be a blessing in disguise.

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First off, I am a Tyler Seguin supporter or a “Seguinista” since he was number two overall in the 2010 NHL draft.  With that being said, I am not going to tell you his performance in the playoffs this season has not been a disappointment.

It has.

He has relied on one offensive move and is not burying his chances. It is maddening.

However, he is battling his ass off for the puck and in the corners. Granted, he may not be winning many of these battles but it’s not due to lack of effort.  He has shown some pulse as some of his linemates are flat-lining.

Of course, Patrice Bergeron is his all world self defensively, but he only has one goal through six games. On the other wing, Brad Marchand has been a shell of himself. He is not physical, he is not being an agitator and he is not scoring with only two assists on his ledger. The “Little Ball Of Hate” has been so bad that you have to think he is injured.

So why does Marchand get a free pass for his disappointing, invisible play?

Because he is not a first rounder like Seguin?

Marchand has first round level expectations as he led the team in goals this season and was only one goal off the pace in 2012. So the blame needs to be spread around to those like Marchand, Kelly & Peverley as well.

The Phil Kessel and Tyler Seguin comparisons are not fair now either. Kessel has decided to finally play to potential as Seguin has picked the worst possible time and opponent to have a scoring drought.  The pressure is on and “The Kid” is squeezing the stick so tight that he is left with sawdust.

Tyler Seguin is not and will not be the reason why the 2013 Boston Bruins fail (maybe Claude for his stubbornness to change things up perhaps?)

Let’s hope he can score a big goal and shut up the haters who want to ride him out of town.

Just because the regular season is over, it does not mean that the Bruins have stopped producing interesting stats. They are just doing it all against the same team. Technically, the regular season did end less than two weeks ago, so this is officially the last regular-season edition of By The Numbers, but hopefully not the last postseason one. Find out how many Bruins’ defensemen have had four-assist games, all the important postseason information about the team and learn who had better or worse seasons in 2013. And, of course, a whole lot on that guy who wears No. 46 in Black and Gold. This is Boston Bruins: Last Two Weeks By The Numbers. 

The 2013 season by the numbers.

0: Milan Lucic finished the season with no power-play goals for just the second time in six NHL seasons (2009-10).

0: Somehow, despite having four assists in Game 4 of the first-round series against Toronto, Zdeno Chara finished the night with only an even rating to show for it.

1: The Maple Leafs scored their first goal of Game 4 on their first shot on goal just 2:35 in.

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