Bruins vs. Habs: Takeaways

The shootout: Nothing new to hear a diehard fan complain about the shootout, but this game really highlighted a weakness with the current format -- with only 6 shooters, the game ends too quickly. After two and a half hours of furious physical action, spectacular saves, and cut-it-with-a-knife tension, the game ended with a whimper. Here's my vote to move to a 5-shot tiebreaker, in order to extend the spectacle slightly and give it time to build its own sense of momentum.

Comeback-ability: The Bruins have trailed at some point in all three games this season. Against Colorado, they came back quickly to win. Down by 3 to the Wild, they rallied and made it a nail-biter. Last night they salvaged a charity point by scoring 3 straight against the Habs. That's good coaching, folks.

Hit parade: After playing two pretty soft games, the Bruins finally started breaking in the shoulder pads. Numerous large hits all over the ice slowed down the Habs attack and it looked like they were hesitating to rush the net. True to form, PJ Axelsson got absolutely destroyed along the boards.

Savvy/Ryder combo: Jeesh, two more goals for Marc Savard and a few good shots for Ryder. Savard now has 5 goals and an assist in his first 3 games, an inversion of his typical goal/assist ratio. Ryder picked up an A for his 4th point of the season.

Lucic continues to struggle: Looch started the game on the top line with Savard and Ryder, but got demoted quickly. Other than picking up 14 PIM, he was fairly invisible on the ice and spent no time on special teams. Might be a good idea to put him on the occasional PP to get his season started... 1 assist in 3 games is not the returns we need from this guy.

Faceoff problems: David Krejci played well, but was an eyebrow-raising 1-f0r-12 in the faceoff circle. That kind of thing will kill your chances. Other results: Bergeron struggled, winning 7 of 18; Savard won a solid 12 of 19; Yelle was perfect at 6-for-6. [correction: make that 6 wins and 6 losses for Yelle. He was still perfect on the faceoffs he won, though.]

New Guys: I was impressed with Matt Hunwick, who made some defensive errors but was creative and sharp offensively. He's making the Alberts trade look a little better. Sobotka was up to his usual grit-and-sandpaper hijinks, but had little impact.

BellForum Crowd: Perhaps the centennial celebration brought out the wine-and-cheese crowd, but the Habs fans seemed a bit more muted than usual. Other than the frenzy at the end of the first period, there was a sort of chill across the audience -- at least that's how it came across on television. Boos were there for Chara and Ryder as expected, but also for the Canadiens power play. Getting booed while ahead by 2 at the end of the second period during your centennial-celebration home opener? Yikes.

A pretty cool intro montage from this game can be found here.

Good Signs of Things to Come

When Tim Thomas woke up in a waterbed covered in whisky and urine this morning, these were the fuzzy memories that cycled through his head:

- Blake Wheeler laying Darcy Tucker flat on his ass, then scoring his first career goal in his first career game.
- Marc Savard making a nifty (almost)no-look pass to Michael Ryder, who buried it like a guy who can score 30 goals.
- Patrice Bergeron being stoned on three brilliant opportunities, yet still managing a 2-point game.
- Phil Kessel whirling around the ice like a dynamo, or a guy trying not to be traded.
- David Krejci not missing a beat since last season.
- Aaron Ward shattering the glass with a slapshot.
- Zdeno Chara taking one decent slapshot all night, and ringing it right off Savard and into the net.
- Chuck Kobasew being an X factor, and picking up 2 assists.
- Dennis Wideman scoring a +3.
- Chara blocking 6 shots.
- Andrew Ference getting 6 takeaways.
- Milan Lucic throwing 5 hits in 13 minutes.
- Despite all of that, Thomas having to make 35 shots to preserve a crazy win... the first time the Bruins have won an opener since Steve Shields was the #1 goalie.
- Some twat from Def Leppard inverting the Stanley Cup, possibly with Satanic significance.

He's pretty confused about that last memory, which might have had something to do with the crusted blood on his nose, but Timmy Tom will sleep easy tonight knowing it's turning out to be a damned fine road trip already.

What the Yelle is going on here?

Surprise! The Bruins, who gave no indication they were planning on making any more moves this offseason, have signed Stephane Yelle.

To date, the reaction from Bruins faithful has been a collective "Er... Ok?". A team loaded with young, offensive minded centers and virtually no cap space -- of course they'd sign an aging, low-scoring center!

But Yelle brings something to the table that has been lacking on the Bruins roster the past couple of seasons -- faceoff prowess. Last season, Marc Savard was the only Bruin to take more than 300 faceoffs and have a winning record. While Yelle finished at 50% on the nose last season, he has historically been in the 53-55% range each season.

Also, Yelle gives the Bruins the ability to remove a top-line center from the penalty kill. Time will tell how it works out, but the safe money is that Savard gets some extra breathing time. That might turn out to be Yelle's biggest contribution to the offense, as we certainly shouldn't expect to see this too often from a guy who'll be lucky to score 10 goals.

In sum, the Bruins are paying bottom-dollar for a serviceable 4th-line center, penalty-killer and faceoff specialist. Yelle's contract is only for this season, and he'll be paid less than Petteri Nokelainen and Shane Hnidy, so presumably this addition is strictly aimed at deepening the roster and providing some injury insurance (remember late last season when David Krejci was the #1 center? Yeah, so does Peter Chiarelli). Though it might cost Vladimir Sobotka some ice time, worse moves have been made.

Possible forward lines:

Sturm - Savard - Ryder
Lucic - Bergeron - Kessel
Axelsson - Krejci - Kobasew
Schaefer - Yelle - Sobotka

Obligatory mention of Bryan McCabe: Check out this hilarious video of Chara treating McCabe like Patrick Roy's wife.

Big Bad Bruins... reborn?

NHL.com's front-page article on Bruins prospect Brad Marchand features the tagline "Getting His Act Together". The gist of the article is that Marchand has plenty of talent but also has a history of disciplinary issues (including being benched by Ted Nolan in juniors). The juicy question: does this guy have enough character to succeed in the NHL?

This has become a familiar refrain in the Bruins front office under Pete Chiarelli's reign. For pretty much every acquisition of the past 2 years you can add the general comment: "He's got character issues but loads of talent -- let's hope he's worth the risk!". In addition to Marchand, the Bruins have rolled the dice on:

Phil Kessel - Allan Muir recently wrote an S.I. article calling him the "NHL version of T.O.". Nuff said.
Blake Wheeler - Gave the stiff-arm to the 'Yotes after underwhelming as a college player.
Carl Soderberg - See previous thread. Arrrrr.

In a best-case scenario these players could be the forward core of a dynasty. In a worst-case scenario it's a lineup of suspects in the murder of a franchise.

But let's not forget that in the Bruins' glory days of the mid-'70s they carried a little swagger to go along with their talent. Phil Esposito, Brad Park, Derek Sanderson, Wayne Cashman... these guys weren't exactly of the Sakic/Yzerman/Bourque school of quiet excellence. All of them brought character risks to the table, and the combination turned out to be one of the most effective in league history. They were the "Bad Boys" of pro sports when Isiah Thomas and Dennis Rodman were shooting on an 8-foot basket.

Whether the Bruins develop a dynastic chip-on-the-shoulder mentality, or implode like so many other ill-conceived adventures in team-building, is going to fall largely in the lap of coach Claude Julien. At the same time that he's managing the team's veteran players (tag-team goalies, mind-melding Ryder and Savard, coaxing a rebound season out of Axelsson), Julien must channel the youthful energy of the prospects into a vision for long-term success.

Of course, Phil Esposito once said the Big Bad Bruins could've won 5 Cups in a row if they'd been a little more focused.