Bruins' First Semester Grades

Holiday over... blogging starts again today.

While I was gone:
- The Winter Classic was so popular, my in-laws watched it.
- Crosby had the second-most embarrassing fight of the weekend. So far.
- The Bruins discovered you can't win 'em all, though you can certainly come close.
- Americans celebrated the annual "remember that the NHL still exists and think about watching a game this season" holiday weekend.

In honor of all the kids enjoying their winter break, it's the Bruins' report card through the New Year:

Kessel: A+
Suddenly, the best wrist-shot in the league.

Savard: A+
Still waiting for recognition as a contemporary Adam Oates.

Thomas: A+
Is it possible that this guy won't even be on the roster next season? Stay tuned.

Fernandez: A
A bigger surprise than Thomas. The perfect backup early on, now he's the perfect 1B.

Krejci: A
The NHL's most improved player?

Wideman: B+
Remember when we were willing to trade a promising young forward for a reliable #2 blueliner? Me neither.

Wheeler: B+
Not all Calder candidates pan out in the long run. Wheeler will.


Ryder: B
A frustrating start, but he's justified the contract so far.


Lucic: B
A great season statistically, and full of highlight hits... but still a sense of untapped potential.

Chara: B
His B-game might be awesome, but it's not good enough for the captain of a contender.

Hunwick: B-
After a startlingly strong debut, he's back down to earth as a struggling rookie.

Yelle: B-
As long as he wins key faceoffs, we can overlook his 10-goal pace.

Sturm: C+
Another year of waiting for him to blossom -- unless he turns it up this month, consider him late-season trade bait.

Kobasew: C
Not to hold his injury against him, but Kobie's taken a big step backward this season.

Ward: C-
No goals and three assists in 29 games? Really?

Axelsson: C-
Even a defensive specialist has got to pose some offensive threat to justify a roster spot.

Stuart: D+
See: Alberts, Andrew

Nokelainen: D+
Even before the shoulder injury, he'd done little to secure a permanent callup.

Hnidy: D
The most waiver-worthy player on the team, except that his contagious toughness is hard to replace.

Thornton: Alligator
The guy you'd want in your foxhole.

Bergeron: I
The big question: how soon is too soon?

Bruins vs. Thrashers: Takeaways

For the first time this season, I got the chance to see the Bruins live tonight. As good as NESN makes them look, there's nothing like the real thing.

- Philips Arena is a fairly nice, though character-free, place to see a hockey game. It's part of the CNN Center, which is basically a mall/hotel complex, which makes for a Whaler-esque gameday experience. Go to the mall, grab a taco, see a hockey game.

Believe it or not, there are a decent number of Thrashers fans who really support the team. Unfortunately they are a minority in their own building -- more than two-thirds of the crowd is either visiting fans or casual attendees. Though the game presentation is sharp and the hardcore fans are dedicated, the overall atomosphere in the arena (even on a holiday weekend with a smoking-hot Original Six opponent) is muted. Well, muted is a soft word. Let's use "dead" instead.

Does the NHL belong in Atlanta? I think so. But only when the Thrashers organization gets its act together, and connects its fans with a promising and exciting team, will we see any rewards from this gamble. If the league decides to cut its losses and the Thrashers move, it won't be without collateral damage to the fanbase who continue to support them in spite of a mountain of challenges.

- Make no mistake, the Bruins didn't play winning hockey tonight. They were sloppy with the puck, especially in their own end, and took foolish penalties at bad times. Manny Fernandez stood on his head but was also very lucky not to let in 3 or 4 goals. With 10 minutes left in the game, I had that "We're playing right into their hands" feeling.

For their part, the Thrashers played very conservatively and spent the evening looking for a game-breaking play. Their problem isn't a lack of effort or coaching, but a lack of talent from top to bottom. This is not a roster that would be fixed by upgrading one, two, or even five roster slots. What can you do when you're in that position? I wonder how their fans feel about the second half of the season.

- David Krecji's assist on the game-winning goal was truly a thing of beauty. Only a truly special playmaker would've had both the vision and the skill to identify Michael Ryder's charge to the net and deliver a perfectly flat, precisely-timed pass across the entire zone while skating full speed and dodging a defenseman. It's becoming more and more obvious that the addition of Krecji is the single greatest factor in Boston's improvement over the past 12 months.

- Great to see Aaron Ward on the ice again. His game was mostly quiet, though he threw a crunching check in the 2nd. It'll be nice to start hearing scuttlebutt about Andrew Ference's return as well.

- Next up: Pittsburgh in a home-and-home to close out 2008 and open 2009. We've won 4 of 5 on this roadtrip so far and will be heading into our biggest homestand of the season. Should be a barn-burner at the Igloo.

Bruins vs. Devils: Lazy Takeaways

Hey, it's Christmas. Give me a break.

- The Bruins' 2-0 win over New Jersey was worth more than any 7-3 win over Atlanta. Not because they dominated, not because they built an unsurpassable lead in the first half-period, but because it was the closest thing we've seen all season to playoff hockey. Both teams were disciplined and playing as if they knew that it would be a one-goal affair. Winning games like this can make the difference in May.

- When they were called up, we expected Vlad Sobotka and Matt Lashoff to be NHL-ready players. I didn't have the same feeling about Martin St. Pierre. Scoring a point a game in the AHL doesn't bear any relevance to NHL success, and St. Pierre didn't exactly explode off the Bruins' depth chart. But he's played pretty well in his two games, forechecking hard and making safe plays in difficult situations. He's also taken faceoffs with occasional success.

- Speaking of which, take a closer look at the faceoff numbers from that game: Savard was 2-10, St. Pierre was 1-6, Yelle was 8-16. Not so great, right? Then you get down to David Krejci, who was 10-12. Have I mentioned how incredibly pleasing it's been to see that guy develop into a legit star?

- Manny says: "Touche, Timmy."

Bruins vs. Devils: Stuff To Look Out For

- Boston.com reports that the Bruins are letting Patrice Bergeron have a week of R&R before making any decisions about a timetable for his return.

The article optimistically suggests that Bergy might be back in mid-January but... here it comes... also floats the idea of shutting him down for the long-term and using the cap space to sign Brendan Shanahan. Thus proving that there is indeed an esoteric rule requiring the press corps to always have a will-they-sign-this-free-agent-veteran storyline on queue.

- The Devils still have this reputation as a lull-you-to-sleep trapping team, which is odd considering they are 6th in the conference in both offense and defense. That's just good, well-rounded hockey. They play a solid all-around game and will definitely pose a test for the Bruins after a pretty soft schedule so far this month.

- The only other good team the Bruins have played lately were the Caps, which also accounts for their only loss in 11 games.

- Patrik Elias was the NHL's third star of the week, with 3-5-8 in 4 games. Perhaps more significantly, he and David Krecji of the Bruins were both nominated for NHL.com's "Fan Fav" award this week. I don't think that one comes with a salary bonus.

- The Devils are nothing special at home, with a record of 11-5-1. Perhaps it's got to do with averaging less than 15,000 fans per game -- less than the Lightning, Kings and Panthers.

- Scott "Martin" Clemmensen will start for the Devs. Still no word on a Bruins starter; my heart says Manny but my head says it's Tim-Tom time.

- This is a particularly important road game for the Bruins, who nicely timed their long road trip to include a four-day break for Christmas. A win tonight would make the possibilty of 4 wins in 5 games very realistic.

Other previews:
The Bear Cave
Stanley Cup of Chowder
In Lou We Trust (Devils)
Fire and Ice (Devils)
Beast of the East (Devils, lots of links)

What Does Bergeron's Injury Mean To The Bruins?

Ok, we've all had a couple of days to square with reality: Patrice Bergeron will never have a normal career in the NHL. He's still got the skill to be a 30-70-100 sort of player, but there is simply no escaping the fact that recurring concussions don't go away. Despite the cheery tone from the Bruins' front office, this isn't about his recovery from a single hit; it's about his ability to go out and play the game without becoming a perpetual IR listee.

Even worse for Pat is the fact that his game revolves around physical contact -- he's at his best when he's throwing shoulders in the corners and absorbing crosschecks in the crease. But if he's unable even to throw a garden-variety bodycheck in open ice, the rest of his game becomes marginal. If you have any emotional ties to the notion that Bergeron will make a triumphant return as a top-level player, now is the time to start weaning yourself of those hopes.

Long Term

It's hard to predict what this means for the Bruins in the long run. Bergeron might be serviceable as an occasional contributor, like Eric Lindros in his latter days, the sort of guy you try and bring back for the playoffs in the hope that he'll push you over the cusp. But try to project any farther than 2-3 years into the future, and the image becomes murky -- it's doubtful that he'll stand alongside players like Lucic, Wheeler and Krecji as they mature into their prime.

Short Term

In the short term, the Bruins will be without their second-line center pending Bergeron's evaluation and possible return in the spring. This might have been a devastating loss, except that he is no longer considered indispensable to the roster. Last season the Bruins made a suprising Bergeron-less charge into the playoffs, after most pundits assumed they couldn't compete without him. This season they sit atop the Eastern Conference, despite a tepid output of 4 goals and 14 assists in 31 games from Bergeron. He'd been snakebitten early on (Pat's 5.8% shooting is the lowest among all Bruins except P.J. Axelsson and Shawn Thornton), but lately he hadn't even been generating chances. Despite manning the point on an intimidating power-play unit, Bergeron hadn't scored a single goal on the man-advantage this season.

So, Habs fans, don't start printing division-championship t-shirts just yet.

It's a safe bet that Claude Julien won't tinker with the red-hot first line of Lucic-Savard-Kessel. Likewise, he's been getting great results from the "third" line of Wheeler-Krecji-Ryder. If anything, that "third" line has now become the Bruins' second-best offensive unit and further marginalized Bergeron and his linemates (Axelsson and Chuck Kobasew). As they say, when one door closes, another opens.

So, Julien is now faced with contructing an entirely new third line in Bergeron's absence. In St. Louis, he went with Axelsson-Yelle-Kobasew, but I don't see that lasting long. Yelle has been very solid, but his contributions are not as significant as the development of AHL callup Vladimir Sobotka, a high-energy center who seems a natural fit with Kobie. Axelsson is a bit of an offensive drag, but he only needs to fill in until Marco Sturm returns from IR; he seems a more natural fit on the fourth line with Yelle and Thornton.

As an armchair coach, I'd go with the following third and fourth lines once Sturm's ready to go:
Sturm-Sobotka-Kobasew
Axelsson-Yelle-Thornton

In the meantime, get used to the name Martin St. Pierre -- the guy who was considered a spare part only a few weeks ago, and now looks prepared to challenge for a center spot.

One of the best goals you'll ever see...

Blake Wheeler. Jeezus. We signed this guy as a free agent, so it didn't even require a shitty season or trading a prospect to get him on board. He's locked up at $2.8m through next season, and is an RFA after that. As a rookie he's on pace to score 30, and on a team with Savard and Krejci you know he's headed to 40-50 goal territory in a couple of years.

Last night Wheels scored a shortie for the ages, making it clear that he's going to be a name in the Calder discussion. Check it out:



Wow. It might not be quite as well-known as this one...



... but it'll definitely make the career highlight reel. Thank god this guy came into the league during the Youtube Era.

Beginning A New Phase Of The Season

Lots of new beginnings for the Bruins tonight in St. Louis:

Step Six - According to my 12-step season breakdown, the Bruins are wrapping up the first half of the season with a brutal holiday roadtrip. Tonight's game in St. Louis is a good warmup for tough games in New Jersey, Carolina and Pittsburgh before the New Year.

The post-Bergeron era - Not to jump to conclusions, but Patrice Bergeron's concussion in last night's game cast a shadow over any hopes that he would return to have a "normal" career. Even if this turns out to be a relatively minor injury, and he makes a quick comeback, it still drives home the reality that he can't play a fast-paced collision sport without serious risk of permanent damage to his grey matter. It's hard to imagine that, given the style of play that makes Bergeron effective, he won't continue to suffer concussions every few months, following a career arc similar to that of Brett Lindros. This would be an appropriate time to adjust any dreams of him growing into the mold of a 30-goal, 100-point player.

The Fernandez era - Manny will have his third start in four games, and his second in as many nights, breaking the simple rotation that had been standard over the past couple of weeks. For the time being, he has effectively usurped Tim Thomas as the #1. How long will he be the hot hand?

The injury bug - Up until recently, the Bruins had been one of the league's healthier teams. But like everyone else, they won't succeed without a little mid-season adversity. Aside from Bergeron, the Bruins look to be missing Marco Sturm and Andrew Ference for the long-term. Aaron Ward and Petteri Nokelainen will be out as well for tonight's game. So we get to see guys like Martin St. Pierre, Vladimir Sobotka and Matt Lashoff take their shot at a big-league career.

Adversity is tough to deal with, but it's a good thing in the long run. Let's see if this team's ready to fight through the sort of tough road games that are ubiquitous during the playoffs.