I am sporting a mean hangover right now. I’m not sure if it was the large beers or the multiple whiskey shots, but when I woke up this morning I felt like a midget was bashing my head in with a ball peen hammer. The thing is though, I wouldn’t have traded it in for the world. Last night was the Boston Sports Then & Now/Days of Y’Orr Bruins viewing party and I finally met all of you I’ve been talking to on Twitter for a long time. When the game got out of hand, so did we as the whiskey and beer started flowing heavily.
Also, we’re fucking champs!
After the jump, what’s pissing me off?
So what’s pissing me off lately with the Bruins? A LOT! After a great streak where the Bruins ripped off 7 straight wins, they dropped two games to playoff teams (Pittsburgh in overtime and last night in Montreal). It makes me wonder if we (as a fanbase) overstated the wins on the road trip because if you look at it, they beat the bottom of the barrel teams (Vancouver and Calgary not withstanding).
Aside from their win/loss record and current 1-1-1 record in the last two games, the Bruins have bigger problems on the ice.
The first issue is their power play. Everyone made a big deal about getting Kaberle and how much it would improve our power play. Since he’s been here, the power play is 1-20 and they haven’t scored on the power play since 2/18 against Ottawa. Throughout Julien’s tenure in Boston, the Bruins have been known for their deficiency on the power play. Last night I was talking with Cornelius Hardenbergh from the Hockey Blog Adventure and he made an excellent point regarding the Bruins power play. The Bruins run their power play through Kaberle and rely on their defensemen to shoot from the point – that’s it. If a shot gets blocked, turned away or the defenseman misses the forwards cycle the puck back to Kaberle and they continue the same thing of finding open territory for a “wicked one-timah”.
Now I’m no expert nor am I an NHL caliber coach but when something isn’t working you would think to change it, right? With guys like Bergeron and Krejci on the team, why wouldn’t they try a “Behind the Net” style of offense? With guys like Lucic, Horton and Recchi who can solidify a spot in front of the net and/or establish themselves around the net. Bombing shots from the point and hoping for a tip isn’t going to cut it in the playoffs. Neither is going 1-20 in a nine game span.
Another problem issue that I have is that this team is leaning on Tim Thomas to much. Now, when I say “leaning” on Thomas, I don’t mean the number of games played. My definition of “leaning” for this argument is that Thomas has to continually make spectacular save after spectacular save and eventually he’s going to burn out. It happens. We (as a fanbase, again) saw it happen with Rask in the playoffs last year and with Thomas the year before. If the defense allows opposing forwards to skate around, virtually naked, Thomas (and by proxy, Rask) will have to stand on their head night after night to make sure they can pull out a win.
Look at the game last night in Montreal. The first two goals had nothing to do with Rask and everything to do with a defense that had little to no idea where the opposing forwards were. Lars Eller (Hungover Author sidenote: Hell of a name for a rock and roll star) was all alone in his second goal. Where was the defense you ask? Who knows, but they weren’t in camera view. You can’t allow this to happen, but lately it seems to happen more and more. Bruins defense gets beat, goalie has to shove a horseshoe up his ass and make great saves.
Here’s to hoping this team gets their shit together by the playoffs.
Random Thoughts
– I’m not touching the Chara situation. Justin blogged about it earlier so you can make your own assumption, decision and judgements all you want. No thanks.
– You know what’s really good for a hangover? Iced coffee and a House marathon.
AND THATS THE BOTTOM LINE BECAUSE GREG EZELL SAID SO!
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