I’m diagnosing the Boston Bruins as bi-polar. I think someone made a joke about calling them the Boston Bi-Polar Bears which is utterly hilarious given their play as of late. To whoever came up with that gem (I believe it was in one of our Facebook threads), thank you. You, sir, are a master of comedy and need to hone your skills. So last week’s Grindin’ Gears was all over the place and I apologize for that. This is the place where I usually fly off the handle so bare with me.
What a week of hockey this has been! Since the last Grindin’ Gears piece, the Bruins have gone 3-1 with quality wins over Montreal, Philly and Chicago – all playoff teams. The only gaffe was a 1-0 loss to the Rangers on Saturday, but most of us expected this to happen. If you’ve been following the Bruins at all for the past couple seasons you know that:
A. They don’t play well in the afternoon
B. The team was coming off an emotional win against Montreal
To further my point re: afternoon games, I took a look back at games that started at 1pm or earlier (yes, the Coyotes games in Prauge count) and Boston’s record is a wonderful 2-7. The only two wins they got was a 3-0 win in Prauge over Phoenix and a 7-0 win over Carolina in Carolina. Here’s the good thing about 1pm games: they don’t happen in the playoffs.
Another thing that’s been working for the Bruins is their power play. Yeah, no shit. In the past four games the Bruins are 3-10 (and had zero chances against the Blackhawks) and beginning to develop chemistry with the two units. 30% success in four games? Yeah I’ll take that to the fucking bank every day.
After the jump we look at some more good stuff….
To be honest, there’s isn’t much for me to get pissed off about since the last article. Sure, the Bruins played like shit against the Rangers, but so what. The team is going to have an off game. Since then they beat the number one team in the East and the defending Stanley Cup champions (and the refs in the same game!). I can’t be mad at Claude because he’s finally putting Ryder in the fucking cheap seats where he belongs. I can’t be mad at the team because they are playing their best hockey since the “ZOMG 7 GAMES IN A ROW!!!!!” orgasmic experience we all witnessed a month or so ago.
So fuck it – I’m cutting this short. I apologize. Or I don’t.
– Random Thoughts –
– People have been shitting on Chris Kelly since he put on a Bruins sweater. In an inside joke with a friend of mine, we’ve named Kelly “binky” and will be known as such throughout this thought. Binky’s play has defintely picked up the past two weeks or so, despite him not scoring a goal for the Bruins. Here’s the thing, he doesn’t need to score goals to be effective. The guy centers a line with Rich Peverley and Tyler Seguin, two guys who can put the biscuit in the basket. All Binky needs to do is win faceoffs and help with assists and even then – assisting on goals doesn’t mean much. We’ve witness Peverley go red line to red line dangling the puck and scoring. Binky is a hard working guy who wins a shitload of faceoffs (he won 58% of them against Chicago last night) and brings energy to a very speedy line. Couple that with some playoff experience (36 games in his career) and he’s a perfect third line center. I don’t know why people are still shitting on Binky. He wasn’t brought in to score goals and be a superstar, he was brought in because he’s a hard working center who has speed and can kill penalties. Don’t worry Binky, I’m on your side.
– Tim Thomas might have the greatest mustache of all mustaches. It says “Yeah, I’ve been nude on camera and I’m okay with it” and at the end of the season it will also say “I’ve been nude on camera, double fisting Vezina Trophies, and I’m okay with it.”
– Boston has six games left, 4 at home. I expect them to go 4-2 with losses to the Rangers and possibly Atlanta. If New York throws Henrik at them, there’s no way Boston gets around him. They have a hard time trying to solve them. I’m going to also say Atlanta because it’s a one o’clock game. Also – if Blake Wheeler scores, we should rush the ice and beat him down.
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