I hope you have your barf bags, pitchforks and torches ready because I am about to refute a post written this weekend from the “greatest sportswriter who ever lived”. If you haven’t read Haggs’ dumpster fire of a post defending Milan Lucic, you can do it here. For those that don’t feel like giving him the traffic, I will do my best to inform you of Haggs assertion that Lucic is finally making a big impact with David Krejci after one game.
One game of hockey.
Against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Haggs starts off with the usual background information. Milan Lucic has two points in November with one goal being an empty net goal. His other point was his first point this season without David Krejci which came as an assist. It isn’t until you get into the meat and potatoes of this story where the going gets good.
It was pretty clear in the losses against the Maple Leafs and Canadiens that the Bruins weren’t getting enough. So Lucic decided to become a factor in another way if he isn’t going to be lighting the lamp as frequently while currently on pace to score 14 goals this season.
Instead he went back to snarling, punishing basics. The Bruins power forward aggressively jumped on the fore-check early and often in Saturday afternoon’s 2-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes, and finished without any points once again. He was getting roughing penalties for shoving players down to the ice in scrums, and building that air of intimidation that hasn’t always been there with these Bruins this season.
This is where I have a problem with Haggs’ take on Milan Lucic. The snarling punisher is currently paid $6,000,000 a year which makes him the second highest paid forward on the team. His cap hit takes up 9.3% of the team’s total cap for this season and, as Haggs states, is on pace for only 14 goals this season. Here’s where I get annoyed with shit like this. Haggerty firmly believes that Lucic is making a big impact against the Hurricanes by jumping in on the fore-check and is advocating that taking a two minute penalty is a good decision because it is “building that air of intimidation”.
I am sorry but I can’t take your opinion seriously when you’re advocating one of your “best” players get a pat on the back for taking a roughing penalty. Carolina, at the time, had the 12th best power play in the league while the Bruins penalty kill ranked 25th. Do you think building that air of intimidation means anything if Carolina goes out there and puts the puck in the net and ties the game?
So instead he led the game with six registered hits, created six shot attempts with his active play and helped close things down in the game’s closing minute while winning battles along the boards in the defensive zone. It was a pointless 19:39 of ice time for Lucic, but it was still a huge key to the Bruins getting back to their identity, and more importantly winning the game.
No, he wasn’t. If you have a player who is paid to be an elite NHL player, you expect more than six hits and six “created” shot attempts (while only have two shots credited in the game). If we are going by this logic, Adam McQuaid’s 19:41 of ice time and four hits should also be credited to the Bruins getting their identity back.
Let’s not forget who their opponent was on Saturday. The Carolina Hurricanes are currently 15th in the Eastern Conference and 28th in the NHL in terms of points. They are 28th in the NHL in goals per game (2.18), 19th in goals against per game (2.88), 27th in 5v5 for/against ratio (0.71), 25th in goals scored on the road (17) and 25th in goals scored against on the road (31).
What can we conclude from those stats?
The Hurricanes are a bad team.
I am not willing to give Milan Lucic a pass because he threw a couple body checks against an inferior opponent. I’ll give Lucic a pass when he starts scoring goals. If you’re paid to play like a top winger, you need to act like a top winger. If your center goes down you should carry the load. This is what happens with elite level players.
To finish off this post, I’d like to throw statistics at you:
W/ David Krejci: 10 games played, 2 goals, 5 assists, 7 points, 18 shots.
W/O David Krejci: 9 games played, 0 goals, 1 assist, 1 point, 9 shots.
There’s a clear discrepancy between how Lucic plays with Krejci and how he plays without him this season. There’s no reason to validate that a player is making a big impact without his binky when he has 1 point in 9 games without him because he threw his body around against an inferior opponent.
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