| Bruins
Report
By Sean Haq
The Bruins just pulled
off a win against the Eastern Conference top
team, the Buffalo Sabres. Sitting at 10th place,
just two points out of the playoffs, this would
be a good time to reflect on what has happened.
The Boston Bruins finished in dead last in the
Northeast Divsion in the 2005-2006 season. With
a 13th place Eastern Conference standing, only
three teams in the entire NHL had fewer wins.
29-37-16 was the B's final record.
Following an off season that consisted of several
transactions, including the signing of a few
big name players and even a new Head Coach,
the Bruins seem to be on the right track for
this 2006-2007 NHL season. At about the half-way
mark of this regular season, the Bruins are
just 7 wins shy of their total wins from last
season. The departures of arguably two of their
most impactful players, Joe Thornton and Sergei
Samsonov, there were a lot of questions left
to be answered.
This season, top center Patrice Bergeron has
continued to blossom into quite an NHL star.
The 2003 2nd round draft pick of the Bruins
has become the new face of the franchise, at
least in Massachusetts. To support the young
stud, the Bruins signed Marc Savard, one of
the NHL's top playmakers who spent his most
recent seasons along side Ilya Kovalchuk and
the Atlanta Thrashers. Savard had career highs
in the 2005-2006 season, posting 28 goals and
69 assists for a whopping 97 points. This season,
as the new Bruins top center, he is on pace
to put up over 100 points. In fact, as of January
15th, 2006, only 1 player from the top 10 in
points has a higher points per game average
than Savard (Crosby). There was much talk and
doubt of whether Savard would be able to put
up similar numbers without the likes of star
wingers such as Kovalchuk and Hossa. All issues
have been settled, however, as Savard has helped
winger Glen Murray to undoubtedly score more
goals than he did last season, in fewer games.
Currently, Murray is on track to reach the 40
goal mark. Marc Savard is proving to be the
offensive blast that the Bruins needed. Get
a load of this fact, the Bruins have scored
136 goals this season. Savard has had 17 goals
already - that leaves 136 minus 18...118 goals
to be accounted for. Savard has assisted on
44 of those 118 goals. With 59 points, Savard
is on the scoresheet for nearly half of the
Bruins' goals ( 43% to be exact). Oh yeah, as
if that wasn't enough, Savard took much criticism
in Atlanta for too many penalties. Last time
I checked, penalty minutes are only good if
you are an enforcer or if you're playing fantasy
hockey. This season, Savard is on track to have
40% less than penalty minutes than he did last
season. Good off season signing? The fans love
it, and the numbers prove it.
Defense wins championships and an improved offense
also draws attention to a lacking defense. The
Bruins signed 6'7'' defenseman, Zdeno Chara
to help bolster their defense. It's not hard
to see, the Bruins do not have a star studded
lineup similar to that of Chara's previous team,
the Senators. However, Chara is still on track
to put up more points and put up less penalty
minutes than he did last season. He's currently
ranked 4th on the Bruins in points. On a not
so busy night, the big D-man will play around
25 minutes per game. But many times this season
he's been on the ice for nearly 30 minutes!
Since last season, the Bruins have also signed
Paul Mara and Jason York. Returning players
Milan Jurcina, Andrew Alberts and Brad Stuart
are the other players holding it down on the
B's blue line. In only his 2nd NHL season, Alberts
is consistently logging 20+ minutes per game.
The Bruins' defense certainly has room to improve,
however, the team has put together a string
of defenseman who are capable of the task.
The development of goalie Hannu Toivonen has
seemingly taken longer than expected. The answer?
Tim Thomas. For a guy who designed and made
his own goalie mask, he's doing quite well.
He's tied for 10th in games played this season
amongst goalies, quite a suprise for not being
a "big name" player. Thomas is making
his name big though with his style of play,
enthusiam, and 90.3 save percentage. Following
the departure of the fans' least liked player
and goaltender, Andrew Raycroft, a big spot
was left up for grabs. Toivonen, viewed as the
future of their goaltending, has not proved
that he is cut out for what is expected of him,
not just yet at least. However, the journey-man
of goaltending, Tim Thomas, stepped up to the
crease. Of the 9 goalies who have more games
played than Thomas, 8 of them make more money
than Thomas' $1.15 million season salary. One
million dollars is quite a lot of moolah to
anyone, but this modest salary for an NHL starting
goalie is what allowed the Bruins to make their
biggest signings of the off season, Marc Savard
and Zdeno Chara. Thanks to Tim Thomas, the contracts
of the absolute core players of both their offense
and defense are secure for the next 4 seasons.
Thomas is quite different than most NHL goaltenders
in that he actually shows emotion. This could
be a significant reason why the fans have embraced
him. Pumping his arms after making shootout
saves and winning games might be the type of
enthusiam the fans needed to see after despising
their last starting goaltender for so long.
Toivonen is still up to the task to reach his
potential however; recently just playing against
the dangerous Sidney Crosby and the Penguins.
Toivonen held it down through the shootout to
post a 5-4 win. He stopped Sergei Gonchar in
the shootout...oh yeah, and he stopped Evgeni
Malkin and Sidney Crosby. The future is bright
for Toivonent, but it might not just be as early
as expected. Not to worry though, Timmy Thomas
is the hopeful goaltender to lead this club
into the playoffs.
In January this season, the Bruins are just
3-6. However, the 3-2 shootout win against Buffalo
may prove to be the turning point. The Boston
faithful have something to hope for finally,
and that's the playoffs. Only 2 points out of
a playoff position, the Bruins are in much better
shape than they were last season. With a few
more winning streaks, the Bruins could be in
a position where they do not have to take one
of the top teams in their conference. Hey, the
Coyotes are in a position to be talking about
playoffs now, anything can happen! I forgot
to mention, the Bruins are also tied for least
games played...they have 3 or more games in
hand on every team in their division. I think
the Bruins will make the playoffs this year
and will sit in 7th place at the end of the
regular season. I'm counting on Timmy Thomas,
Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard to make this prediction
come through. Go Bruins Go!
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