Dressing Sheep in Wolves Clothing (Mod Warning page 35)

[LouJersey]

Schaller stunk, hopefully they replace him with Blidh. Noel had the hernia issue which definitely hurt.

I think people forget Callahan gets 5.8 mil or whatever per year. Lot to pay for a guy that hits for your 4th line.

I think the Bruins could have hit more but more concerned about the secondary scoring to be honest.

The lightning had their gloves sewn on as well. Paquette got the jump on Backes which is why he did, for they all had big mouths and let the officials get in the way.

 

[ODAAT]

The difference is Reavers can actually skate, bring the hitting game and play the sport.

In my opinion, Reaves is a different type of player than the Derek Boogaard, Donald Brashear or John Scott types.

he can skate, he`s tough as nails, willing to drop the mitts....all fair and legit points

He`s also a guy who the Knights feel can bring so much to the table come playoff time that they have dressed him one time

 

[DKH]

Schaller stunk, hopefully they replace him with Blidh. Noel had the hernia issue which definitely hurt.

I think people forget Callahan gets 5.8 mil or whatever per year. Lot to pay for a guy that hits for your 4th line.

I think the Bruins could have hit more but more concerned about the secondary scoring to be honest.

The lightning had their gloves sewn on as well. Paquette got the jump on Backes which is why he did, for they all had big mouths and let the officials get in the way.

There was a Fire Yzerman Thread last summer on Tampa Board and Callahan and missing playoffs was a popular indictment

Hockey fans are a funny bunch

 

[Krupp]

All I know is that I never want to see Boston get physically bulled around again and cheapshotted like they did against Tampa. I'm not sure who you go out and grab to change that, though.

Maybe I'm being petty, but i'm still fuming over the jt miller headbutt on Backes. I know a lot of guys were injured, but at some point, you can't rely on Miller and Mcquaid to always be the team's response to shit like that.

 

[LouJersey]

All I know is that I never want to see Boston get physically bulled around again and cheapshotted like they did against Tampa. I'm not sure who you go out and grab to change that, though.

Maybe I'm being petty, but i'm still fuming over the jt miller headbutt on Backes. I know a lot of guys were injured, but at some point, you can't rely on Miller and Mcquaid to always be the team's response to **** like that.

I agree if this was the mid 2000s.

Not like that anymore. Nobody fights they just run their mouths

 

[DKH]

Tampa is in the same spot with Washington they were with Boston after game one. The Bruins showed up passive in game 2 not landing a shot till the latter half of the first period and getting knocked all over the ice. I thought Tampa went hunting the Bruins in game 2 and there wasn't much response- Tom Wilson will be hunting the hunters and that could set the tone to one incredible opening period.

As much as I detest Tom Wilson it pains me to say it, he may have a big say tomorrow pushing back when Tampa tries to take it Washington both physically and with pushing pace.

This should be a fascinating game and although I would pick a healthy Boston over Washington in a 7 game series I can envision Washington having a much better shot to beat Tampa in game 2.

 

[Krupp]

Tampa is in the same spot with Washington they were with Boston after game one. The Bruins showed up passive in game 2 not landing a shot till the latter half of the first period and getting knocked all over the ice. I thought Tampa went hunting the Bruins in game 2 and there wasn't much response- Tom Wilson will be hunting the hunters and that could set the tone to one incredible opening period.

As much as I detest Tom Wilson it pains me to say it, he may have a big say tomorrow pushing back when Tampa tries to take it Washington both physically and with pushing pace.

This should be a fascinating game and although I would pick a healthy Boston over Washington in a 7 game series I can envision Washington having a much better shot to beat Tampa in game 2.

And that’s more of what I mean. This team needs more Jake DeBrusk and kuralys, but it also needs a Tom Wilson.

League doesn’t seem interested in protecting bruins players unless a Kadri hits them, so you gotta fight fire with fire these days

 

[sarge88]

Missed your post after the Toronto series.

I think that proves the point though.

Against a less physical Toronto team, they had the upper hand in the toughness department and the results were good.

Vs. TB, not so much...which is infuriating because there isn’t anyone on that team that I consider to be tough.

So frustrating to watch scrubs like Callahan skate around and have any effect at all on the game.

I’m all for moving some of these redundant soft and skilled forwards out for some muscle that can play.

Not asking for Jon Scott....Just Roussel types who will skate, hit and fight and more importantly not get pushed around.

 

[BruinDust]

Schaller stunk, hopefully they replace him with Blidh. Noel had the hernia issue which definitely hurt.

I think people forget Callahan gets 5.8 mil or whatever per year. Lot to pay for a guy that hits for your 4th line.

I think the Bruins could have hit more but more concerned about the secondary scoring to be honest.

The lightning had their gloves sewn on as well. Paquette got the jump on Backes which is why he did, for they all had big mouths and let the officials get in the way.

I thought Schaller was pretty darn ineffective in both series.

I also don't think it's a coincidence that the slower forwards on the team (Schaller, Backes, Rick, Riley, Krejci, Acciari) were the least effective forwards on the Bruins. I thought once the pace of play picked up, they all got exposed to a certain degree.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

I think that proves the point though.

Against a less physical Toronto team, they had the upper hand in the toughness department and the results were good.

Vs. TB, not so much...which is infuriating because there isn’t anyone on that team that I consider to be tough.

So frustrating to watch scrubs like Callahan skate around and have any effect at all on the game.

I’m all for moving some of these redundant soft and skilled forwards out for some muscle that can play.

Not asking for Jon Scott....Just Roussel types who will skate, hit and fight and more importantly not get pushed around.

Roussel? He of 5 goals and 12 assists in 73 games this season? Six fights. And he's from freakin' France!

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

I thought Schaller was pretty darn ineffective in both series.

I also don't think it's a coincidence that the slower forwards on the team (Schaller, Backes, Rick, Riley, Krejci, Acciari) were the least effective forwards on the Bruins. I thought once the pace of play picked up, they all got exposed to a certain degree.

I guess it comes down to, we need more players that are fast. And tough. And skilled. And cheap.

 

[DKH]

Roussel? He of 5 goals and 12 assists in 73 games this season? Six fights. And he's from freakin' France!

Cassidy already had him in Providence and he hardly played him

 

[DKH]

And that’s more of what I mean. This team needs more Jake DeBrusk and kuralys, but it also needs a Tom Wilson.

League doesn’t seem interested in protecting bruins players unless a Kadri hits them, so you gotta fight fire with fire these days

I’m a 4 Sports Boston fan but these hockey playoffs I’m into big time

I can’t wait for tonight’s game and I’m fascinated to see how Tampa responds tomorrow

If I’m coaching the Caps I tell my guys what happened to Boston last series in this spot and we are going to flip the table and come out and knock their defenseman around like bowling pins

Tom Wilson is the perfect guy for this and I tell him to stay under control but knock Girardi and McDonagh around

You beat in Tampa defense they can’t get the offense going - the Bruins did not do this in game 2 or 3

When the second period of game 4 started the Bruins started attacking the Tampa end and lo and behold look what happened

I’ll be stunned if Washington let’s Tampa dictate play

I would run their ass over let them know our game plan is to be physical

 

[GloryDaze4877]

All I know is that I never want to see Boston get physically bulled around again and cheapshotted like they did against Tampa. I'm not sure who you go out and grab to change that, though.

Maybe I'm being petty, but i'm still fuming over the jt miller headbutt on Backes. I know a lot of guys were injured, but at some point, you can't rely on Miller and Mcquaid to always be the team's response to **** like that.

On the “homer scale”, I probably rate myself in the 75-80 out of 100 range. Some posters would probably tell you that’s low, and some might say high.

That said, I watched that Miller hit on Backes about 50 times and, sorry to say, it wasn’t a dirty hit.

Most of that hit was Miller and Backes body to body and then for some reason (I’m not a physics guy), Backes and Miller’s heads both came forward and hit, with Backes taking the worst of it. I don’t think it was an intentional head butt in any way and looked like it was just bad luck.

If Backes had laid the same hit on Miller, we would all be defending Backes to the death.

I didn’t post it here, but I did in my hockey bro text group. I compared the heights and weights of Tampa’s Bottom 6 (plus Palat and JTM) and Boston’s, and the B’s were actually bigger. The Bolt’s players just wanted it more in this series.

Miller: 6’1 218
Palat: 6 188
Killorn: 6’1 185
Cirelli: 6’ 180
Gourde: 5’9 172
Kunitz: 6’ 195
Paquette: 6’1 198
RC: 5’10 180


DeBrusk: 6’ 187
Nash: 6’4 215
Heinen: 6’1 185
Nash20: 6’1 190
Backes: 6’3 220
Schaller: 6’2 209
Kuraly: 6’2 214
Acciari: 5’10 207

Tell me again about how the B’s need to get bigger. Physicality is and always has been more of a mental thing than a size thing, (except in extreme cases).

 

[sarge88]

Roussel? He of 5 goals and 12 assists in 73 games this season? Six fights. And he's from freakin' France!

He hits and his 6 fights would have put him, what first or 2nd among Bruins forwards.

Edit...just checked and Beleskey had a whopping 3 fights to lead the forwards.

 

[Colt.45Orr]

The Bolt’s players just wanted it more in this series.

Miller: 6’1 218
Palat: 6 188
Killorn: 6’1 185
Cirelli: 6’ 180
Gourde: 5’9 172
Kunitz: 6’ 195
Paquette: 6’1 198
RC: 5’10 180


DeBrusk: 6’ 187
Nash: 6’4 215
Heinen: 6’1 185
Nash20: 6’1 190
Backes: 6’3 220
Schaller: 6’2 209
Kuraly: 6’2 214
Acciari: 5’10 207

Tell me again about how the B’s need to get bigger. Physicality is and always has been more of a mental thing than a size thing, (except in extreme cases).

Sheep can, and often do, weigh more than wolves.

Like you just said (and like I have said many times on this board) it is indeed a mentality. When I said earlier in the year that Tim Schaller didn't have the right mentality for his role I was piled up on by the usual schmucks.

If you look at Washington, they went right after Tampa's D on the first shift Ovechkin took a run at a Tampa D 5 seconds in.... I don't think I saw that once the whole series (outside of David Backes).

They have guys with wolf mentality, guys like Ovechkin, Oshie, Tom Wilson, Alex Chiasson, Smith-pelly, Beagle... all those guys finish hits with gusto.
Orpik was lurking in the weeds like an alligator, taking runs at Tampa players -- it was bizarre seeing the same Tampa tough guys pulling the chute coming across the blue-line.
Tampa has some very scrappy guys but Washington has the larger version of them. If I was Tampa I would switch tactics and stay away from anything physical this series and try to play pure speed-skill game.
In the post series interview that he did, John Cooper talked about how the Bruins manhandled Tampa in the regular season and he told the guys they're going to have to up the intensity and push the Bruins around to have a chance to win (that crucial 4-0 game to take 1st). What we saw game after game after game is that there wasn't as mentality or willingness from our (overall) group to push back.... I suspect the regular-season version that we saw of them is as tough as it gets, unlike Tampa Bay's 4th liners, there is no next level for many of our guys to go to. Our Top Line was taking a ton of abuse and was the only line producing, the least the other lines could have done is made life difficult for Tampa but we didn't have the personnel or mentality for that.

Next year I'll take:

Kuraly--Accairi--Reaves

on the 4th line.
Make Kuraly-Accair a PK duo so they get extra minutes. Rotate 13th forward in when Accairi gets his injuries.

Frederic (great pick) is the 3rd line solution, but not ready yet.

 

[sarge88]

On the “homer scale”, I probably rate myself in the 75-80 out of 100 range. Some posters would probably tell you that’s low, and some might say high.

That said, I watched that Miller hit on Backes about 50 times and, sorry to say, it wasn’t a dirty hit.

Most of that hit was Miller and Backes body to body and then for some reason (I’m not a physics guy), Backes and Miller’s heads both came forward and hit, with Backes taking the worst of it. I don’t think it was an intentional head butt in any way and looked like it was just bad luck.

If Backes had laid the same hit on Miller, we would all be defending Backes to the death.

I didn’t post it here, but I did in my hockey bro text group. I compared the heights and weights of Tampa’s Bottom 6 (plus Palat and JTM) and Boston’s, and the B’s were actually bigger. The Bolt’s players just wanted it more in this series.

Miller: 6’1 218
Palat: 6 188
Killorn: 6’1 185
Cirelli: 6’ 180
Gourde: 5’9 172
Kunitz: 6’ 195
Paquette: 6’1 198
RC: 5’10 180


DeBrusk: 6’ 187
Nash: 6’4 215
Heinen: 6’1 185
Nash20: 6’1 190
Backes: 6’3 220
Schaller: 6’2 209
Kuraly: 6’2 214
Acciari: 5’10 207

Tell me again about how the B’s need to get bigger. Physicality is and always has been more of a mental thing than a size thing, (except in extreme cases).

I don’t have as big of a problem with the Miller hit, as I do with the fact that I am 100% sure that if it were reversed, there would absolutely have been a call on Backes.

Add to that the frustration we all (should have) felt with the awful officiating in the series as a whole and I’m sure you can understand where a lot of the complaints came from.

 

[GloryDaze4877]

Sheep can, and often do, weigh more than wolves.

Like you just said (and like I have said many times on this board) it is indeed a mentality. When I said earlier in the year that Tim Schaller didn't have the right mentality for his role I was piled up on by the usual schmucks.

If you look at Washington, they went right after Tampa's D on the first shift Ovechkin took a run at a Tampa D 5 seconds in.... I don't think I saw that once the whole series (outside of David Backes).

They have guys with wolf mentality, guys like Ovechkin, Oshie, Tom Wilson, Alex Chiasson, Smith-pelly, Beagle... all those guys finish hits with gusto.
Orpik was lurking in the weeds like an alligator, taking runs at Tampa players -- it was bizarre seeing the same Tampa tough guys pulling the chute coming across the blue-line.
Tampa has some very scrappy guys but Washington has the larger version of them. If I was Tampa I would switch tactics and stay away from anything physical this series and try to play pure speed-skill game.
In the post series interview that he did, John Cooper talked about how the Bruins manhandled Tampa in the regular season and he told the guys they're going to have to up the intensity and push the Bruins around to have a chance to win (that crucial 4-0 game to take 1st). What we saw game after game after game is that there wasn't as mentality or willingness from our (overall) group to push back.... I suspect the regular-season version that we saw of them is as tough as it gets, unlike Tampa Bay's 4th liners, there is no next level for many of our guys to go to. Our Top Line was taking a ton of abuse and was the only line producing, the least the other lines could have done is made life difficult for Tampa but we didn't have the personnel or mentality for that.

Next year I'll take:

Kuraly--Accairi--Reaves

on the 4th line.
Make Kuraly-Accair a PK duo so they get extra minutes. Rotate 13th forward in when Accairi gets his injuries.

Frederic (great pick) is the 3rd line solution, but not ready yet.

I’m not ready to say that Frederic is incapable of contributing next year. It might be on the 4th line though.

 

[Don Cherry]

Frederic (great pick) is the 3rd line solution, but not ready yet.

That a guy was taken 29th overall and tops out as a 3rd liner is simply sad. Calling it a "great pick" shows how low our expectations are.

 

[Krupp]

On the “homer scale”, I probably rate myself in the 75-80 out of 100 range. Some posters would probably tell you that’s low, and some might say high.

That said, I watched that Miller hit on Backes about 50 times and, sorry to say, it wasn’t a dirty hit.

Most of that hit was Miller and Backes body to body and then for some reason (I’m not a physics guy), Backes and Miller’s heads both came forward and hit, with Backes taking the worst of it. I don’t think it was an intentional head butt in any way and looked like it was just bad luck.

If Backes had laid the same hit on Miller, we would all be defending Backes to the death.

I didn’t post it here, but I did in my hockey bro text group. I compared the heights and weights of Tampa’s Bottom 6 (plus Palat and JTM) and Boston’s, and the B’s were actually bigger. The Bolt’s players just wanted it more in this series.

Miller: 6’1 218
Palat: 6 188
Killorn: 6’1 185
Cirelli: 6’ 180
Gourde: 5’9 172
Kunitz: 6’ 195
Paquette: 6’1 198
RC: 5’10 180


DeBrusk: 6’ 187
Nash: 6’4 215
Heinen: 6’1 185
Nash20: 6’1 190
Backes: 6’3 220
Schaller: 6’2 209
Kuraly: 6’2 214
Acciari: 5’10 207

Tell me again about how the B’s need to get bigger. Physicality is and always has been more of a mental thing than a size thing, (except in extreme cases).

Meant to respond earlier, but I've been caught up in a hell of a lot of studying for grad school applications, the GRE, as well as work, so my bad.

Honestly, I dunno if I'd be defending Backes if he DID throw a questionable looking headbutt or not...It's hard to say, until it happens. Seeing as that you probably get the opportunity to watch way more games played live than I do, I'll take your word on the JT hit. I just have a habit of calling it as I see it, and the one replay I saw made me swear blind JT lowered his head on purpose.

I did not realize Boston had the physical size advantage; you certainly wouldn't have thought that watching how Tampa went out there hitting any thing that moves. Maybe size isn't the all-encompassing determinator on how effective a hit could or would be, I'll concede that. We've all seen what Acciari can do. Hell, my absolute favorite hit of all time was the one when Recchi launched Burrows almost sideways in 2011. I guess I'm biased in that I recall watching what Lucic could do when he was fired up and just how much that would tilt a game in Boston's favor. It's the exact same kind of deal with Washington, too. Wilson is just a hammer, nothing more or less for the Caps, but he's a big f***ing hammer.

Given that the guys were so heavily injured going into the series, i'm not MAD about how it went down. I guess I'm just biased in that I'd rather this team go for some more sandpaper if they can manage it. I was hoping Backes would be that and more, but given all that's happened this past season, I just hope he can play well for a while longer without serious physical ramifications. Belesky would've been fine if he could've just kept up the way he'd played his first season here. Too bad that didn't last.

 

[Colt.45Orr]

Yeah, if Beleskey had been the same player for us that he had been for the Ducks in the playoffs before we got him, he would have been an important factor for us on the 4th line. I don't blame Sweeney for Beleskey at all --he looked GREAT right before we signed him, but we needed a player like him (in the playoffs) that hits to hurt and wear down their D, rather than Tim "going through the motions" Schaller.

 

[Colt.45Orr]

That a guy was taken 29th overall and tops out as a 3rd liner is simply sad. Calling it a "great pick" shows how low our expectations are.

Not at all. If he turns out to be a big, mean, effective 3rd line C, I would take that all day long at 29. Every now and then you hope to get lucky in the 20s (Pastrnak) but a career, effective player at 29 is great.

 

[Krupp]

I honestly think we were kinda spoiled with Pasta. If Trent can handle top 9 duties as a center, and do so with any similar trajectory to how Backes's career has gone (Minus this year obviously) I'd be happy.

I'd be even HAPPIER if he turned into a Getzlaf, of course....

 

[RedeyeRocketeer]

The scouting on Frederic is Backes-like? Or is that wishful thinking? (peak Backes, naturally).

 

[dafoomie]

Roussel and Reaves together would be worth the price of admission alone.