Post-Game Talk: Game 25 - Tuukka holds the fort until B's wake up - BRUINS 2 Ottawa 1 FINAL

[Bruinator]

Carlson
Hamilton
Heiskanen
Ellis
Makar
Weber
Slavin
Ekblad

That is the complete list of defensemen with more even strength points than Zdeno Chara this season.

Chara, isn't that the guy that was washed up three or four years ago?

 

[Bruinator]

Thank God the guys bailed out Rask tonight after he let in that ridiculously weak goal.

 

[TD Charlie]

Thank God the guys bailed out Rask tonight after he let in that ridiculously weak goal.

That’s one way to look at it i guess

 

[Pay Carl]

Wow Rask stole that one

 

[Aussie Bruin]

Just a thought for those who think Lindholm is useless. He's a limited player no doubt, and he's not as good as Acciari was, but his screen on Chara's goal was perfect. And typical - his effort is consistently good and he's willing to go the dirty areas even though he's not a big or strong guy.

He does what he can, and that at least I appreciate.

 

[Mick Riddleton]

Just a thought for those who think Lindholm is useless. He's a limited player no doubt, and he's not as good as Acciari was, but his screen on Chara's goal was perfect. And typical - his effort is consistently good and he's willing to go the dirty areas even though he's not a big or strong guy.

He does what he can, and that at least I appreciate.

True those white meat guys are the ones you win with while the star players rest. Nordy made Chara's goal possible by forcing Chabot, then chasing down the puck from Chabot cross ice pass, laying a hit and controlling it to his linemates. Funny I was told Nordy is slow, rarely hits and never forces takeaways. Glad Cassidy sees the game different and values the grunt guys. Not everyone is a scorer, someone needs to do the PK and block shots and shut down the opposition.

 

[Alberta_OReilly_Fan]

Pretty lazy effort but I’ll excuse it on the back of the thrashing they dished out to the Habs and as long as they show up on home ice on Friday and put in a better performance against the Rangers. Rask and the near-ageless earned them this one and at the end of the day they got the W and 2 points is 2 points whether you win by 7 goals or 1.

The reality, as is usually the case, is that their performance against Montreal wasn’t quite as good as it looked and this one wasn’t quite as bad. The Habs’ goaltending was seriously weak and their players made generous mistakes, which to their credit the Bruins took full advantage of, but in general play Montreal were the better and more active team in the 1st period and for stretches of the 2nd. And tonight Ottawa are an improving squad who worked hard and forced the Bs to eventually wake up and earn the win in the 3rd, finding a way to score when required.

The boys are playing ok and they’re consistently grinding out points. However the pleasing thing, as long as it’s actually delivered, is just how much improvement is left in this group. Effort can and needs to be greater and more consistent, chemistry will continue to increase, D can still be tightened up in a number of areas, there are surely more frequent goals to come from the likes of Bjork, DeBrusk and others, and it’s highly likely GM genius Sweeney has a trade or two left up his sleeve.

Sure there are worries too, the state of Bergeron’s groin foremost among them, plus an otherwise troubling injury rate and a tendency to struggle to back-up good performances as seen here and in the playoff series against both the Leafs and the Blues, but with time and a little luck these will hopefully be addressed. On balance, there’s a lot more to be positive about.

As ever, on to the next one!

first place?
on pace for over 130 points?
coming off game 7 of the Stanley up finals?

you are damn right theres room for improvement in this rather mundane 'ok' effort we are seeing.

theres at minimum at least 23 hof superstars on this club so anything less than 8-1 drubbings of the opponents 82 straight games should be accepted with the utmost sneer of... is that all you have?

honestly I wanted to see pastrnak hit 50 goals tonight... and he got 0? 0 is way less than 50 so I am like really perturbed too.

im glad you found more to be positive tonight than I did. I just feel I cant cut them any slack.

first place... crap on that
on pace for over 130 points... damn it theres 164 points possible... this is not even 800%
coming off a game 7 Stanley cup finals... yes doh… they lost... losers!!!!

jeez... I made this post with sacasm in my heart but I think I ended up convincing myself. they really do need an attitude adjustment... or do they?

 

[Aussie Bruin]

first place?
on pace for over 130 points?
coming off game 7 of the Stanley up finals?

you are damn right theres room for improvement in this rather mundane 'ok' effort we are seeing.

theres at minimum at least 23 hof superstars on this club so anything less than 8-1 drubbings of the opponents 82 straight games should be accepted with the utmost sneer of... is that all you have?

honestly I wanted to see pastrnak hit 50 goals tonight... and he got 0? 0 is way less than 50 so I am like really perturbed too.

im glad you found more to be positive tonight than I did. I just feel I cant cut them any slack.

first place... crap on that
on pace for over 130 points... damn it theres 164 points possible... this is not even 800%
coming off a game 7 Stanley cup finals... yes doh… they lost... losers!!!!

jeez... I made this post with sacasm in my heart but I think I ended up convincing myself. they really do need an attitude adjustment... or do they?

Wow, you've massively misread my post and wasted a lot of rage and words on it.

On the whole the Bruins are doing a brilliant job and I could scarcely be happier with how they're travelling. Their general approach, attitude and tightness as a team with a united, character-driven culture are lead-leading for good reason. My points were really just 3 pretty simple ones:

1. Going back to the Red Wings game 2 and a half weeks ago, they've been outworked by their opponents in arguably 7 out of 10 games. Those teams have fought harder for longer across the 60 mins of each of those contests. The Bruins mostly haven't been far off, and there are times and a couple of whole games when they really ramp it up, but in generally they've just been a little short of where they could be in their effort and focus.

2. And yet despite that, plus multiple injuries, their record in those games is 6-1-3. They're finding ways to get results even when they don't bring their best effort or don't quite click, and that's seriously impressive. Everyone's chipping in and stepping up at one point or another and contributing to banking points.

3. Best of all, even though their play is good enough we know there are multiple areas in which they can be better and there's more to come, and that bodes really well for the rest of the regular season and beyond. I just hope they don't get too complacent a la Tampa because they're finding ways to win even though they're not currently maximising their potential. I'm pretty confident though that they won't, and Cassidy will have them tuned and ready when it really counts.

Got it now?

 

[aguineapig]

Mother says the road is long and lonely
Little Brother says the road is straight and fine
Lil' Darlin says the road is soft and lovely
And I'm thankful that old road's a friend of mine

Townes Van Zandt

 

[KillerMillerTime]

Couldn’t agree more . After the 2 points are in the bank we often forgot how we got them. We have come out disinterested and have been outplayed badly in the first half of the first period lately . The Habs were really taking it to us until we got that power-play goal in the first. Easy to forget with the score ending up the way it was.

I agree, but goaltending is IMO the key strength of
this team. As long as Rask/Halak are healthy this will
happen.

I would say when evaluating D/F corps Washington and
Tampa Bay are bit stronger than Boston, but not in net.

 

[LSCII]

Has to suck playing this team knowing they can completely give a half assed effort and still beat you. Love it.

 

[EvilElf63]

Who woulda thunk Chara 5-7-12 would be bringing the points this year more than McAvoy 0-7-7? (Last year was 5-9-14 and 7-21-28 respectively). Great to see from the fearless leader, not only great D but he's still got some offense in the tank!

Happy Thanksgiving!

*Chara 5-7-12

 

[Alberta_OReilly_Fan]

Wow, you've massively misread my post and wasted a lot of rage and words on it.

On the whole the Bruins are doing a brilliant job and I could scarcely be happier with how they're travelling. Their general approach, attitude and tightness as a team with a united, character-driven culture are lead-leading for good reason. My points were really just 3 pretty simple ones:

1. Going back to the Red Wings game 2 and a half weeks ago, they've been outworked by their opponents in arguably 7 out of 10 games. Those teams have fought harder for longer across the 60 mins of each of those contests. The Bruins mostly haven't been far off, and there are times and a couple of whole games when they really ramp it up, but in generally they've just been a little short of where they could be in their effort and focus.

2. And yet despite that, plus multiple injuries, their record in those games is 6-1-3. They're finding ways to get results even when they don't bring their best effort or don't quite click, and that's seriously impressive. Everyone's chipping in and stepping up at one point or another and contributing to banking points.

3. Best of all, even though their play is good enough we know there are multiple areas in which they can be better and there's more to come, and that bodes really well for the rest of the regular season and beyond. I just hope they don't get too complacent a la Tampa because they're finding ways to win even though they're not currently maximising their potential. I'm pretty confident though that they won't, and Cassidy will have them tuned and ready when it really counts.

Got it now?

I might owe you an apology... just really irritates me theres too large a segment that thinks losing game 7 last year means we suck and cant compete for a cup

it would be a fulltime job for me to respond individually every time I saw someone talking about the bruin flaws and how they doom us... how theres some sort of failure on the team if it doesnt go through the regular season perfect {hell all it takes is a bad 20 mins, and theres a large amount of fans here in the game thread ready to bitch and complain how hard done by they are to be watching the game}

if I gave the illusion that I specifically was directing my response to you alone... im sorry

the team is very good
looking around to find a perfect team results in no success

are we going to be guaranteed a win this year {even if we do fine our missing rw?}… doesnt work that way

is anyone else guaranteed a win?

is it possible to build a perfect team in todays cap world?

is it possible for guys to give 100% effort through an 82 game schedule?
do we want them to burn out doing it?

do injuries sometimes slow a team down?

is it human nature for even me and you to have off days at our own jobs?

I guess some fans here get upset when we tell them how to be fans... but im afraid I lumped you in with some of them in my response to you and honestly I dont know if you are deserving to be lumped in with them or not. this forum became too big for me to remember everyones posting history

I stand by my response in general to the people I intended it for... but I will ask your forgiveness if I quoted the wrong op to make my stand on.

I suppose I hope you take it for a compliment of sorts. I dont respond to posts that I find zero value in. I thought you were elegent and made your pov well. and your response cleared things up so I feel I was right that you were someone worth chatting with.

I dont like to waste my time... and this team doesnt waste any of my time. even if we had lost tonight, im ok with not winning every game. I understand there will be some down nights. id rather see them against a non threat like Ottawa. im happy we found a way to win.

id rather given them credit for winning with their D effort and be happy after a win then lead my response with a call for them to give a better effort next time

 

[Fossy21]

I love that the NHL has introduced regulation wins as the first tiebreaker over ROW. I also love that the Bruins have 16 of them, by far the most in the league and as many as Florida and Toronto (2nd and 3rd in the division) have combined.

It also makes calculations for the standings in a 3-2-1-0-point system much easier. The Bruins would have 55 points in such a system, the Crapitals would have 44. In the 2-1-0-point system the NHL employs, of course, they both have 39 points.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Mother says the road is long and lonely
Little Brother says the road is straight and fine
Lil' Darlin says the road is soft and lovely
And I'm thankful that old road's a friend of mine

Townes Van Zandt

Excellent, a Townes lyric!

 

[lopey]

Poor effort but W

Need to fix these 1st periods..

Yes the starts have been a concern these last few weeks...

 

[AngryMilkcrates]

Every team has a downswing in their season, sometimes a few.

If we are in ours during our seasonal injury time and are still getting wins we deserve to be in first in the league.

 

[lopey]

I am glad Bruce is still on the team to fix the issues they have. Winning is great, but sometimes it hides the issues a team has.

 

[lopey]

Great come from behind game. Thank you again Tuukka.

Onto the Rangers in NYC on Friday.

Go Bruins

I think they are at home Friday?

 

[Big louie]

I need a drink...

Love the reaction of his buddy in the back

 

[Ladyfan]

don't look now but zdeno chara is really good again.

how many of you folks are now on board the anders bjork train? @Estlin was helping drive it
for a long time. this dude is L E G I T

I really like Bjork !

 

[4ORRBRUIN]

I really like Bjork !

Getting better each game

 

[Sheppy]

I thought Gaunce looked fairly good last night. Not afraid of the corners, that's for sure.

 

[Ladyfan]

Getting better each game

Anders had some great moves . I hope he stays

 

[Sheppy]

Mother says the road is long and lonely
Little Brother says the road is straight and fine
Lil' Darlin says the road is soft and lovely
And I'm thankful that old road's a friend of mine

Townes Van Zandt

I love it. Not sure if you heard of Colter Wall, but he covers a ton of Townes Van Zandt tunes. Check him out!