Post-Game Talk: GAME 26 - BRUINS 5 Arizona 3

[Olden McGroin]

 

[Bruinswillwin77]

Way to get 2 points! Need to keep em' coming. Florida/Detroit/Toronto are keeping up.
Last 10 games:

Bruins: 5-4-1

Florida: 6-3-1

Detroit: 6-2-2

Toronto: 7-1-2

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Nor should it.

Reasons Not Excuses Dept.: McAvoy, Zacha and Forbort are out. There's a debilitating, energy sapping bug going round the locker room.

They don't play till Wednesday v. NJ, so at least they'll have some practice time, players will return from injury, and the contagion will fade.

Even so, the team right now is a mess.

They need to keep it simple and work primarily on righting a defensive game that has gone completely off the rails. They can't get out of their own end passing or carrying the puck. They're also getting hemmed in their own zone way, way too often.

As Mick Colageo has pointed out repeatedly,

"If there is a lesson in letting the Panthers off the playoff mat last spring, it has to be that the Eastern Conference’s most-physical team gave 30 other teams a manual for playing the Bruins. Rim the puck hard around the boards and don’t let the Bruins get to Montgomery’s short-pass, puck-moving system. Disrupt with hits and make them pay a price to make strong puck plays. Chaos is the Bruins’ Kryptonite."

From what I can see, the Bruins have no answer for this problem, and it is central to their current defensive woes. Until they do, they're in trouble.

This is a coaching and "systems" issue. There's no reason why a solution can't be found, but Montgomery is either going to have to fix the flaw in his defensive strategy or go back to the drawing board. It's on him and his staff to right the ship.

Overreliance on elite goaltending to save their bacon every night has led to a] sloppy, irresponsible play, "blown assignments," and b] sapped the physical and mental strength of Ullmark and Swayman. The tactic is not working, hasn't for a good while, and will not work in future. The Bruins have to straighten out their defensive game on several levels, and they can start by going back to basics.

Offensively, the fourth and third lines are fine.

Lines one and two -- which is which? -- have not been stable as Montgomery attempts to sort them out. Jake DeBrusk's renewed struggle with inconsistency -- which frankly I did not see coming after a break out season and a chance to cash in with a hefty new contract -- has been a major weakness putting the top six in workable order. FWIW I don't think Brad works with Pavel and David, who should stay together.

It's still relatively early, but clearly, at least to me, the Bruins are in need of significant additions on D and C.

Finally (and you knew I would bring it up), the lack of aggressive attitude, physical intimidation, push back -- how about finishing your checks, ffs? -- is glaringly, absurdly, embarrassingly obvious.

Colageo (who along with KPD addressed the issue in simultaneous columns weeks ago):

"Charlie McAvoy is easily Boston’s best hitter, and his recent four-game suspension for miscalculating on a bodycheck and clipping Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s head has muted the natural physicality in his own game. McAvoy is only now beginning to recapture his mojo.

"Add the left-shooting Matt Grzelcyk back to the top pairing across from McAvoy, and management can similarly begin a season of evaluation regarding the deployment of Grzelcyk versus Derek Forbort pending pace of play versus physicality in Boston’s opponents.

"The best value in compensation for a goaltender may be in a left defenseman bringing the best of both, in-house specialists, and perhaps an ability to hit on a second pairing the way McAvoy can on the first. Is that too much to ask?

"Meantime, a 35-year-old winger less than two years removed from double labrum surgery should not be a Stanley Cup contender’s most aggressive forward. Yes, Trent Frederic and Jakub Lauko are scrappy, and not every forward need be the second coming of Terry O’Reilly.


"But, if Sweeney is compelled to deal one of his number-one goalies and cannot bring back a generational talent like Leon Draisaitl, then the next best thing is a significant upgrade in the toughness department.

"We’re not talking about an enforcer skating 5:00 a game in the playoffs, I mean top-six, game-changing presence, a forechecker/scorer who distracts defensemen going back on retrievals the way a young Cam Neely ran roughshod over the Montreal Canadiens in the late ’80s.

"This kind of prize is far more applicable to the Stanley Cup playoffs than any kind of talent promising a certain amount of point shares.

"Imagine this team with some swagger."

"Charlie McAvoy is easily Boston’s best hitter, and his recent four-game suspension for miscalculating on a bodycheck and clipping Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s head has muted the natural physicality in his own game."

What is he talking about???

 

[Comfort Eagle]

Was at the game. What happened to Zacha?

 

[hrdpuk]

We were eye witnesses to Carlo puking in the tunnel in middle of the first. Did not see Zacha but would not be surprised

To emphasize Ladyfan's reply

HELL NO

He is so tough imagine playing pro hockey with the flu. They have won 3 of there last 4 probably with the flu. It seemed obvious to me that they had health issues against TOR

 

[SwayHeyKid]

While maybe not as good as their record would indicate this team has a nice scrapiness about them in regards to collecting wins. I get the possible 5v5 goal scoring issues, toughness, etc, but it's good see them rally and win these types of games.

 

[DarrenBanks56]

debrusk playing like he wants out

 

[Kazcram]

Big big win without your best defenseman and best penalty killing defenseman. Pastrnak is the MVP of the league, Can’t imagine where the Bruins would be without him.

he should have won last year

 

[hrdpuk]

2 things I keep reading on here that don't make sense to me.

1:They're not be as good as your record

2: If it wasn't for their D and Goalies.

How can you not be as good as your record ?

Well yeah. Could add if it wasn't for their scoring lines and depth.

Maybe I'm just not qualified enough to understand the nuances of hockey.

 

[BamBamCam]

2 things I keep reading on here that don't make sense to me.

1:They're not be as good as your record

2: If it wasn't for their D and Goalies.

How can you not be as good as your record ?

Well yeah. Could add if it wasn't for their scoring lines and depth.

Maybe I'm just not qualified enough to understand the nuances of hockey.

2023 playoffs raises its hand.

 

[Fair Warning]

It wasn’t pretty, but I mean, they were missing their #1 center and #1 dman. I’ll take the 2 pts.

 

[UncleRico]

2 things I keep reading on here that don't make sense to me.

1:They're not be as good as your record

2: If it wasn't for their D and Goalies.

How can you not be as good as your record ?

Well yeah. Could add if it wasn't for their scoring lines and depth.

Maybe I'm just not qualified enough to understand the nuances of hockey.

It’s easy to not be as good as your record.

The bruins have the most regular season points in the league over the last decade. Yet they haven’t won a cup. The four other teams in the top 5 have all won cups.

They have a roster that is built for the regular season not the playoffs

 

[Mione134]

debrusk playing like he wants out

Did you miss him starting the play with Geekie to set up Pasta or nah?

 

[goldnblack]

Who youtube thinks scored our 5th goal....

 

[PaulD]

You really think long term we are better without Mcavoy

Absolutely not.

But I think he has more to offer .
But maybe I'm wrong.

 

[DarrenBanks56]

Did you miss him starting the play with Geekie to set up Pasta or nah?

from what i remember that play was all geekie.
i just noticed debrusk shying away from the puck along the walls all game. numerous times failed to get to the puck and get it out.
to be fair jvr was just as bad

 

[Mione134]

from what i remember that play was all geekie.
i just noticed debrusk shying away from the puck along the walls all game. numerous times failed to get to the puck and get it out.
to be fair jvr was just as bad

Jake got an assist. Mitchell passed to Jake who kept the puck in the zone and settled it down. Jake made a good play to keep the puck in. He then passed to Geekie who quickly got it to Pasta.

All three of them did work on that goal.

Play starts at 7:54

 

[hrdpuk]

37 teams have won the presidents trophy only 8 went. on to win the SC. By the logic of some that means 29 teams were not as good as their record,

I doubt that and believe the SC is more luck than skill . One injury , one fluky goal , one bad call and other incidentals enter into winning the SC.

The PT is consistency all year.

Bruin's probably win the SC if healthy last year. But those are the breaks.

 

[jgatie]

37 teams have won the presidents trophy only 8 went. on to win the SC. By the logic of some that means 29 teams were not as good as their record,

Now put that record up against any other single seed, you will see that the President's trophy winner is the Stanley Cup winner almost 25% of the time, far more than any other seed.

 

[hrdpuk]

Now put that record up against any other single seed, you will see that the President's trophy winner is the Stanley Cup winner almost 25% of the time, far more than any other seed.

That means 75% of the time they lose ,not impressed.

 

[Gordoff]

debrusk playing like he wants out

IMO, he's probably heard rumors from dad or the grapevine about possible trades and he doesn't really want to leave or be traded. Hence, the lack of aggressiveness. JMO.

 

[Aussie Bruin]

I hate that Monty benched Poitras for the entire 3rd period. Beecher only got 2 non-PK shifts too and wasn't seen in the last 7 mins. I get the explanation and the rationale, but I don't like it. Yes Matt made a bad mistake in the 2nd, and perhaps wasn't having his best game overall, but he at least partially atoned for his error with that nice board battle win and feed to Heinen, and I thought after that he deserved to stay in the rotation and play out the game, especially with Zacha out. It seems particularly harsh too that you force the kid to take a game off, which in itself I think is fine, but then when he inevitably comes back a little rusty, you still punish him for it anyway. That to me is unfair.

The Bruins have had their struggles of late and the two guys the coach has singled out publicly the most are the two rookie forwards, who for sure have had their ups and downs but have not been the biggest problems with this team, not even close. Overall I like Monty as a coach but there are aspects of how he goes about things that annoy me.

Jim Montgomery Explains Benching Matthew Poitras Vs. Coyotes

Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery explained the reasoning for not playing Matthew Poitras in the third period against the Coyotes.

nesn.com

 

[Bruinfanatic]

Now put that record up against any other single seed, you will see that the President's trophy winner is the Stanley Cup winner almost 25% of the time, far more than any other seed.

Yeah but Bruins are 0%

 

[jgatie]

That means 75% of the time they lose ,not impressed.

All things being equal, the President's Trophy winner should win 1/16 of the time or 6.25% of the time. That's against all other teams in the playoffs. If you take non-playoff teams into consideration, it's 3.125%. I'll take 25% over those odds and make a fortune every time.

Yeah but Bruins are 0%

Not the point I was discussing. Not even close.

 

[hrdpuk]

All things being equal, the President's Trophy winner should win 1/16 of the time or 6.25% of the time. That's against all other teams in the playoffs, If you take non-playoff teams into consideration, it's 3.125%. I'll take 25% over those odds and make a fortune every time.

I think we are talking about two different things.

All I'm saying is I don't agree with the statements that a team is not as good as its record because they don't win the SC. It's no big deal just my opinion.