Post-Game Talk: Game 36 - Shootouts S*** (macro) - NYI 3 BRUINS 2 F/SO

[The Hajj]

oh dont get me started on good ol' 46, i posted something about him awhile ago and got roasted.. but honestly, when was the last time he made one of his wingers better?... i get it, he's still a good player and has had a carousel of rw's but you would think that after a while some oddball chance of some guy gelling with him.. what's funny is that the guy he seems to work best with is ....... backes (gasp) they took a couple shifts i believe in the second and he set backes up for two straight shots, which he immediately put into shin pads, but at least they got shots off instead of forcing hospital puck passes through three defenders.... maybe we just need to get some old school vet rw , that plays a little slower game yet still has skill to play in today's nhl

Watch DK carry the puck into the offensive zone. 99.9% of the time he will get a stride across the blue line and pass to the winger next to him that is not only stationary but covered by several defenders. It is beyond stupid. For a guy that is supposed to be a top center, he sure doesn't make a lot of difference on the vast majority of shifts. And for the love of God, could he shoot the puck more than once or twice a week? The guy has a great shot but getting him to use it regularly seems like a lost cause.

 

[Ladyfan]

I didn't post last night. I was too cold and tired.

I fkn hate shoot outs ….but since they are here to stay our boys need to get better at it.

I REALLY like Anders Bjork. He has talent.

Can we please win Sat ?

 

[Smitty93]

Coyle has been a ghost since signing his deal...Hard to believe Donato has more goals than he now.

He's at 3 points (1G, 2A) in the 12 games since he signed his contract (11/27). He was at 14 pts in 24 games before that.

It's not just him though, the offense has generally shut down in that period. I mean, take a look at the basic team stats. They're a little worse defensively, but the offense, particularly the powerplay, has tanked.

	PP%	Rank	PK%	Rank	GF/GP	Rank	GA/GP	Rank
Before	32.90%	1	82.6	15	3.79	1	2.38	3
Since	13.20%	28	83.30%	10	2.42	25	2.58	13

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Look at how the individual points per game have changed. All of the top scorers have had their production drop by around 50%. Only Debrusk, McAvoy, and Bjork have seen any sort of significant uptick in production.

		Before			Since
	Games	Pts	Pts/G	Games	Pts	Pts/G	Pts/G Difference
Coyle	24	14	0.58	12	3	0.25	-57%
Bergeron	21	24	1.14	6	4	0.67	-42%
Marchand	24	42	1.75	12	9	0.75	-57%
Pastrnak	24	39	1.63	12	11	0.92	-44%
Krejci	18	17	0.94	12	7	0.58	-38%
Krug	19	18	0.95	12	6	0.50	-47%
Debrusk	19	9	0.47	12	8	0.67	41%
Heinen	24	12	0.50	12	3	0.25	-50%
Chara	24	11	0.46	12	2	0.17	-64%
McAvoy	24	7	0.29	12	5	0.42	43%
Carlo	24	8	0.33	12	3	0.25	-25%
Kuraly	24	7	0.29	12	4	0.33	14%
Bjork	16	5	0.31	12	5	0.42	33%
Grzelcyk	24	7	0.29	12	2	0.17	-43%

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[Olden McGroin]

I didn't post last night. I was too cold and tired.

I fkn hate shoot outs ….but since they are here to stay our boys need to get better at it.

I REALLY like Anders Bjork. He has talent.

Can we please win Sat ?

He really seems to be hitting his stride. Imagine where he could be without those injuries.

 

[Ladyfan]

He really seems to be hitting his stride. Imagine where he could be without those injuries.

He is fun to watch. When you are at the games you see how involved he is. He was getting his skate fixed right next t me last night and I said "Nice goal" I got a thumbs up from him.

One thing that continues to bother me is the abuse Pasta takes every game. I get it he is the top guy but lots of the crap he has to take is DIRTY. It is only a mater of time before he is injured if he isn't already. I don't want to hear "he has to suck it up" because it isn't possible. We need an enforcer who won't stop all of it but will prevent some .

 

[Camille the Eel]

Boychuck was a big story last night, actually. He was responsible for both Isles' goals. A classic "Johnny Rocket," a Blast from the 2011-12 past for the first one and an amazing slap pass - fake Johnny Rocket - setting up Barzal wide open for the second one.

Love Boychuck. Always have. If it had to be anyone last night, glad it was him.

 

[Mick Riddleton]

Boychuck was a big story last night, actually. He was responsible for both Isles' goals. A classic "Johnny Rocket," a Blast from the 2011-12 past for the first one and an amazing slap pass - fake Johnny Rocket - setting up Barzal wide open for the second one.

Love Boychuck. Always have. If it had to be anyone last night, glad it was him.

I would take him back and give them Miller, heck I will drive the part timer there.

We are 3rd in scoring but a lot of that is by the top line. Kovy can score, imagine Krech setting him up twice in the slot like he did with Backes, except Kovy probably scores one of them vs the ones we seen that were both blocked. Kovy will not hurt us cap wise and we can make him available to Seattle and keep the core protected. If we bring in a Kreider or Palmieri we need to protect them and expose a core guy.

 

[jgatie]

Seriously we've been waiting since Horton left for the zoo.

Not really. Iginla and Loui both scored 30 with Krejci.

 

[Gordoff]

He is fun to watch. When you are at the games you see how involved he is. He was getting his skate fixed right next t me last night and I said "Nice goal" I got a thumbs up from him.

One thing that continues to bother me is the abuse Pasta takes every game. I get it he is the top guy but lots of the crap he has to take is DIRTY. It is only a mater of time before he is injured if he isn't already. I don't want to hear "he has to suck it up" because it isn't possible. We need an enforcer who won't stop all of it but will prevent some .

THANK YOU, I'm glad somebody else is saying this! It's ridiculous to say that he "has to play through it." He needs his Dave Semenco! Somebody needs to step up and say "you want him, you've gotta go thru me first!"
He is being neutralized now by the nasty hits he's taking. He's our top scorer and he's not able to do what he does best.Cross checks to the back and even to the face. Sooner or later he IS going to get really hurt or badly concussed and if anyone thinks that the bull**** DoPS is going to do anything about it they're deranged. Find "that" guy, put him on the roster and on the bench. I was hoping that Ritchie would help in that regard but he has his own issues. If there's room on the bench for Backes and Lindolm, there's room for an enforcer. It's amazing what a mean nasty junkyard dog can do vs. waiting for an alarm to go off and the police to arrive to "take a report."

 

[Bruinaura]

Bergy's skate got him. Sounds like the issue is more than just "he needed a bunch of stitches"

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

I would take him back and give them Miller, heck I will drive the part timer there.

We are 3rd in scoring but a lot of that is by the top line. Kovy can score, imagine Krech setting him up twice in the slot like he did with Backes, except Kovy probably scores one of them vs the ones we seen that were both blocked. Kovy will not hurt us cap wise and we can make him available to Seattle and keep the core protected. If we bring in a Kreider or Palmieri we need to protect them and expose a core guy.

Gee, ya think they'd go for that?

 

[Gordoff]

Gee, ya think they'd go for that?

Oh suuure, and while we're at it they'll probably pay 80% of Boychuks salary too!

 

[Sheppy]

Bergy's skate got him. Sounds like the issue is more than just "he needed a bunch of stitches"

Hopefully no tendon damage, that could be bad.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

THANK YOU, I'm glad somebody else is saying this! It's ridiculous to say that he "has to play through it." He needs his Dave Semenco! Somebody needs to step up and say "you want him, you've gotta go thru me first!"
He is being neutralized now by the nasty hits he's taking. He's our top scorer and he's not able to do what he does best.Cross checks to the back and even to the face. Sooner or later he IS going to get really hurt or badly concussed and if anyone thinks that the bull**** DoPS is going to do anything about it they're deranged. Find "that" guy, put him on the roster and on the bench. I was hoping that Ritchie would help in that regard but he has his own issues. If there's room on the bench for Backes and Lindolm, there's room for an enforcer. It's amazing what a mean nasty junkyard dog can do vs. waiting for an alarm to go off and the police to arrive to "take a report."

Its the NHL for God sakes!

Everyone needs to look out for themselves.

That said, he's usually out there with the master of dirty (Marchand) and the king of intimidation (Chara). I would think if anyone went over the line (not just a hard hit) Pasta would have some immediate help.

 

[Mick Riddleton]

Gee, ya think they'd go for that?

Sure if you listen to the posts in here, he is the missing piece that would have got us the cup and get us out of this slump. It's all about getting them to read those ones. Still wish we kept Johnny Rocket as the physical hard hitting guy, salary would not allow it. We did find money to pay for Backes, that worked out great.

 

[Aeroforce]

I liked how Cassidy deferred and let the Isles shoot first in the SO. Gotta change things up somehow. I don't know what the recent numbers are, but I don't see that a lot.

Unfortunately they scored, and I think the B's thought "Here we go again."

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

I liked how Cassidy deferred and let the Isles shoot first in the SO. Gotta change things up somehow. I don't know what the recent numbers are, but I don't see that a lot.

Unfortunately they scored, and I think the B's thought "Here we go again."

Maybe they should just go with Marchand-Bergeron-Pasta until someone scores.

 

[The National]

No don't ignore it but don't read him out to the whole world. FFS he doesn't do that when a veteran screws up. He doesn't do that
when (even Heinen) screws up. He has his rock solid binkies and then he has guys who he focuses his aggravation on. I don't know, there may
be a hundred things that Bjork has done wrong (in Butch's eyes) that he doesn't call out but IMO it's s***y to single out Bjork when so many other
guys were mediocre and also needed calling out. I don't know if he called anyone else out because I didn't watch the full interview though. Blaming AB for that one play when he had a great game otherwise, while others didn't play as well as Bjork is using him as an excuse to explain why, once again they lost in the shootout which Butch never seems prepared for. Without Bjorks contributions last night they probably would've lost by a couple goals and NOT in overtime.

Agree with you on all of this.

But this is how he deals with the young guys, he gives tough love. I’m okay with it, but to your point there’s guys he should be giving tougher love to that he’s not. Debrusk, Carlo and Kuraly mainly.

I don’t mind him favoring Heinen because he’s proven he’s reliable defensively and can play in pretty much any situation with any line. Though, I’m not sure I love him on the PP over Bjork.

Bruce does seem unprepared for shootouts but not sure how much he could have done last night. He rolled out his best guys for the shootout, whether those guys’ moves are predictable or not, at least he gave up on the Wagner experiment. Even if Bjork was to be in the shootout and score it wouldn’t have made a difference, Tuukka isn’t great in shootouts and we couldn’t match them skill for skill.

 

[easton117]

Agree with you on all of this.

But this is how he deals with the young guys, he gives tough love. I’m okay with it, but to your point there’s guys he should be giving tougher love to that he’s not. Debrusk, Carlo and Kuraly mainly.

I don’t mind him favoring Heinen because he’s proven he’s reliable defensively and can play in pretty much any situation with any line. Though, I’m not sure I love him on the PP over Bjork.

Bruce does seem unprepared for shootouts but not sure how much he could have done last night. He rolled out his best guys for the shootout, whether those guys’ moves are predictable or not, at least he gave up on the Wagner experiment. Even if Bjork was to be in the shootout and score it wouldn’t have made a difference, Tuukka isn’t great in shootouts and we couldn’t match them skill for skill.

Man, shy of tackling the shooters I don’t know what Rask would’ve done different on the first two. Bar down laser beams.

Maybe he should tackle the next guy he faces. Would certainly make the next one keep his head up

 

[ElkabombKid9]

Did Bjork get moved to the 4th line after he scored? I only ask because I fell asleep, and the last two shifts I saw I thought I saw him on Kuraly's line. May have just been a coincidence. Also. I apologize if it's been said I haven't read every post, but Bjork has looked like he could explode at anytime. Why not try him with Krejci for a while. As much as I love this team they have become the Patriots, great D no offense...

 

[BMC]

Not really. Iginla and Loui both scored 30 with Krejci.

Iginla was only 1 season and Loui's tenure was marred by concussions

 

[Aussie Bruin]

He's at 3 points (1G, 2A) in the 12 games since he signed his contract (11/27). He was at 14 pts in 24 games before that.

It's not just him though, the offense has generally shut down in that period. I mean, take a look at the basic team stats. They're a little worse defensively, but the offense, particularly the powerplay, has tanked.

	PP%	Rank	PK%	Rank	GF/GP	Rank	GA/GP	Rank
Before	32.90%	1	82.6	15	3.79	1	2.38	3
Since	13.20%	28	83.30%	10	2.42	25	2.58	13

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Look at how the individual points per game have changed. All of the top scorers have had their production drop by around 50%. Only Debrusk, McAvoy, and Bjork have seen any sort of significant uptick in production.

		Before			Since
	Games	Pts	Pts/G	Games	Pts	Pts/G	Pts/G Difference
Coyle	24	14	0.58	12	3	0.25	-57%
Bergeron	21	24	1.14	6	4	0.67	-42%
Marchand	24	42	1.75	12	9	0.75	-57%
Pastrnak	24	39	1.63	12	11	0.92	-44%
Krejci	18	17	0.94	12	7	0.58	-38%
Krug	19	18	0.95	12	6	0.50	-47%
Debrusk	19	9	0.47	12	8	0.67	41%
Heinen	24	12	0.50	12	3	0.25	-50%
Chara	24	11	0.46	12	2	0.17	-64%
McAvoy	24	7	0.29	12	5	0.42	43%
Carlo	24	8	0.33	12	3	0.25	-25%
Kuraly	24	7	0.29	12	4	0.33	14%
Bjork	16	5	0.31	12	5	0.42	33%
Grzelcyk	24	7	0.29	12	2	0.17	-43%

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Other teams have worked out the Bruins PP and how to shut it down - give Pasta no space and keep Krug accountable and unable to get his passing game going and the whole thing falls apart pretty quick. I think the players and coaches deluded themselves for awhile that the sudden lack of production was due to the absence of first Krug and then Bergy, but now it's obvious that it isn't. The tactics need to change and they need to find something new that works. Part of that could be personnel - some here have suggested PP time for Bjork and I'd be all for trying that, or placing Coyle on the 1st unit - and part could purely be the play-making in terms of how they setup and work to create good chances.

You can say the same for a few other things the Bs do - they've had a lot of exposure in the last 12 months and a lot of their plays have become known and predictable. The challenge for Cassidy and the rest of the coaching staff, and the players, is to change some things up and find ways to re-gain effectiveness, particularly on offense, without confusing themselves or compromising the core components of the team's game.

 

[jgatie]

Iginla was only 1 season and Loui's tenure was marred by concussions

Yeah, but they were great right wings for Krejci, for one season.

 

[Smitty93]

Other teams have worked out the Bruins PP and how to shut it down - give Pasta no space and keep Krug accountable and unable to get his passing game going and the whole thing falls apart pretty quick. I think the players and coaches deluded themselves for awhile that the sudden lack of production was due to the absence of first Krug and then Bergy, but now it's obvious that it isn't. The tactics need to change and they need to find something new that works. Part of that could be personnel - some here have suggested PP time for Bjork and I'd be all for trying that, or placing Coyle on the 1st unit - and part could purely be the play-making in terms of how they setup and work to create good chances.

You can say the same for a few other things the Bs do - they've had a lot of exposure in the last 12 months and a lot of their plays have become known and predictable. The challenge for Cassidy and the rest of the coaching staff, and the players, is to change some things up and find ways to re-gain effectiveness, particularly on offense, without confusing themselves or compromising the core components of the team's game.

The same thing happened last year. The powerplay was money because one-timers to Bergeron at the bumper position and Pastrnak at the dot were open. Teams figured out that was basically all they had, and your powerplay is easier to defend when it's predictable.

One of the issues is that they don't have a lot of movement and creativity. They do their thing, but if it doesn't work, there's no counter move. That makes sense because their powerplay is set up based on players strengths, but you end up having the only real movement be between Krug and Marchand. Bergeron's always going to stay at the bumper. Pastrnak is always at the dot, and whoever they have at the net is just supposed to stay there unless the puck goes behind the net.

 

[lopey]

Noel Accari has another hat trick lol. I think he now has 11 goals