2017-18 Boston Bruins Thread PLAYOFF EDITION: Rd 1 Toronto

[BDL]

I was at the game last night, good game. I am a Predator fan but have to give you guys credit for handling the puck. It was a strange game because the Bruins were controlling and moving the puck up and down the ice well for most of the game but we were the ones scoring. Maybe too much passing, maybe goalie strength. After just playing the Ducks with all of the fighting and cheap shots it was nice to see another style of play.

That is a great analysis. There are way too many times that the Bruins are looking to move the puck to find the perfect shot, instead of firing at the goal and crashing the net, and see what happens. Hopefully that will change now that the team and coaches are trusting the Not-old-enough-to-drink defensemen. McAvoy and Carlo are proving nightly that they belong out there. So that could lead to the F's feeling more comfortable taking chances.

Big game tonight. for a couple of reasons. First, if the B's win and the Habs lose in regulation, the Bruins leap frog into the 3rd playoff spot for the "Flor-theast". Also, there are 3 teams that are 1pt behind the Bruins in the standings. This could be the earliest must-win game of the season for the Bruins.

Bruins vs. 'Yotes at 7pm tonight. Let's go Bruins!

 

[stevea20]

We've been quiet for awhile. Hope everyone had a good holiday. It certainly has been for the B's with their recent good play or at least good results. Last night against Ottawa was particularly satisfying.
Now comes the problem. They MUST find a way to beat Washington if for no other reason than to get the monkey of 11 straight losses off their backs.

GO B"s!

 

[LSLS]

Meanwhile Tampa is running away and hiding with the conference. +48 goal differential. My Goodness.

 

[stevea20]

DIS...GUS...TING! When I had to turn the game off the B's were up 2-0 and playing well. To wake up to a SO loss...ANOTHER loss to the Caps, just enrages me.

As for Tampa. Let them have the #1 seed. We saw with Nashville last year that it's no guarantee of playoff success.

 

[BDL]

Had a good holiday, SteveA. Thank you very much. Hope you had the same.

Now, on to the Black & Gold. Or should I say, the current 2nd place Boston Bruins. True, they are only 1pt up on the Leafs. But the B's have 3 games in hand. And, the Bruins have 12pts on the 4th place (in the Atalantic Div) Red Wings. And that's all due to an 11 game point streak, with 8 wins. Things were looking dismal heading into the NHL bye week (I have no idea why this is a thing). But, with Backes playing to form, it helped stabilize the lines and that seemed to elevate everyone's games. Up and down the lines and pairs. And, with the exception of last night, solid play from both goalies. Tuukka had finally been paying attention to shot heading for his left shoulder and Dobey was trusting his instincts again.

With the veterans playing to form, and the younger players contributing and eating up minutes, the Bruins are looking solid again. So... What could I possibly have to, not necessarily complain, but, maybe, chirp about? Go ahead. Take a guess. If you've ever read the Bruins thread before, I think you know where I'm going.

TRADE KREJCI!!!!!!!!!

But, I'll amend this. Trade Krejci OR Spooner. They are both playing like they don't want to be hit right now. You can't have 2 forwards that play like that on the same team, much less the same line. I'm still leaning towards trading Krejci though. He is more against the cap and he will get a better return. Especially from a Western Conf team. Maybe to Vegas for D-Schmidt or F-Jamkrok in NSH. It might take a sweetener to get these guys, because both teams would be selling high, and I don't know what their contract statuses are. Probably a pipe dream, but what else is there to do with 5 days of NO hockey.

In any case, let's hope the B's can come out of the gate running.

Let's Go Bruins!!!

 

[BDL]

Congratulations to Brad Marchand on his All-Star nod. I can only blame the new divisional format as to why Bergy got snubbed.

 

[BDL]

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh........

All good things must come to an end. As was the case with the Bruins' 18 game point streak. But, a new month could mean a new streak. Tonight's victim (hopefully) will be the St. Louis Blues. The Bruins and Blues have almost the same amount of points and are roughly in the same boat, standings-wise. The difference is that the B's have 4 more games in hand. In fact, the B's are tied for having played the fewest amount of games in the league. I'm sure at some point, the closing of the gap of games will take a toll on the B's, but for now, I'm enjoying the fact that the B's are in 2nd in the division, while playing less games.

Marchand will be missing his 3rd of 5 games tonight. Hopefully, the rest of the team can pick up the slack.

Face-off at 7pm. Let's Go Bruins!!!!!

 

[stevea20]

Rick Nash is now a Bruin. Since I found out I've heard guys at work completely disliking this trade to the radio guys loving it. One thing I know for sure, Felgar must be doing dances in the streets to celebrate Spooner being gone.
How do I feel about it? I'll take a wait and see approach. Also heard they signed Brian Gionta. That one was a surprise.

Ryan Donato had a great Olympics as did the USA women.

 

[Marchand63]

And here we go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[BDL]

Here it is... The home stretch. It's NHL trade deadline day. And even though the Bruins limped home from the long road trip, they are coming back with 2 new faces, both from the same team, in 2 separate transactions. The first deal was for a 3rd pair/depth D-man Nick Holden, who comes to the team with a 3g 9a 12p with a -3 (not bad considering the Rangers this year). Then, yesterday, the B's FINALLY get the player that that they have chased at every turn for the past 10 years, Rick Nash (which has led to never ending memes of different "Nash"es populating the team). He brings size and scoring to the (sigh) Krejci line. Where, I guess he will fit in, where he is more of a goal vs. assist producer. And this will give the Bruins 3 viable lines and a 4th line that can be surprising at times. I just hope that with having a power forward on his wing again, Krejci won't regress into his Kessel-like phobia of going into a corner.

And I don't think the B's might be 100% done making deals. By including Beleskey and Spooner in the deal to get Nash, along with agree to eat 1/2 of Beleskey's cap hit if NYR did the same for Nash's, they now have more cap room to move. And that's more than signing Gianta to a veteran deal.

The deadline ends at 3pm est today. Watch you twitters, or if you're home, keep NHL Network and/or TSN on your last channel button. 22 games left and 5 points behind the Bolts for 1st place.

Let's Go Bruins!

 

[BDL]

And just like that, the Nash deal gets overshadowed. Not by the E. Kane deal to SJ. But that is close. Nope. The Bolts just traded for BOTH McDonagh and Miller. The road to the ECF now goes through the Gulf Coast.

 

[BDL]

Ummmm.......

Holy Ba-jeeezzuusss... What a great pair of games. It was the definition of "night and day." First, came the 8-4 onslaught of the Pens. Then came the snooze-fest/nail biter of a game vs. the Habs. Going from 8 combined goals in the 1st per, to not getting the 2nd combined goal until the 57th min. Wow.

First was the game against Pittsburgh. I was at my mom's house when the game started. We're in the living room, and I had to get something for her from the kitchen. So I turn on the TV, and the 1st shot the Pens take on net, "BLEEP!" My mom yells in asking if I'm ok, I tell her what happened, and bring her, her dessert. She eats her dessert, I go back to the kitchen, and the score is 2-1 Bruins. Next thing you know, I yell out "HOLY BLEEP!" My mom yells in, in like a sad tone, "Did they score again?" I go, "No. The exact opposite. The B's are up 2-1." Then for the rest of the 1st period, the scoreboard lit up like a pinball machine. At the end of 1, it was 5-3. Not the final, just the end of the 1st period. After a goalie change for Pitt, the scoring slowed down. To the point where the final ended with a 8-4 win for the Bruins. And, as much as it kills me, I have to give Krejci credit for his hat trick Thursday. Yay!!! Still would've liked to have traded him at the deadline.

Next came the game vs. the Habs. And this was a big one. For both teams. For the B's, they had to see what they could do after their epic game against the Pens. And to try to keep the wins coming. For the Habs, it was a game of pride for the team and audition tapes for potential free agents. Then there was the 1 thing that both teams had in common. This was the 1st time the Bruins had swept the Canadiens in almost 271 yrs. And this, more or less, may have drove home the last nail in Claude's time behind the bench. The only thing that might save him, is the fact the Habs, have a ton of money under the cap and can sign veteran players, which is more of Claude's game.

18 games left for the Bruins (3 games more than TB, 4 more than Tor), and they are 6 pts behind the Bolts. The next game is Tues. night vs. the Red Wings. Let's Go Bruins!

 

[BDL]

A lot of happenings going on with the Bruins recently. It seems that if you wear a 'C' or an 'A' on your chest, fate had decided that "Nah, you don't need to play." First there was Bergy's injury. Now, Big Z has an injury. AND THEN... came Backes' bull-poop suspension/ejection/laceration trifecta. Add into that the McAvoy injury and the odd injury up and down the line-up. And still, the B's are 8-2-0 in their last 10 games. Including a 4pt game against the Bolts, where they shutout Tampa 3-0.

Also, in this stretch, Marchand was starting to get some Hart buzz. He'll never win in a million years, but he will get some votes. Lots of goals and more than his share of game winning goals. Luckily for the B's, the scoring wasn't only coming from the Little Ball of Hate. Krejci (errrr) has been making the scorer's sheet. Same for both Nash-es. And the "50's Line" has been contributing in all areas.

I'm not gonna lie, occasionally the goalie play has been erratic. They will have to tighten that up in the coming weeks. Hopefully, that will coincide with the return of Chara and McAvoy.

In other news, Donato 2.0 will be dressing tonight in the game vs. Columbus. He signed his entry level deal once Harvard got bounced from the playoffs.

Last night, the Lightning clinched a playoff position. The earliest that the Bruins can do the same will be tomorrow, and they won't even be playing. If the Bruins win tonight and the Devils lose in regulation tomorrow night (the latest game of the night vs. SJ), the B's have earned their hats and t-shirts. If NJ doesn't want to be accommodating, the Bruins can earn the hats and shirts themselves by winning tonight and Wed vs. St. Louis.

12 games left.

Let's Go Bruins!!!!!!!!

 

[Marchand63]

The run is getting fun!!! We will be on a cruise when the run get's going so we bought the internet package. Last time the won it all. Fingers crossed.

Btw the little ball of hate is my go to jersey, DH is a Chara guy

 

[BDL]

Great debut for Donato, Monday night. Just a shame that it was marred in an OT loss (blown non-call). Now, there are several theories about how the game ended the way it did (blind refs). But, you can only go by the final score (should've been a penalty shot). At least they escaped with 1 point (should've been 2). And the Bruins did fight the whole way against the Blue Jackets, who are on an 8 game win streak (Bruins were missing 5 starters). But the past is the past.

At least NJ did their job in losing to the Sharks last night. So maybe that B's will get their 2018 playoff shirts and hats tonight on national TV. They will be on NBCSN. Some have grumbled about this game being listed as a "rivalry" game. But I can see it. It was against the Blues that Orr flew, and it was Bobby's birthday yesterday.

Face-off tonight at 8pm.

Let's go Bruins!

 

[Marchand63]

I loved seeing Donato get his first goal. I think he will be a great addition.

His Dad Ted grew up in my area, my DS also attended the same HS Ted did. His pix were all over the alumni walls.

 

[stevea20]

We will be on a cruise when the run get's going so we bought the internet package.

I just got back from a cruise. Such a good time. The debate on radio is whether the B's should try to catch Tampa and get the 8th seed or just play out and go against Toronto.
They say go against the tougher opponent, I say take the path of least resistance. Let Toronto and Tampa beat each another up in Round 1.

Only one thing has to happen to help the B's have a deep run. SOMEONE knock out Washington!

 

[Marchand63]

Ok Bruins fans - Ryan Donato is up for the Hobey Baker Award - let's give him some votes !!!!

I can't link but it is through FB. Google is your friend

 

[BDL]

The Bruins lost Wed. night. BUT, it was an OT loss. And that 1 pt gave the bruins 100 pts on the season and clinched them their playoff spot. And the Bruins wasted no time, in putting out the playoff hype commercials. 1, I think is funny as Hell. The other, well... There is a certain negative radio personality on 98.5 that is the source.

Die Hard

Listen to no one

Tonight the B's are in Dallas to play the Stars and try to cement their place in the standings.

Face-off at 8:30.

 

[BDL]

This morning, we woke up in a world where the Bruins are in 1st place. Breathe it in... Ahhhhhhhh... And it wasn't just given to them. They had to earn every bit of the 2 points last night. The Bruins' 1st goal occurred when the cage was knocked off the pegs, almost simultaneously as the puck hit the back of the net. The 2nd goal took a whole intermission before anyone knew who to give credit to. At first, NESN said it was Bergy's goal. Then I saw the replay, and I thought it was Donato's goal. Come back after intermission, turns out we were both wrong. It was Pastrnak's goal. Oh well. After the 1st intermission, Tampa got on the board. And like everyone that I was sitting with, we immediately thought about what was on NESN right before the Bruins game. And we all got scared. But no more goals were scored.

That's not to say that Tuukka was active. Oh nooooooooo... In fact, If Tuuk ever wanted to get into a 2nd career, he'd be great as a caterer. Because he kept force feeding his waffle into Conacher's face, after Conacher interfered with him. And if it wasn't for the refs, we could've had a legit goalie fight. Vasilevsky skated his way down and wanted a piece of Rask. But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... The zebras had to hold him at bay (sigh). What might've been... Tuukka wasn't the only Bruin that threw hands. Pasta stepped into the octagon himself. I know. I couldn't believe it either. In fact, the whole 3rd period was a battle royal occasionally separated by a goal.

In the end, this was an AMAZING game. And the capper of the night was hearing 18,000+ Bruins fans chanting "WE WANT THE CUP" so loud that it came through the TV. Awesome energy all around.

Next game is tomorrow at 1pm, vs. the Cardiac Cats of FLA, who are just on the outside looking in. So they can not be taken lightly.

Let's Go Bruins!