Bruins Can Only Blame Themselves for Game 7 Loss to Canadiens

Before I allow my rage to overcome me, let's remember that it's been less than 7 months since the last Boston sports team won a championship. And in 2011 the Bruins gave the fans here a title for the first time in 39 years. Let's be very thankful we can enjoy this time and place of sports greatness.

And now, it's time to get angry.

Who on the Bruins had a good series? Carl Soderberg. Patrice Bergeron. Ummm... Matt Fraser?

Anyone else?

Did Milan Lucic, David Krejci, or Brad Marchand have a good series? Dale Weise, a 4th liner with 10 career NHL goals, scored twice in this series. Krejci and Marchand didn't score at all. Lucic scored once. Dale Weise was paid $750,000 this season, by two different teams. Krejci, Marchand, and Lucic combined for $15.75 million against the cap this season. That's exactly 21 times the cost of Weise. For half the goals in this series.

Brad Marchand has failed to score in 20 consecutive playoff games, dating back to early June last year against Pittsburgh. He also failed to take care of the puck, took stupid penalties, and he didn't really get under anyone's skin. I don't think he belongs on this team. No playoff production, doesn't play "Bruins hockey," he sounds more and more like his ex-BFF Tyler Seguin. Except he's also a penalty magnet.

The Bruins put themselves in this position when they didn't make any significant moves at the trade deadline. With Dennis Seidenberg out and Adam McQuaid's recovery a massive McQuestion mark, the B's needed a true defenseman. He didn't need to score, or be a "puck mover," just somebody who would follow the principles of Claude Julien's defensive systems.

Instead, the Bruins got Andrej Meszaros, who didn't even dress for this Game 7.

I still remember the days after the deadline, when the Bruins front office and some pundits and fans didn't seem to mind that the Habs had acquired Thomas Vanek (4 goals in the series), and the Bruins didn't do much of anything. Don't worry. Be happy.

How many Montreal goals started with glaring defensive mistakes by Bruins blue-liners?

And how often did the Habs outmuscle the B's for position down low, on both ends of the ice? The Canadiens scored some key goals because they had inside position in the crease. The Bruins whiffed on major opportunities because they DIDN'T have inside position (or anyone at all) in the crease. This isn't an area you typically expect the Canadiens to be better at than the Bruins. And yet they were.

Carey Price was able to clearly see almost every puck the Bruins shot at him. When he couldn't see it, a Canadien blocked it. The Bruins rarely obstructed his view. They were too busy attempting fancy passes.

Speaking of goalies, Tuukka Rask deserves his small share of criticism. He was very good in the last three games of the series, stealing Game 5, keeping the Bruins close in Games 6 and 7. However, he was not good in Games 1 or 3. He was below his average at key moments in those games. Rask wasn't the only disappointing Bruin in this series. He was similar to Krug in Hamilton in that he had bad moments, but also good ones.

Ultimately, however, Rask had it within himself to steal this series for the Bruins. Just one big save and this series might have a different result. He didn't do that. He's won 5 playoff series, lost 3. He's 1-2 in Game 7s. He's 1-3 in games when his team faces elimination. He's a very talented goalie. He just isn't much of a thief.

I'm not asking Rask to carry the team while so many highly paid, highly touted players in front of him are failing to produce. I'm just pointing out that Tuukka Rask has yet to prove that he's a great playoff goalie.

Tell me that Tuukka Rask is clutch. Go ahead, try it.

What do the Bruins do now?

Get healthy. Dennis Seidenberg's absence was quite apparent in this series. Chara + Seidenberg are greater than the sum of their parts. Chara without Seidenberg is old and overworked.

The Bruins need real defensemen on their depth chart. Matt Bartkowski is wound too tight to play postseason hockey. I would like to see the Bruins acquire the most boring, dullest d-man available this off-season. Someone with no flair, no personality, just follows the system.

If Brad Marchand weren't already on the team, would you want the Bruins to go after him? I wouldn't. Does he belong on this team?

You don't need to blow it all up. But the B's are more than just a few slight tweaks away from being as good as they can be, and from reaching the peaks that are within their grasp.

Photo Credit:
Associated Press

Andrej Meszaros Drags Down the Bruins

A true Boston Bruins fan almost always has someone on the team they don't really like. And for me that has become Andrej Meszaros. He's scored twice and added 3 assists as a member of the Bruins, but I don't care. The B's needed to find a defenseman to defend, not to score. And I'm not convinced that Meszaros can defend.

He was on the ice for Detroit's first two goals. He was just standing around the front of the net, a Red Wing already in position behind him in the crease. Meszaros merely minded his own business. The goals weren't completely his fault. He didn't defend though. He didn't make it hard for the forward in the crease to get position. He didn't do anything to help his goalie see.

On Detroit's third goal Meszaros wasn't on the ice. He'd just gotten off and had taken his time doing so. During the lackadaisical change, the Bruins failed to get the puck deep into the zone. A slow change combined with an offensive blue-line turnover to the speedy Gustav Nyquist resulted in a goal, and ultimately a Detroit win.

The Red Wings are a potential playoff opponent for the Bruins. I don't think the Bruins would play like this in a playoff game. I hope not. It was inconsistent, occasionally uninterested hockey.

That's fine for the next few games. But you want to have good habits going into the playoffs.

The Bruins play in Toronto tonight. The Leafs are also trying to get into the playoffs. They won Tuesday night, which ended an 8 game losing streak.

Photo Credit:
Tony Ding/Associated Press

Bruins Win 12 in a Row Thanks to Number 12, Jarome Iginla

In the middle of the biggest basketball weekend of the year, your Boston Bruins were the 5th story on SportsCenter Sunday morning. That's because they won their 12th straight Saturday night, coming from behind in the 3rd period to beat the Phoenix Coyotes 4-2.

The streak is the longest in franchise history since the 1970-71 season when the B's won 13 in a row. The franchise record is 14 straight from the 1929-30 season. Also over the weekend, the Bruins clinched a playoff berth. That's 7 consecutive years of playoff hockey in Boston.

I came up with a theory to explain this winning streak. Maybe when the Bruins didn't do much at the NHL trade deadline, the team felt that management had confidence in them. Maybe this motivated the players. Maybe it lit a spark, sparked a fire, fired them up. Name your cliche.

That'd be a nice story, but I think this streak is a result of mathematics, not psychology.

K + I + L = 17

That's Krejci (3 goals) plus Iginla (11 goals) plus Lucic (3 goals) equals 17 goals. That's how many the top line have scored in the past 12 games. Iginla scored twice in the win over Phoenix.

I'm going to start calling this line The Killers, because their initials are KIL. Think it will catch on?

The story of the streak has been offense: the first line has scored 17 goals, Patrice Bergeron has scored 5, Carl Soderberg 4, Gregory Campbell 3, Zdeno Chara and Dougie Hamilton each have 6 assists in the streak. The offense is coming from all 4 lines and from all the defensemen, including the newly acquired Andrej Meszaros, who has a goal and 3 assists in his 7 games with the Bruins.

And while the team's been scoring, they haven't allowed their opponents to come from behind. Mainly due to this next equation:

31/34 = 91.2%

The Bruins have killed 31 of 34 penalties during this stretch. Earlier this month the Bruins killed 5 penalties against Phoenix and won 2-1. The B's killed 4 against Florida on March 9th and won 5-2. They haven't allowed their opponents to get back into games with power play goals.

Hopefully the B's have finally figured out how to kill penalties without Dennis Seidenberg.

The Bruins hope to extend their streak with a win over Montreal tonight at the Garden.

The Bruins currently stand with 103 points, tied with the St. Louis Blues for the best record in the NHL. They're also 6 points ahead of Pittsburgh in the East and 17 ahead of Tampa Bay in the Atlantic. That's a 17 point lead with 11 games left. The Bruins are 6 points away from clinching the division and could claim that title as early as Thursday.

Photo Credit:
Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press

Bruins Make "Meh" Trade for Andrej Meszaros

The Bruins needed to add a defenseman. If they failed to do so, their chances of winning a Stanley Cup would have been quite small. They traded a 3rd round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers for defenseman Andrej Meszaros. It's a very "meh" trade.

Meszaros is 28-years-old, 6' 2" tall and weighs 223 pounds. He's played with Zdeno Chara as a member of the Ottawa Senators, who originally drafted him late in the 1st round of the '04 draft. He's played in 38 games this season with 5 goals, 12 assists and a +1. He has 46 games of playoff experience in Ottawa and Philly.

My main concern is penalty killing. Since losing Dennis Seidenberg, the Bruins' penalty kill has statistically been one of the worst in the League.

Meszaros is averaging 0:51 of shorthanded ice time per game this season. Once again, meh.

I'm not thrilled about that. That's good that he plays on the penalty kill. And he improves the defense, adds depth, et cetera. He reportedly has played well with Zdeno Chara in the past. Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli is familiar with him, as he was part of Ottawa's front office when Meszaros was drafted. So maybe he'll improve as a member of the Bruins.

So the Bruins slightly improved their biggest weakness. Hopefully Meszaros does work well with Chara. Hopefully they click. Hopefully Chara can make Meszaros a better player.

All I know is the Bruins have a suspect penalty kill and special teams takes on added importance in the postseason. I don't think the penalty kill improved much, although it did improve somewhat. Time will tell.

Until we know, my reaction to this trade is just "meh."