Behind a strong showing from the reigning Vezina, Conn Smythe, and Stanley Cup winner Tim Thomas, the Bruins dominated in all areas of the game last night. That showed up in the boxscore to the tune of 4-1, a convincingly dominant performance by the Bruins in the rematch to the Eastern Conference Finals of last year. Once again it was the young guns making their presence known. Marchand and Seguin each had 2 assists while Peverley had 2 goals. Bergeron was finally rewarded on the score sheet with a helper of his own. This guy makes more plays he is not rewarded for with a point than any other player I have ever watched. It is unbelievable that Bergy does not figure into more goals. He is constantly making good decisions with and without the puck, behind and infront of the play. He is phenominal on the breakout and must start to be considered in the top 5 in the NHL in the faceoff circle. Once again the special teams looked good. The PK is very good right now and actually made Tampa's potent power play look mediocre. Discipline will be a key for this team this year. Lucic took a slashing penalty, Seguin with a trip, and Marchand with a roughing that were undisciplined penalties. The Downies, Otts and Averys of the world are there to goat you into penalties. The B's cant afford their big players sitting in the box with those clowns.
Joe Corvo continues to impress and I think he was a great addition. He moves the puck very well and even made a few pretty difficult saucer passes over sticks that were pretty close last night. When the lanes are not open, he fires on net and that seems to be contagious. Both Ference and McQuiad seemed a bit more trigger happy then they normally are. That is great thing, I am tired of yelling "shoot!!" at my tv on the power play. Another difference so far is Seguin's willingness to shoot. He appeared to be overthinking a lot last year, and at times the game seemed to fast for him. This year he has been a totally different player. He is passing still, which is his fortay, but it looks like he realizes the Bruins need him to dent the twine and he is shooting hard and often. He did a curl and drag wrister around Hedman last night, handcuffed Garon and alomst beat him. That is the kind of explosiveness Seguin brings.
Last night it was pretty clear that the Bruins are just on a different level when it comes to their physicality. Victor Hedman, the Bolts "big" defenseman, turned away from everything. Even Steve Downie, who I cant stand but usually is willing to muck it up, looked to the refs everytime anything happened to beg for a call. I dont want to get ahead of myself, and I think any team with Stamkos, St. Louis, and Lecavlier will be good, but I do not see Tampa matching well with Boston, Philly, Pittsburgh, or the slightly tuffened up Sabres in a 7 games series. You can almost gaurantee they will meet one of them come playoff time. Goaltending will be an area to watch as well. Roloson is game, but another year older and did not get the nod last night. Garon played pretty well at times, but did not standup to heavy forecheck, gives up a lot of second chances and does not appear to be a top tier net minder.
Tomorrow we get matinee hockey with old friends Matt Hunwick and Chuck Kobasew (off season acquire) and the Colorado Avalanche coming into North Station. This is a team on a rebuild, but they have some young talent that will be very good, led by Matt Duchene. They went out and got Erik Johnson, stud defenseman, very good two way center Jay McClement, former 20 goal scorer Chuck Kobasew and #2 overall pick Gabriel Landeskog. Add to that Paul Stastny, who will be looking to bounce back after a dissapointing season which saw him only total 57 points, and sophmore standout Duchene, and you have a team with a few pretty good cornerstones. I see the Av's missing the playoffs again but the B's cant sleep on this opponenet. Thats why they play the game!
Seguin did look good this game, I saw flashes of it in game one but that game was definitely overshadowed by the banner raising. The whole team seemed flat thursday night, but I chalk it up to the excitement of knowing that the new banner hanging was because of their extreme efforts last year. The Bolts game brought out the best of what these guys can do, genuine team work minus the grandstanding. Watching Marchand set up Peverly and be as happy for his goal as he is for his own shows how much of a team this is. One of the reasons why he is my favorite Bruin. But back to Seguin the kid put some weight on this summer and looks like he is not going to have a problem throwing it around a bit. He definitely needed to if he is going to be played this year as much as I hope he is. He is really trying to make things happen both assisting and firing on goal...those shots will soon be paying off.
ReplyDeleteSide note on Downie gotta say I can't stand a player who practices his acting lessons on the ice, instigates and then instantly looks to the ref for a penalty call. If it wasn't so obvious it would be funny, guess some people will do anything for an Emmy!!!!