In our last episode, our heroes, the Boston Bruins, had just
broken out of a three-game winless streak with a thrilling 5-4
overtime victory over the Washington Capitals. The Bruins had
blown a three-goal lead, letting Washington tie the game in the
third period. It seemed like a deja vu setup - last year in the
playoffs the Bruins lost a similar game in overtime to these same
Capitals. But history did not repeat itself, and the Bruins won
this game on a Jason Allison goal.
Since then, the Bruins have been on a streak of a different kind,
going unbeaten in five games. But the biggest change was not in
the end results, but the means to achieve it. In the previous
four games, the Bruins had surrendered 15 goals, including a
horrendous five-goal outing against the Florida Panthers. Since
the Washington game, their defense has been ultra-stingy,
allowing one goal or less in each game!
It does not go without saying that Byron Dafoe has been da man
throughout this stretch, but the Bruins defense and backchecking
have been much better at containing the opposition. Ray Bourque
must have been playing that old Archie Bell and the Drells dance
tape in the locker room, because the Bruins have been playing the
"Tighten Up" on the ice. Or maybe it was those on-ice pushups
that Pat Burns was doling out liberally at his practices for
defensive errors.
In any event, the Bruins have been shutting down everybody they
play, and scoring a bit too. They toyed with both Tampa Bay and
Montreal, trailing in both games 1-0 entering the third period,
then unleashing a barrage to blow away the Bolts 4-1, and hacking
up Montreal goalie Jeff Hackett with five third-period goals to
win 5-1.
Sandwiched in between was a 1-0 whitewashing of Florida, a
statement in its own way after the previous meeting, a 5-5 tie
that should have been a Boston win, except for a minor detail
like a blown four-goal lead. The 1-0 win gave Dafoe four
shutouts for the season, tying him with (yikes!) Tommy Salo of
the Islanders and the Dominator for the league lead.
After the Montreal win, the game against Crazy Mike Keenan (a
Tanya Harding Ruby Ridge incident waiting to happen) and the
Vancouver Canucks was a real letdown. The Bruins were lucky to
salvage a 1-1 tie, as nothing was clicking. The Canucks came
into the Fleetcenter to get physical, and while the Bruins held
their own in the hitting department, they were not able to
get anything else going. To be fair, Mike Keenan hasn't been on
America's Most Wanted for a few years now, so maybe he has
mellowed out. Maybe even he isn't man enough to pick a fight
with this team's star player, Mark Messier. Or maybe there is no
need, since Mike and Mark are the combo who brought a Cup to
Stanley-starved Madison Square Garden a few years back.
In any event, it will take all those two have got to take this
bunch of palookas anywhere near the old bowl without Alex Mogilny
and Pavel Pure scoring some goals..
In the Bruins most recent game, Ray Bourque and Hal Gill united
to stifle league leading scorer Jaromir Jagr once again. The
only problem is that Bourque and Gill could not stay on the ice
for 60 minutes, and Jagr was able to bring the Penguins back to
within a goal at 2-1 by sneaking on the ice against Don Sweeney
and Dave Ellett, who together might be as big as Gill if Sweeney
sat on Ellett's shoulders. As he did last year, Hal Gill
took the assignment of close covering Jagr, and he did a very
nice job indeed throughout the entire game. Gill even decked the
Hairmeister once, and should have been called for interference or
roughing, but wasn't.
On the offensive end, Shawn Bates was the unlikely hero, getting
a kick-in goal (NESN broadcast analyst Gord Kluzak called it a
natural skating motion, almost a tribute to beloved former Bruins
color man Derek Sanderson, who was once accused of being a
homer), and a nice assist on Steve Heinze's winning goal, sending
Heinze in on old foe Tom Barrasso with a take-one-for-the-team
pass as he was getting creamed at mid-ice.
One definite reason for the Bruins success is the record of their
penalty killers over this stretch of games. The Bruins opponents
were a combined 0 for 19 on the power play in the last six games.
This put the Bruins third in the Penalty Killing rankings behind
only Phoenix and Dallas with only 11 power-play goals against in
98 attempts over 24 games, for an 88.8 kill percentage.
Unfortunately, the power play over the same stretch has
slipped some, going 4 for 22, and blowing six man-up situations
against the Canucks alone. Still, the power play is ranked third
in the NHL, just behind league leaders Pittsburgh and (who woulda
thought!) the Islanders.
So if you take the third best power play, and put it with the
third best penalty killing, and stir in the second best
goaltending duo of Dafoe and Robbie Tallas, weighing down the
team with a 1.85 goals-against average, what do you get?
A third-place team? It just doesn't seem like those stats should
equate to merely third in their division. Well, unfortunately for
the Bruins, both Buffalo and Toronto have been hot against their
opponents, and good at salvaging a point or two in tough
situations. Bruins fans can take heart, though. Even if the
Bruins are third in the Northeast division, they are tied for
eighth overall in points with Philadelphia, trailing only New
Jersey, Carolina(!), Phoenix, Dallas, Detroit, and division
rivals Buffalo and Toronto. All those teams are separated by a
max of five points in the standings - Phoenix and Dallas are at
33, the Bruins and Philly are at 28.
The education of Joe Thornton continues. If Thornton has a long
and prosperous career in the NHL, he will definitely have Pat
Burns to thank. Another coach could have thrown Joe out on the
ice his first year and said, "Good Luck, kid." Joe might have
brought home the Calder Trophy playing on some other team. But
chances are he would have been the next Alexandre Daigle or
Alexei Yashin or maybe a lot worse. He might have succumbed to
the pressure, or developed the belief that he was not as good as
he thought he was, that he was not capable of NHL caliber play.
Lots of first picks wash out, at great cost to themselves and to
the team that picked them.
Under Burns, Thornton has a chance for something different. Pat
makes him work at a certain position or situation until he
understands it and can handle it. When he missteps, or goes back
to habits that got him by in the junior ranks, Burns grabs him by
the scruff and sits him down. Burns has also set up a team
situation such that his being tough on Joe causes the other
players to pull for him, and egg him on to do well or step up the
effort, rather than be jealous of the kid with the big contract.
Joe walked onto a last place team, the same way that Daigle and
Yashin and others have. However, instead of being set up to fail
as a savior, Thornton is being nurtured to succeed. He will be a
more complete player for it. Watch a Bruins game, and notice how
much the fans are pulling for Joe, and how they cheer if he makes
a hit or scores. The fans are saying "Go Joe!" not "It's about
time he did something," which was the refrain in Ottawa.
He may not ever be an Eric Lindros, but then again, Lindros
hasn't achieved everything expected of him, whether or not those
expectations were justified, has he?
