The Boston Bruins went into the All-Star Break both ahead and
behind. The Bruins were ahead of last year's pace in overall
points, but they were further behind in the standings.
The main reason is the emergence of Toronto as a real NHL team
again, with the addition of Curtis Joseph in goal. Based on last
year's records, the Bruins division looked like it was inheriting
a patsy, but nothing could be further from the reality. Coupled
with the establishment of Ottawa as a former laughing stock
rather than a current one, the Bruins find themselves in fourth
place, and in need of some serious improvement if they are to
avoid getting involved in a scramble for the lower playoff
berths. Only the misery that Montreal is enduring has the Bruins
out of the division cellar, and that by a meager five points.
Across the conference, the increase in teams to 14 means that
making the playoffs is no longer the "gimme" that it has been in
past years. Although perennial losers like the Islanders and
Lightning are still bottom feeding, and the Rangers and Capitals
look very sorry compared to last year's clubs, Florida has
stepped up its place with the addition of Pavel Bure, and
Carolina is making everyone forget about the Whale by leading the
Good Ol' Boy division (the Southeast? What kind of hockey
name is that? Maybe we should go back to naming the divisions
Norris, Patrick, and Bubba?).
One of the problems haunting the Bruins has been an inability to
keep the core team on the ice. Injuries to a host of players,
most of them minor, have definitely hurt the Bruins' cohesion,
and that is tough on a young team. Particularly difficult at this
time is the separated shoulder suffered by Kyle McLaren. This
injury, to a guy who was really coming into his own as an NHL
defenseman to be reckoned with, has caused Pat Burns to juggle
his defensive rotation drastically. Injuries to both veteran
standbys, Grant Ledyard and Dave Ellett, have forced Burns to
fire up the Providence shuttle, bringing Brandon Smith and Terry
Virtue from the Baby Bs, and even playing them as a defense pair!
Bruins fans were looking at Pat to see if he had a fever when
these rookies hit the ice together, but the fact is that they did
a decent job on their shifts, playing within their abilities and
the team system, just like good Pat Burns defensemen should.
Given the injury situation on the backline, you would think it a
good thing that the Bruins only played four games since our last
conversation, but that turned out to be three games too many.
Boston lost to Buffalo, giving the Sabres all they could handle,
but unfortunately for the Bruins, the Sabres could handle it.
The next game, the Bruins let the Lighting off the hook, playing
an uninspired game, and letting Bill Ranford re-live his glory
years for once this season. Ranford made some incredibly
acrobatic saves against his old mates twice removed, and didn't
even rip up his groin again like the last time. Game three saw
the Bruins feasting on the toothless Predators, handing Barry
Trotz's menagerie an 8-1 pasting. Thomas Vokoun now has played
goal against the Bruins twice, and one would imagine he has seen
quite enough of them, as he was flogged mercilessly for five
goals in two periods. Not pretty to watch, unless you are into
Lions vs. Christians and that sort of thing.
Then the Bruins faced their midterm final against the Ottawa
Senators at home in the FleetCenter, and flunked. Ottawa only
won 3-1, that margin increased by an empty-net goal from the
stick of ex-Bruin Shawn McEachern (why can't we KEEP guys like
that?), courtesy of fledgling point man Steve Heinze. Heinze
playing point with an empty net? Shock tactics? Element of
surprise? Not really, as Heinze fell down twice, and ended up
diving at Shawn and knocking the puck into his own net.
The game was truly decided earlier, however, when it became clear
that the Bruins were not likely to get more than one goal past
Ron Tugnutt, who should definitely have his career highlight
video made exclusively of games against the Bruins. Byron Dafoe
played very well, but he was victimized by a tip off Don
Sweeney's stick, and a screened slapper from Sami Salo (try
saying that after four or five Sam Adam's, and you'll get slugged
or picked up, depending on what kind of bar you are in). So who
gets called to play in the All-Star game when Martin Brodeur came
up lame? Good old Ronny. Dafoe, although considered a foreigner,
couldn't break the Eastern Bloc strangle hold on the World team
goal, with a Czech, a Latvian, and a Rooskie getting the honors.
Next year for sure, Byron.
So what do the Bruins need to do in the second half of the
season? Get healthy on defense and get some goals on offense.
Big Joe Thornton has begun to emerge from his teenage larval
stage and he is beginning to throw his weight around and buy
himself some skating room. He is fifth in goal scoring on the
Bruins with eight, and he looks capable of much more. The problem
is that the Bruins are not deep enough at the wing positions
to give Joe the kind of support he is ready for. The line of
Thornton, Heinze, and Anson Carter just does not seem to have the
kind of chemistry Bruins fans were hoping for - Joe's best
moments have come not with those guys but as substitute center on
the checking line with P.J. Axelsson and Rob DiMaio.
What the Bruins need, frankly, is Dimitri Khristich's evil twin.
They need another forward with the talent and hustle of Dimitri
at his best, and maybe a little bit of nasty thrown in. Ken
Belanger has the nasty but not the rest of the package. And
neither Carter or Peter Ferraro quite have what it will take to
propel Joe's line to the next level, and give the Bruins three
solid lines to throw at every team. Picking up a legitimate
player, and either putting him on with Joe and Steve, or
putting the newcomer on the first line with Jason Allison and
Sergei Samsonov, while moving Khristich to Joe's line, would make
the Bruins a power.
Who to go after? That's a tough call. If you go after players
from the also-rans this early, you run the risk of picking up
somebody with a loser attitude (those teams will want to get rid
of the guys causing the sucking sound, after all). Harry Sinden
always talks about the dangers of paying the big bucks for a
paperweight on skates, and his most famous foray into these
waters yielded Kevin Stevens, an immovable object in all the
wrong places. Boston can be hometown-hell - look at Stevens and
Jim Carey and McEachern for examples. But Harry and Mike
O'Connell are reputed to know hockey, and are being paid to bring
in a winner (so the fable reads). They have been in the "one
player too short" situation many times, and they should have
figured out by now that the fans would rather they take a chance
and give us some hope. If it doesn't work, at least we'll hear
more hockey talk on sports radio around town.
