The Bruins have all but clinched a berth in the playoffs, aided
by the inability of the teams trailing them to win when it
counts. But even if New York, Florida, Montreal, and Washington
had won most of their recent games, they would not have gained
appreciably on Boston. The Bruins, led by the ironman goaltending
of Byron Dafoe, have taken 10 points out of their last seven
games, including wins over Ottawa and Philadelphia, and a tie
with Toronto.
The Bruins continue to lead the NHL in penalty killing, and their
power play has started to work. Dafoe's goals-against average has
been a lowly 1.77 over the past 10 games, meaning that the
opposition hasn't been tallying much at full strength either.
Over the last two weeks, the Bruins have scored twice as many
goals as their opponents (18-9), while Dafoe has rung up three
shutouts.
Dafoe now has 10 shutouts for the season, leading the NHL. The
last Bruins goalie to match those numbers, Frankie Brimsek,
played 60 years ago in the 1930s (and by the way is in the Hockey
Hall of Fame). Byron still has several games to play, so he could
even improve on those stats. Not bad for a guy who got left off
the All-Star ballot.
Dafoe has been key - Byron has held the Bruins in many games, and
few are the bad goals he has given up. But much of the credit
also has to go to the overall defensive system that Pat Burns has
installed. It keeps the chances down. If you look back, all of
Pat's teams have had great goaltending, or so it seemed. After
all, Patrick Roy never coughed up nine goals in a game while
Burns was coach, and Felix Potvin had his best seasons with
Toronto under Burns' tenure.
When Byron does get beat, it is usually because the execution of
the system has broken down first - you will hear the play-by-play
guy say "The Bruins are running around in their own zone."
Fortunately, that seems to be happening less and less as the
Bruins enter crunch time.
Another way in which fortune has favored the Bruins, so far, is
that injuries have been few and far between. A bump or a stitch
here and there, a muscle pull that cost Rob DiMaio a game, a
groin that kept Darren Van Impe on the sideline for four games,
but that's about it. No Pavel Bure ripped up knees, or Doug
Gilmour bad backs, or Eric Lindros collapsed lungs. By contrast,
a rival like Montreal traded away two top players, and faced the
Bruins with another three of their top scorers in the MASH unit.
It is no wonder that the Bruins beat them twice within a week's
time, and sent the Canadiens golfing.
Even still, Burns has been mixing up the lines. Most coaches,
you'd think, would stick with tried and true combinations this
time of the year, with a playoff berth on the line. Not so with
Burns. He has shifted players enough during the season that most
have played together before, and moving a player or two around
now serves more to wake the guys up and deflate any complacency
they might have.
It also gives the team an edge in flexibility in a playoff
series, where matchups can be all-important. If an opposing team
can match up to shut down a line, and their opponents cannot
adjust to break down that matchup, goodbye in five. On the other
hand, if the Bruins can substitute a beefy Anson Carter for
speedy Sergei Samsonov, to mess up the first line and second line
matchups, the Bruins will be that much better off. Samsonov will
outskate the bruiser who was supposed to check Carter, and Carter
will rock the guy who was supposed to be pestering Sammy.
In the Montreal game, Burns essentially swapped Jason Allison
with Joe Thornton, and both Samsonov and Carter responded with
goals. That has got to build locker room confidence for all
involved.
Anson Carter, by the way, has been hot, acting as a one-man
wrecking crew against Montreal. With the Canadiens leading 2-0 on
a couple of typically cheap Forum (er, Molson Centre) first
period goals, Carter dished two assists before scoring the game-
winner himself. He also scored a goal on a blistering one-timer
against the Habs in Boston's 3-0 win that sent the Canadiens
home. His linemate Steve Heinze has been feasting off Carter,
scoring a couple off Carter rebounds to break the 20-goal
plateau. Both Carter and Heinze can look out of it for much
of the game, just missing passes and dribbling the puck around
pointlessly in the corners, and then be Johnny-on-the-spot in
front of the net just when least expected to drive home a winner.
The fact is that their physical style of play -- Carter by
bumping and skating, and Heinze by having an incredible knack for
getting in the way of opponents, and tying them in knots in the
process of forcing them to draw yet another tripping penalty --
bedevils opponents, disrupts their attacking, and forces them to
defend more than planned.
Essentially, the Bruins forwards are at their best when they are
forcing their opponents to play the Bruins game. The so-called
checking line of Rob DiMaio, PJ Axelsson, and Tim Taylor may not
be scoring leaders, but every shift they are a threat to score.
They are constantly deflecting passes, tying up the highest
scorers in the opponent's end of the ice, and generally
disrupting the other team's offensive flow.
The second line, usually matched with the other team's second
line, also has players who have learned to take the game to the
opposition. One of the things that Anson Carter has improved on
considerably is his ability to intercept that first pass out of
the opponent's zone and bear down on a defender. He has started a
serious number of two-on-one rushes in the last four or so games,
and the results are good scoring chances, if not game-winners.
The other biggest news around Boston is that the Bruins are
talking Krog. Jason Krog, University of New Hampshire senior
captain and Hobey Baker award winner (best US college hockey
player in 1999) is an undrafted free agent and he is talking
contract with the Bruins. Word is that the Rangers and Panthers
are also in the hunt, but only one of these teams will make the
playoffs, and you would think Jason would be smart enough to go
with the leader. Then again, the Bruins have a way of
negotiating their way out of promising players, so we'll have to
wait a few days to see the result -- Krog will sign with somebody
before the end of the week. With the Bruins, he'd have the chance
to either join an NHL playoff bound team, or go to Providence to
play for the Bruins affiliate, only the best team in the AHL, and
potential Calder Cup champs. Not a bad deal.
Krog is no savior, and he wouldn't be asked to be one. It is not
even sure he would end up on the Bruins playoff roster, because
Burns isn't likely to let some college kid come in and mess up
the system. But Krog could certainly get some spot duty with the
Bruins just before the end of the season, maybe resting a veteran
or two, and getting his feet wet in the NHL. Then he could go
down to Providence and lend a hand, replacing players like Shawn
Bates or Cameron Mann who might end up sticking with the Boston
club for the playoffs.
One of the biggest media flaps this week, aside from the chaos
surrounding Rick Pitino and his Pitino-ful Celtics, was swirling
around Assistant GM Mike O'Connell's "innocent" remarks about
Sergei Samsonov. Asked by a Boston Herald writer about a
min-slump Sergei was experiencing, O'Connell, somewhat
condescendingly related it to reduced ice time -- if you aren't
on the ice as much, you don't score as much. This was of course
translated by the media into a slap at Pat Burns' coaching
decisions, one of which involved giving Sergei the hook late in
some close games, and sending him out for fewer shifts when he
had noticeably off nights.
Now, this is the same treatment Burns metes out to all his
charges, and you have to admit that compared to the rough riding
that Joe Thornton has gotten from Burns at times when he made a
flub or two, Samsonov has had it real easy. Now that Thornton
has gotten the Pat Burns' religion, maybe it's Samsonov's turn do
some penance for his occasional on-ice indiscretions. When
confronted with O'Connell's comments, positioned as meddling, Pat
took the bait and respectfully let the Assistant GM know who is
coaching the Bruins: "I don't question his drafts. He has
pressure once a year, and that's the 27th of June or whenever the
draft is."
Don't hold back, Pat, tell us how you feel. Actually, Burns said
a lot more, but all of it was intended to protect the team and
the coaching staff from getting wedged against management by
media weasels (present company included). The funny thing is,
Samsonov has had three goals in the last four games, and guess
who Pat Burns was double-shifting against Montreal? If you are a
long-time fan of NHL hockey you have just got to love it.
Makes you wonder how Burns would have reacted if he had been
coach when O'Connell went into the locker room and took Adam
Oates over the coals a few years ago for his comments that the
team wasn't strong enough to win in the playoffs.
