Friday, December 31, 2010

Year in Review: Your 2010 Boston Bruins. The Good, the Bad, the Loss to Philly

I figured out that I haven't written anything here for a while. As it turns out, I've been busy or on twitter or on another blog or whatever. If you're using this blog for all of your NHL news, here's a couple tidbits since the last time we spoke:

  • Sidney Crosby is the best hockey player in the league again. Hate all you want, it's the simple truth.
  • Team USA is doing work in the WJC tourney this year. For more on that, check out Sleeping Giant.
The Good:
Some end-of-calendar-year awards:

Best game, for a forward:
Milan Lucic, 3g 0a vs. Florida. In 13:27 of ice-time, Lucic managed to score the only Bruins hat trick of the 2010 Calendar Year. No skater scored more than 3 points in a single game (though there were plenty of 3 point games) and so the 3-goal game takes the cake. Not bad for an "overpaid" winger.

Most improved player, forward:
As much as I'd like to say Lucic and Savard and Krejci playing injury free should be the ones getting this, nobody can take away the scoring prowess that Shawn Thornton has shown off this year. 7 goals and 5 assists over the calendar year, the man is playing hockey and doing it well, especially recently.

Best game, for a defenseman:

This goes two ways.

On the one hand, the defenseman with the best +/- game of the year is Captain Chara with a +4 against Buffalo on November 3rd. Obviously, he thought the new sweaters looked as dumb as the rest of us did.

On the other hand, the highest-scoring game for a defenseman is Dennis Wideman with 3 assists on May 1st (game 1) against Philly. Hate all you want, but he had the assisting touch all playoffs in 2010 and was the Bruins leading playoff scorer. Not that I mind having Nathan Horton or Greg "insurance" Campbell around, mind you.

Best game, for a Goalie:
Both Thomas (Dec 1st @ Philly) and Rask (November 18 vs. Florida) posted a 41-save shutout in 2010. Of the 10 shutouts of 2010, Thomas has 6 and Rask has 4. I'm not un-lazy enough to calculate overall save percent in 2010 or anything, deal with it. Both goalies rule and I'm worried Rask has an undisclosed injury and isn't playing for a little while as a result.

Some good pickups:
Our team looks a hell of a lot better with (blank) instead of (blank)
Brad Marchand - Daniel Paille
Greg Campbell - Steve Begin
Shawn Thornton - Shawn Thornton

The all-new "4th" or "energy" or "Merlot" line have been playing like champs. Killer effort. Marchand is even up with Bergeron right now.

Nathan Horton - Whoever the fuck was our "first-line" winger last year.
Dennis Seidenberg - Half the PK, he blocks every shot in the world.

Special Award, blog category:

Days Of Y'Orr: Best new funny Bruins Blog - probably should be one of your first stops for Bruins news and views. Especially Views. Here's to another year of Patrice Purr-geron investigative reporting

Somethings Bruin: Best blog that puts out an article every 6 hours because everyone on the internet writes for them.

The Bad:
Well, the Bruins aren't very good at scoring, still. They had a 2 month+ streak where they couldn't win at home worth a damn. We're not convinced that Claude will be The Guy to coach the Bruins to a championship...but I'm worried who'd we pick up if he left.

Tyler Seguin on the 4th line isn't so great...but he's already bested the last 19's rookie year, so I shouldn't be too worried just yet. Honestly, I'm more worried about having to deal with another decade of those awful "Caught Cold" Seguin/Dunks commercials.

The Ugly:
Yeah, I don't really want to re-live it either.

It sucked. Philly is dumb. Tell your friends.

Oh, and someone dropped a bowel bomb of a fart in the locker room today, per Boston.com.

2011:
Bruins will make the playoffs, might even win 4 or more games. Depends on how the next 3.5 months go.

If nothing else, it won't be boring.

If you're itching for Bruins coverage and you don't want to wait another month or so for me to get off my ass and write, please to be checking out Days Of Y'Orr,
GO BRUINS!