Like the rest of you, I've been trying to read up on prospect news and interesting facts about Tyler Seguin and whoever the Bruins end up with with their other pick. So like any good hockey fan, I went to TSN's draftcentre and was immediately smacked in the face with a story about the Oilers next jersey and ticket seller, Taylor Hall. Hall had a press conference with the Oilers recently and the media there tried to convince him to play for Edmonton instead of Boston.
Now before you get all worked up about the Oilers taking Hall - they will, and with the first overall pick - know that Hall was in Boston the week prior, basically doing the same thing. Hall and Seguin are both being scouted by only Boston and Edmonton. Now that that's over with, here's the meat of the story and evidence of the vile Edmonton media's laughable attempt at tampering:
He laughed when asked if he knew the difference between the Alberta drinking age -- 18 -- and the drinking age in Massachusetts --21.
"Doesn't matter to me. I am a hockey player."
Well obviously it doesn't matter. Cowboys is in Calgary. But you can see the insidious plot to convince Taylor Hall to....well, huh. The funny thing about this question is that whether Taylor Hall can walk into any bar in Alberta (because he's of age) or any bar in Boston (because he's a superstar) probably doesn't play into whether the Oilers pick him first or not. This is not the end of the Oilers' media treachery, however...the plot thickens:
Is he a steak man or a seafood man?
"I like steak."
Though there are plenty of wonderful places to get a steak in or near Boston, and I'd probably say "steak" as well, this is an obvious dig at Boston's coastal nature and seafood industry, and an opportunity to mention that Alberta produces half of Canada's beef.
It's kind of fun that the last home game of the Bruins regular season is also the first home game of the Revolution season. Revs play TorontoFC at like 7pm tonight so unless you're watching Habs/Leafs on NHLNetwork (which you totally should be and rooting for Toronto) maybe flip that o-hahahahahaha oh my who watches MLS on TV anyways?
Regardless, the Bruins have a chance to clinch at home with a win today. 3 points today and tomorrow clinches 6th which isn't so bad. But check this out: Montreal might still miss. Here's how:
Bruins get at least a point today (though they need a win to clinch).
Toronto beats Montreal in regulation.
Rangers beat Philly in overtime tomorrow.
Bonus: The Maple Leafs are locked in to 29th place for the season so you don't have to feel bad about them winning and maybe us not getting as good a draft pick. The draft lottery is on Tuesday, but you can check in with the Oilers website for all your lottery simulation fun. Hit reload to re-run the simulation.
Here's the probabilities for Boston's pick from Toronto:
1st overall chance: 18.8%
2nd overall chance: 42.0%
3rd overall chance: 39.2%
4th or higher chance: 0.000% ()
So things are looking up in Bruins-land. The crazies are giving up and moving on to the Red Sox. Bruins have a 60.8% chance of picking Hall or Seguin, both of whom will likely help a starved Bruins offense next year. And the playoffs are looking like a reality. Brilliant!
As for the season so far, it's been a disappointing one so far. A bunch of players aren't having career years again and we aren't even dominating the habs. However, hope springs eternal for the Bruins as they aren't eliminated from the playoffs. Minnesota is but who didn't expect that. The important part about the Minnesota season this year is Guillaime Latendresse who got traded from the Montreal media asking him why he didn't score a hat trick every night to the hokiest team in hockey and the hard-hitting reporting of the Minnesota media (actually I like Mike Russo a lot but they seem to be friendlier in Minnesota. Minnesota Nice. Nice. The folks over at Hockey Wilderness have taken to calling him BTE (Best Trade Ever). Of course when you're a ten-year-old team that's less difficult.
I know I don't shut up about how awesome Steve Stamkos is but I'm signing up for Stammer's Sweethearts, especially after how hilarious this chart of where he's scored his goals from:
If you want to see the same kind of chart for Crosby (king of the tip-in) and Ovechkin (shoots from everywhere, scores from everywhere, Russian machine never break) Check it out on NHL.com. The MLS website could take some queues from them. Stamkos owns and I hope he scores 8 goals this weekend and takes the Rocket Richard.
Wisconsin is playing BC tonight in the NCAA Frozen Four Final.
GO WISCONSIN GO REVOLUTION GO LEAFS, GO RANGERS IN OT TOMORROW GO BRUINS!
Game 30 December 10, 2009, 7:00 PM NESN, 98.5 FM vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (10-13-7)
Last time we played, we played the leafs at home. The next post down will tell you all about it, or if you don't like reading here's a pretty accurate recap I saw on Down Goes Brown:
Delightful, no?
Anyhow, the Leafs have won the 2 games since then, giving them their first winning streak of the year. In fact, they're 7-2-1 in the last ten, which is also where the Bruins are in those last ten. As this is game 30, I'm of course hoping for a 7-2-1 record in the headline of the next L10 article. I don't know if Savard will be able to pot another three goals but if Bergeron can slice through the defense like a hot knife through butter we'll be in for some good times.
I expect this to be a tougher game than Saturday's and to be honest quite a bit closer.
Stats!
Orange highlights the better stat. It's actually a pretty even split. On game at a time. Should be a bunch of fights. Blake Wheeler first career fight maybe? Maybe. The Leafs didn't like him dumping Ian White into the boards for some reason... GO BRUINS!
Yeah, so I missed a couple games. Basically, if you're getting all of your bruins news from this blog (hi mom! I'll come up from the basement in a couple months) then I have been remiss. Here's what I missed, in Hockey Blog Adventure headline form:
Game 26 Recap BRUINS 3 SENS 3 SHOOTOUT WIN THAT'S HOW ROUGH RYDER ROLLS Bruins manage a shootout win, find themselves close to first in the division as a result. Game 27 Recap BRUINS 4 BOLTS 1 I'M NOT SEEING STAMKOS James Wright has an okay game, rest of Tampa doesn't. Good defense, some scoring. Game 28 Recap BRUINS 1 HABS 5 HAPPY FUCKING BIRTHDAY MONTREAL Don't even bring it up. There was some cool shit, but basically it just has me lusting for 15 years from now when the Bruins get their own version of this:
Look, I'm not a habs fan by any stretch of the imagination, but that right there is pretty awesome. Was the no-voiceover on CBC as well, or was it some internet-stream camera? Either way, sweet video if you appreciate hockey history. Then the Bruins shat all over themselves and lost. Go figure, a habs team that has no business beating the Bruins goes ahead and does it. Whatever. Happy birthday montreal, here's to a 4-1-1 record against them.
Which brings us to the most recent Bruins game, Toronto at Boston.
Now of course Phil Kessel plays for Toronto now, joining other former Bruins luminaries as Joey Macdonald, Colton Orr, and Wayne Primeau. He apparently told Marc Savard not to sign with Boston (and probably come to Toronto, of course) so that's a pretty good reason to not like him if your first couple run out. Either way, lets look back at the game, no? I mean, it was pretty sweet.
To start off with, the Garden crowd was in rare form last night. Every time Kessel touched the puck, people booed. It was awesome. The other great part was that every time he touched the puck, a Bruin got real close real fast. Kessel got 2 shots on net, was a -3, and had 16:28 of ice time. And with the Leafs' best player by far shut down, the rest was...
A little over 5 minutes in, there's a faceoff in the offensive zone. Bergeron shows up to play, and wins the draw. Back to Sturm, who gives it to Morris. They move it up and down the right side of the zone and Morris one-times it in. The puck bounces off Bergeron and Sturm and the back of the net.
The leafs know that they should take the crowd out of the game if they want to do better here. So naturally they goad Shawn Thornton into a fight. It's not like he's a fan-favorite pugilist looking to back up his truculence in the Pride Motor Group commercial. Colton Orr is all, "does it come in red?" Here's the fight, called by Hockey Night In Canada In Punjab:
They both land some good hits, Shawn Thornton gets half a takedown before Orr gets back up and they hug it out.
It works wonders, because the Leafs keep the Bruins off the scoreboard for the next 32 seconds.
The Bruins are working it around in the offensive zone and Wheeler gets it back to Chara. Chara shuffles across the blue line and then wrists it in, ready for a deflection. Bitz deflects it off his body somehow and Marc Savard's bright, beautiful, dreamy blue eyes see the puck. A quick scoop and everyone in the arena sees a red light go on.
A couple minutes later Mark "Down for whatever" Stuart and Jamal Mayers try to fight, but the Refs don't give them the satisfaction of fighting majors.
Sturm gets a slashing call to close out the first. So far so good.
Second Period.
About 2 minutes in Chara grabs the puck just inside the zone after Kessel flubs it and then Chara lightly wrists it just over everyone. It's a really slow shot, actually, but if that's how Chara scores then I don't care if his pucks are slower than a Wakefield fastball.
And it's on. Blake Wheeler is getting all kinds of people after him tonight, and Colton Orr takes a solid 4-minute penalty. That gets killed, then Ian White decides to be a hooker. More powerplay? Why not? Of course the Bruins PP is still pretty crap, so when Derek Morris passes it up and Savard and Ryder enter the zone you expect they won't get much out of it. Savard loops it around the boards to Ryder, who then comes behind the net and does a quick pass to Savard waiting on the doorstep.
Huge goal. Reminds me of the game against the lightning. I wonder if the Bruins will be able to have a better third in this game? Hrmmmmmmmm....
Third Period. NEW GOALIE Vesa (Toskala): He's everywhere you want him to be (if you're a scorer).
Matt Stajan takes a tripping penalty. Yes, I do believe I will have seconds on the powerplay scoring. It was just so delicious. I know it will go straight to my stats, but I JUST DON'T CARE RIGHT NOW.
Neither does Tuukka Rask. Tuukka settles the puck behind his net, leaving it for Patrice. Bergeron skates it up the ice, Recchi by his side. Bergeron and Recchi, and if they're not passing back and forth Bergeron makes it look like they do. Patrice skates through all 4 leafs. Literally through them. Look, here he is:
MARK RECCHI HAS 550 CAREER GOALS! NOT BAD FOR AN OLD MAN!
5-0.
Oh hell yeah. Tuukka Rask has more points than Phil Kessel in the game. TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKK
But the game isn't over yet. Through the first half of the period, the bruins scored one. They enter the zone about 12 minutes in and Krejci skates the puck around a little. Boychuk pinches in and one-times it from the top of the circle. They weren't kidding about Boychuk's shot as it was probably the hardest shot of the night. There's a loud crack, followed by a siren. No, you didn't just get shot. Vesa did. But he let it get by him anyhow.
There are a lot of fangirls on twitter that are VERY happy about this one.
6-0.
Yeah, that's a pretty good score. Off the faceoff, Savard wins it. They get into the zone. Savard to Wheeler, Wheeler gives it back and the leaf defensemen shift over to block savard's notorious point shot. Marc drives his aston-martin up the halfwall and converts it to underwater mode. Walther PPK's a wrist shot right past The Man Who Blew Too Much - Vesa Toskala.
Well this game is over. Jamal Mayers finally gets that fight he's been looking for all game, goading Steve Begin into a little throwdown. In that after Mayers throws a few punches, Steve Begin throws him down. Here's a link why not?
Mayers does manage to swing the momentum away from the Bruins, and the leafs manage to score 2 afterwards. Excellent game. It's a shame Rask doesn't get the shutout against his former team, but you can only ask for so much. In between the 2 Toronto Goals, Ference and Stempniak get double-minors because the refs don't want to hand them each a one-game suspension for a fight. Great job, refs!
7-2. WIN!
Take us home, Steve. We're too busy celebrating to remember the way.
The Bruins have had an interesting start to their season. They started off losing, we lost Lucic and Savard to LTIR for a broken finger and broken foot. We traded Kobasew to Minnesota and picked up Daniel Paille from Buffalo, marking the first time Boston and Buffalo had ever made a trade that wasn't for ufa bargaining rights. On top of that, we're about 1/8th through the season and the Bruins have just put together their first consecutive, uh...point-getting games. Going by point percentage, the Bruins are 9th in the east. They have the 4th-worst powerplay in the league right now, converting 6 out of 40 chances or at a 15% clip.
That's terrible. So is letting in 10 powerplay goals over 41 chances, or a 75.61% success rate. This pretty much sucks too. Oh look, another fun fact: The Bruins tie the Tampa Bay Lightning for the league lead in short-handed goals against with three. Not too surprising, since the Bruins powerplay managed to get an icing call against it once recently. Basically that needs to get a lot better.
However, last years Bruins had a bit of rust too and I remember watching the PK and PP numbers continuously get better last year. Here's to that happening again, especially after Savard and Lucic come back. Last year around this time the Bruins were 30th in PK with 70%, and ended up 12th with 82.35%. Last year's powerplay was only bested by San Jose, Washington, and Detroit over the regular season.
Bergeron now has his chance to live up to his 5 million dollar contract. You can do it, Patrice!
How's our draft pick doing? (Toronto update) Current Status: TAYLOR HALL Toronto hasn't yet won a game, and only forced overtime once. They're 0-7-1, and have spent more time this season down by 5 than up by anything. Combined.
I think the next 10 games are going to be better than the last as people get more used to playing with the new folks. I think the Kobasew trade shook them up a bit. Lucic and Savard are still out, and that will make things...interesting. Let's hope the rookies play well. They've done okay so far. And the Revolution just made the playoffs! Awesome!
"Sportsguy33" on twitter is Bill Simmons, noted disney sportswriter and Boston Bandwagonner extraordinaire. Now, I'm not one to dislike bandwagon fans. Hell, pre-lockout I couldn't name 5 guys in the NHL on the first try. But enough about me. I've learned. Bill Simmons is stuck in the pre-salary-cap era.
Here's what a salary cap is, Bill, and I'll try to use monosyllabic words so you don't get lost: A cap is how much a team can spend on all of the folks on the team each year. You can not pay more than that to all of the folks on the team. If one guy wants too much, they must trade and get good stuff back.
Oh by the way, Kessel was traded to the leafs for 2010's first and second and 2011's first pick. He signed there for 5.4 per for 5 years. Kid got PAID. Now lets see how that torn labrum is doing.
Can't wait for the first Bruins/Leafs game of the year. Odd.
Bruins have selected Jordan Caron as their first round pick. He's a RW out of Rimouski, Quebec. Initial research says that he is a little bit overly aggressive, and tends to think he's a little larger than he might actually be. Coming out of a 67 point, 66 PIM season with Rimouski Oceanic of the QMJHL, he's definitely a project pick. He will have to tone down his ego a little bit, but that's the price you pay for picking 25th overall. He does bring a hard shot, though, which is of course always welcome on this team.
So if any of you are wondering what my thoughts are on the NHL, I did an interview recently. Here's a paragraph:
"If the Bruins trade Kessel, he will light it up for some other team. He got 36 goals this year and was out with Mono (haha, oh kessel...) to boot. The only guy who got within 10 goals of him was Ryder. I worry that they're going to make a move like trading Kessel or Bergeron, but both are excellent. Depending on how contract negotiations go with Kessel, I could see him moved."
I feel much better after that last post, and sorry to all who had to witness it. Sports fandom isn't always the prettiest thing, but it's a ton of fun and what's why we're here. Anyhow, here's some lazy links to wet your mouth before game 6:
Puck Prospectus: Is David Krejci the next Adam Oates, Mark Taylor, or Jason Allison?
Here Comes the Bruins: It's a couple days old, but the Star Wars/Stanley Cup comparison still rings true. (and is super-nerdy.)
Matt Kalman points out that the Bruins have a grand total of 4 (5 if Alberts signs with the Flyers) draft picks this year. Might be time to cancel that trip.
Game six is tuesday night, party at your house! Go Pens. Check out thepensblog and Puck Huffers for that stuff.
The New York Times wrote a nice blog post today explaining why the draft isn't that exciting to me. Read the Slap Shot post here.
The Gist is, The kids getting picked right now (except the first 3-5 picks) aren't expected to be joining the big leagues for at least 5 years. I'll yap about rookies all day long, but the draft itself doesn't really catch my attention right now. Andy Brickley went last a long time ago, after all.
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