2021-2022 Bruins Season Thread

RedOctober3829

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The 3rd jersey schedule is out for everybody. Below are when the Bruins will wear theirs.

10/20 vs. Flyers
10/22 vs. Sabres
10/30 vs. Panthers
11/6 vs. Leafs
11/14 vs. Canadians
11/26 vs. Rangers
12/4 vs. TB
12/14 vs. VGK
12/23 vs. Colorado
1/4 vs. NJ
1/20 vs. Caps
3/7 vs. LAK
 

RedOctober3829

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burstnbloom

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Also want to do it now before he has a points explosion getting PP1 minutes this season.
He paced for 50 points last season and only got 26% of his points on the power play. Guys like Makar (50%) and Fox (49%) get WAY more points on the PP. This year Chuck will play with Bergeron, Marchand, Pastrnak and Taylor Hall on the PP. Gulp.

Sign him QUICK, Don. I'd be fine with Makar's number @ 8 years but if he gets the Jones or Werenski contracts, I'm fine with it. He's way better than them anyway.

for fun: look how good this man is at hockey!

45296


edit - I wante Fabbro and thought this was a bad pick. Dumbass.
 

Silverdude2167

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How was this the best schedule they could make for the B's to open the season?

The last team to play their first game then they don't play again for 4 days, Toronto will have played 4 games before we have played 2?
Then 3 in 4 nights, 3 in 4 nights, and then another 4 days off.

I know it's an impossible job, but this is a shit schedule to open the season.
 

The Napkin

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And boy is it heavy at the end of the season when ideally they'd get a little rest in to prepare for the playoffs. It's a bad schedule.
 

Cotillion

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NHL app alerts thought there was a game tonight. Lol

It was going “watch Bruins vs sabres tonight at 7 pm”.

Gjge. I wish it was Friday though.
 

cshea

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Curious if they move Haula or Coyle to the wing to accommodate him at Center or put him on the 3rd line wing.
I didn't really like how they used Studnicka. They left him at C, but on the 4th line between offensive anchors Frederic and Kuhlman. I would've prefered he play between Hall and Coyle on the 2nd line. He spent the bulk of camp as 2C so there's some familiarity, at least with Hall. Part of the reason they sent him doesn is because they want him to be a top-9 center. First opportunity arises with the big club...and he's down on the 4th line. If that's how they planend to use him, I would've just rather call up a bottom 6er like Cam Hughes. They had a home game yesterday giving them last change against a weak team. Seemed like a prime opportunity to give Jack a little rope and let him run with the horses, and adjust on the fly if needed.

We'll see how it plays out going forward. It sounds like Foligno and Blidh are going to miss at least the next two games. I'm not sure what Smith's status is.
 

cshea

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Smith won't travel to FLA/CAR. He may be able to play on Saturday when they are back home. Lazar returned to practice and is possible for tomorrow/Thursday. If so, one of Steen or Studnicka would come out.

Ullmark tomorrow, Swayman against Carolina on Thursday.

Nice early season test this week, two against the 6-0-0 Panthers sandwhiched around a trip to the 5-0-0 Hurricanes.
 

RedOctober3829

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BOSTON - The Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers announced this morning that the two teams will honor and remember late NHL alumni Jimmy Hayes with moment of silence on Oct. 30, 2021, when the two teams meet at TD Garden.

Each team will also wear special jerseys during warm-ups that read 'HAYESY' and 'BROADWAY', two nicknames that Hayes was called by his teammates, friends and families. Both sets of jerseys will be available for auction via the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers' Foundations with the funds benefitting a charity to be determined by the Hayes family, Bruins and Panthers. Fans can bid on the jerseys at the following links:

https://www.nhl.com/bruins/news/boston-bruins-florida-panthers-to-remember-honor-jimmy-hayes-on-oct-30/c-327254056
 

cshea

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Some thoughts 5 games in.

- Nosek is the straw that stirs the drink on the 4th line. I've liked him so far. It's early, and a tiny sample, but Frederic and Kuhlman have been horrendous when separated from Nosek. 52% xGF with Nosek, 25% away from him. On the usage front, Butch hasn't burried the 4th line quite like he did to Kuraly. When 11-92-83 have been together, they've gotten 53% ozone starts. We'll have to keep an eye on this trend as the year progresses.

- Forbort has been a drag. This signing always scared me. 5 games has not alleviated that concern. He's played with McAvoy and Clifton and both players have better numbers away from Forbort than with him. McAvoy has a 55% xGF with Forbort, 71% xGF without him. Clifton has a 48% xGF with Forbort and 61% without him. Tiny sample size caveats certainly apply but it's been an ugly start to the Forbort era.

- Ullmark has been as advertised so far. Numbers aren't great, but he was victimized by a couple of deflection goals late against San Jose that drags his numbers down due to the small sample thus far. I think he'll be fine as he continues to settle in and gets used to playing behind the Bruins system. Would've liked a save on either the first or 3rd goal last night, but sometimes those go in. We'll see how Swayman responds tonight after his first real NHL hiccup last time out.

- First line looks like the first line. No issues there, they'll do their thing.

- Hall and Coyle have been good, but victimized by some bad luck/goaltending. They've been outscored 5-3, but have a 57% xGF. They should get their head above water at some point.

-
 

burstnbloom

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Some thoughts 5 games in.

- Nosek is the straw that stirs the drink on the 4th line. I've liked him so far. It's early, and a tiny sample, but Frederic and Kuhlman have been horrendous when separated from Nosek. 52% xGF with Nosek, 25% away from him. On the usage front, Butch hasn't burried the 4th line quite like he did to Kuraly. When 11-92-83 have been together, they've gotten 53% ozone starts. We'll have to keep an eye on this trend as the year progresses.

- Forbort has been a drag. This signing always scared me. 5 games has not alleviated that concern. He's played with McAvoy and Clifton and both players have better numbers away from Forbort than with him. McAvoy has a 55% xGF with Forbort, 71% xGF without him. Clifton has a 48% xGF with Forbort and 61% without him. Tiny sample size caveats certainly apply but it's been an ugly start to the Forbort era.

- Ullmark has been as advertised so far. Numbers aren't great, but he was victimized by a couple of deflection goals late against San Jose that drags his numbers down due to the small sample thus far. I think he'll be fine as he continues to settle in and gets used to playing behind the Bruins system. Would've liked a save on either the first or 3rd goal last night, but sometimes those go in. We'll see how Swayman responds tonight after his first real NHL hiccup last time out.

- First line looks like the first line. No issues there, they'll do their thing.

- Hall and Coyle have been good, but victimized by some bad luck/goaltending. They've been outscored 5-3, but have a 57% xGF. They should get their head above water at some point.

-
Poor Clifton and Chuck. They switch between Gryz and Forbert. I didn't care for the signing but I could live with him on the third pair. He should not be playing with Mac. I've said it before on here but it seems crazy to me that they have this elite talent that is a separator for them against all but a couple of teams and the last two years Cassidy seems inclined to shackle someone to him that brings him back own to earth. It's criminal.

I've been happy with the second line. Coyle is definitely back. He's good enough to be the second line center with those two on his wings. We just need Smith healthy.

Debrusk has been really good. I don't know if he's going to score 25 goals again without the power play time but he could easily have 4-5 points if Haula or Kuhlman could bury the chances he's created. It's good to have him back.
 

cshea

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The Forbort contract will expire before the Bruins play another hockey game.

Seriously though, this early season schedule sucks. They are going to be 3-5 games played behind everyone else when they finally play again on Thursday. They have another 5 day break in 2 weeks. Forced to chase the standings.
 

Silverdude2167

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The Forbort contract will expire before the Bruins play another hockey game.

Seriously though, this early season schedule sucks. They are going to be 3-5 games played behind everyone else when they finally play again on Thursday. They have another 5 day break in 2 weeks. Forced to chase the standings.
It is also not very surprising that two of the three losses are the first game back.

Early in the season, you are looking to build chemistry and find your legs and they keep having to reset that basically.
 

LogansDad

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It is also not very surprising that two of the three losses are the first game back.

Early in the season, you are looking to build chemistry and find your legs and they keep having to reset that basically.
And the other one is the second day of a back to back after playing 3 games in two weeks, which can't be any easier. And the stretch run will be all the catching up from this. I's a disaster of a schedule this year.
 

burstnbloom

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Guess when they make up for it? March and April. Again. This seems to happen to them every season. 26 games in 51 days starting after the olympics including a 9 day west coast trip to start the second half. They get more than 1 day of rest 3 times in almost 2 months. I'm sure there will be no injuries or fatigue there.

46029
 

burstnbloom

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I'm an unabashed Jack Fraser shill but he just launched a new tool to his patreon supporters that allows you to see year over year progress for players. It's a delight. Right now he's using 2020-2021 as a control and then using 2020-2021 + 2021-2022 to add more sample but will slide more to 2021-2022 numbers as the season gets a bit further along. Anyway - Charlie Coyle is looking pretty damn good after 7 games - big changes across the board.

46078
 

lexrageorge

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Owner/businessperson presenting himself as an owner/businessperson. Nothing really new, although the fact the could not spell Chiarelli's name is weird. I certainly don't hold him responsible for the Tale of the Tape box on the NESN broadcasts, and deposition answers are always designed to limit legal liability, not to advocate for change.

I will be glad when he's no longer the owner, but he could easily be the median of what we can expect out of an NHL owner.
 

cshea

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Studnicka at 3RW in practice. Gotta be honest, I think they are mishandling him. He got a full on run as 2C in preseason while Coyle was out. He played well, and with everyone healthy to start the season, they demoted him because they want him as C and to play heavy, all situations minutes in Providence. Then they lose Smith and Foligno to injury. They call Jack up and he plays a game centering Frederic and Kuhlman. Next game, bump him up to the 2nd line with Hall and Coyle. He gets 10:17 of ice time, notches an assist on the only goal they scored. They leave him on the 2nd line for his 3rd game and that lasts a period and a half or so before being demoted down to the 4th line. He's then healthy scratched for 3 straight games and now apparently we're back on trying him on the wing.

I think they should either play him as a center on the 2nd or 3rd line in Boston or send him back to Providence to do the 20 minutes, all situations thing they originally planned for. The yo-yo between in and out of the lineup and C and RW isn't doing him or them any favors. First wall battle he loses as RW will probably send him back to the dog house.

Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak
Hall- Coyle - Smith
DeBrusk - Haula - Studnicka
Frederic - Nosek - Lazar
Blidh - Foligno - Kuhlman

Forbort - McAvoy
Grzelyck - Carlo
Reilly - Clifton
Zboril
 

BostonFanInCanesLand

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Studnicka at 3RW in practice. Gotta be honest, I think they are mishandling him. He got a full on run as 2C in preseason while Coyle was out. He played well, and with everyone healthy to start the season, they demoted him because they want him as C and to play heavy, all situations minutes in Providence. Then they lose Smith and Foligno to injury. They call Jack up and he plays a game centering Frederic and Kuhlman. Next game, bump him up to the 2nd line with Hall and Coyle. He gets 10:17 of ice time, notches an assist on the only goal they scored. They leave him on the 2nd line for his 3rd game and that lasts a period and a half or so before being demoted down to the 4th line. He's then healthy scratched for 3 straight games and now apparently we're back on trying him on the wing.

I think they should either play him as a center on the 2nd or 3rd line in Boston or send him back to Providence to do the 20 minutes, all situations thing they originally planned for. The yo-yo between in and out of the lineup and C and RW isn't doing him or them any favors. First wall battle he loses as RW will probably send him back to the dog house.

Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak
Hall- Coyle - Smith
DeBrusk - Haula - Studnicka
Frederic - Nosek - Lazar
Blidh - Foligno - Kuhlman

Forbort - McAvoy
Grzelyck - Carlo
Reilly - Clifton
Zboril
I would like to see them give Studnicka a lengthy trial at C. Given that Cassidy said that the medical staff was leaning towards Thursday for Foligno I think the decision to play Studnicka at 3RW is more of a “Chance to see if he gels with DeBrusk and Haula” and “Better than Lazar in that slot” than a “Let’s keep bouncing Studnicka around and screw with his development.”

I’m glad that they are playing Studnicka instead of Kuhlman.

I think when they activate Foligno they’ll go back to the longer term plan of getting Studnicka lots of C time in Providence.
 

kenneycb

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It's not like many players have left the Bruins and done anything. So either they ruined the player or the player wasn't very good to start with. Given the state of their farm, I tend to fall on the latter.
 

burstnbloom

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Studnicka at 3RW in practice. Gotta be honest, I think they are mishandling him. He got a full on run as 2C in preseason while Coyle was out. He played well, and with everyone healthy to start the season, they demoted him because they want him as C and to play heavy, all situations minutes in Providence. Then they lose Smith and Foligno to injury. They call Jack up and he plays a game centering Frederic and Kuhlman. Next game, bump him up to the 2nd line with Hall and Coyle. He gets 10:17 of ice time, notches an assist on the only goal they scored. They leave him on the 2nd line for his 3rd game and that lasts a period and a half or so before being demoted down to the 4th line. He's then healthy scratched for 3 straight games and now apparently we're back on trying him on the wing.

I think they should either play him as a center on the 2nd or 3rd line in Boston or send him back to Providence to do the 20 minutes, all situations thing they originally planned for. The yo-yo between in and out of the lineup and C and RW isn't doing him or them any favors. First wall battle he loses as RW will probably send him back to the dog house.

Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak
Hall- Coyle - Smith
DeBrusk - Haula - Studnicka
Frederic - Nosek - Lazar
Blidh - Foligno - Kuhlman

Forbort - McAvoy
Grzelyck - Carlo
Reilly - Clifton
Zboril
Rachel Doerrie talks about this kind of development on her podcast quite a bit. She's working on a larger scale study, but the basics are that moving players up and down and around the lineup when they are in this stage of their development is largely negative to their development and it stunts growth. So that's fun. It's hard to see a good outcome here given their track record. Studnicka has looked pretty good at center since pre-season. They need to either play him 20 min in providence or let him learn at the NHL. This scratch/move thing is killing his momentum after they did the same thing to him last year. It's disappointing.
 

McDrew

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I would like to see them give Studnicka a lengthy trial at C. Given that Cassidy said that the medical staff was leaning towards Thursday for Foligno I think the decision to play Studnicka at 3RW is more of a “Chance to see if he gels with DeBrusk and Haula” and “Better than Lazar in that slot” than a “Let’s keep bouncing Studnicka around and screw with his development.”

I’m glad that they are playing Studnicka instead of Kuhlman.

I think when they activate Foligno they’ll go back to the longer term plan of getting Studnicka lots of C time in Providence.
Don't Spooner Studnicka!
 

cshea

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I would like to see them give Studnicka a lengthy trial at C. Given that Cassidy said that the medical staff was leaning towards Thursday for Foligno I think the decision to play Studnicka at 3RW is more of a “Chance to see if he gels with DeBrusk and Haula” and “Better than Lazar in that slot” than a “Let’s keep bouncing Studnicka around and screw with his development.”

I’m glad that they are playing Studnicka instead of Kuhlman.

I think when they activate Foligno they’ll go back to the longer term plan of getting Studnicka lots of C time in Providence.
They shouldn't have called him up in the first place if they weren't going to use him as the 2nd line/3rd line center. It made no sense from the get-go. They called him up and have essentially flip flopped the stance they took at the end of camp when discussim him and his future.Again, they started him off on the 4th line with Freddie and Kuhlman, then gave him ~15 minutes of ice time with Hall and Coyle in which was actually OK and provided a goal when nobody else was, before demoting him dow and scratching him for 3 straight. Now they are moving his position (again!). What happens if he plays well tomorrow? Back to Providence or scratched with Foligno returning on Thrusday?

If they were just looking for a warm body, they should've left Jack in Providence and called up Hughes/Fogarty/Steen (or kept him here)/Senyshyn to play the 10 minutes a night on the 4th line role.
 

BostonFanInCanesLand

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They shouldn't have called him up in the first place if they weren't going to use him as the 2nd line/3rd line center. It made no sense from the get-go. They called him up and have essentially flip flopped the stance they took at the end of camp when discussim him and his future.Again, they started him off on the 4th line with Freddie and Kuhlman, then gave him ~15 minutes of ice time with Hall and Coyle in which was actually OK and provided a goal when nobody else was, before demoting him dow and scratching him for 3 straight. Now they are moving his position (again!). What happens if he plays well tomorrow? Back to Providence or scratched with Foligno returning on Thrusday?

If they were just looking for a warm body, they should've left Jack in Providence and called up Hughes/Fogarty/Steen (or kept him here)/Senyshyn to play the 10 minutes a night on the 4th line role.
I agree it is frustrating that they said one thing and then did another. I wish they had brought him up and kept him at 2C or 3C for the whole time that Foligno was on the shelf. I’m not surprised that they put Smith (and Coyle before him) back on L2 when Smith was ready to go But I had hoped that Studnicka would slide to 3C with Haula going to his off-wing. I think Cassidy is trying to figure out what he has with the new players and what combos he can use to jumpstart Frederic too.

Hopefully the coaching staff is being transparent about their decisions and about what they want him to work on in Providence. And about the fact that he’s likely to go to Providence once Foligno comes back later this week - so that he doesn’t feel like he lives and dies with every minor misstep. And maybe Studnicka is benefitting from NHL practices (and watching the NHL game pace - even though they haven’t actually had that many actual games yet) so when he goes back to being the primary center in Providence he’s better focused and more confident.

A missed opportunity by the Bruins staff but maybe not as fatal as it seems.
 

cshea

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We finally reached the 10-game mark. 6-4-0 which is a 98 point pace.

At 5x5, the Bruins are at a 56% xGF%, 3rd best in the league. It hasn't translated, as they are being outscored 18-14 at 5x5. The hope is that this would positively regress as the year goes along.

It's the same old story offensively. The Bruins play nothing burger hockey in both directions. Their xGF/60 is 21st, xGA/60 is 1st. They are 27th in high danger chances for per 60, and tops at high danger chances against per 60. A whole lotta nothing happens in our games. We are elite at surpressing chances against, not so good at generating our own chances.

As usual, we win when the top line/PP scores. We have 28 goals in 10 games this year. The top line/PP1 has accounted for 15 of those goals. They are getting virtually nothing from lines 2-4. At 5x5 the only players with a GF% above 50% are Marchand, Bergeron, Pastrnak and Nosek (2-1). They're getting outscored when everyone else is on the ice. Of course by xGF%, only Smith, Kuhlman and Frederic are below 50%. That's well and good but they gotta find someone in the bottom 9 (lol) who can put the puck in the net.
 

Myt1

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Remember when the Bruins saved lots of money on below market deals for their incredible first line and new second line left winger and needed a second line center and top 4 LD and instead spent that money on a cone, three redundant bottom six forwards, and Buffalo’s backup goalie while also giving said goalie a full No Movement Clause to go along with their third line possession center’s limited NTC?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.
 
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burstnbloom

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Remember when the Bruins saved lots of money on below market deals for their incredible first line and new second line left winger and needed a second line center and top 4 LD and instead spent that money on a cone, three redundant bottom six forwards, and Buffalo’s backup goalie while also giving said goalie a full No Movement Clause to go along with their third line possession center’s limited NTC?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.
I hate the forbort signing and didn’t love the second years given for foligno and haula, but it was discussed ad nauseam on this forum how optionless the bruins were this off-season to address second line center and lhd when their only asset was cap space. That obviously doesnt excuse the past mistakes that put them in that position but what would you have done differently?