Monster game from Brazeau last night. Goal, assist, 4 SOG, 94% xGF%. Played so well Monty gave him run on the top line in the 3rd. Goal from, you guess edit, right in the crease. Did a nice job out-muscling K'Andre Miller and also not contacting the goalie.
Bertuzzi got inside ice and was good in front of the net but Brazeau is much bigger. Bert more of a playmaker too.
I’ve never seen anything like that. Couldn’t fucking move him in that direction at all.
Kinda of depends on how you want to define prospect. Mason Lohrei, Matt Poitras, John Beecher and Jakob Lauko are all 23 years old or younger and playing in the NHL as rookies/2nd year pro's. Lohrei and Poitras have higher ceilings than Beecher and Lauko in all liklihood. If we consider them graduated then the next group is probably Fabian Lysell, Georgii Merkulov and Brandon Bussi.
Given the trades they’ve made and how strong the teams have been, you can’t be upset. So I’m not saying this in a negative way.
Going into this season, many of us thought they’d be a borderline playoff team. They might win the President’s Trophy again. They overachieved.
Agree with you!
Maybe they can be the opposite of last year’s team? We “deserve” some payback for that disappointment
Cool. So what?
They'll have a lot of guys with 40 points--which is a good thing. But maybe 3 with more than 60. Seems like that puts a lot of pressure on a lot of middling players.
Or just ease up for a few weeks before things get real.
In their first 36 games, they were 23-7-6. That's 53 out of 72 possible points. In their last 36 games they were 18-9-9. That's 45 out of 72 possible points. And they also started their season 9-0-1. That's 19 out of 20 possible points. So they have gone 32-16-14 if the first ten games are not counted. They are tied for last in the NHL for most Overtime Losses. While they outscored their opponents by 26 goals in the first 36 games, that dropped to 15 goals in the second 36 games. Teams have figured out how to play the Bruins, whose main idea of offense is to dump the puck in the corner and fight for it behind the net and along the boards with a lot of their shots hoping for deflections into the net.
What you’re describing is how most teams generate offense in the playoffs. They key is winning battles especially in front of the net which they haven’t been doing a ton of lately, but systematically I think they’re on the right track.
For what was a transition year, this was the goal I was hoping for them to get. It's all house money from here on out.
I think it’s a good example of the program and the culture that they’ve established.
Pretty sure it was two of the highest point totals to ever not make the playoffs
Was looking at this last night. I want no part of even a weakened Tampa team in the playoffs. Rangers schedule is easier than ours the rest of the way, so I suspect we likely end up with Tampa, but it would be nice to catch a break if the Rangers stumble down the stretch.
Tampa has Gretzky, Jagr, and Esposito coming off of LTIR for the playoffs. Wise to avoid them
The tie breaker is regulation wins. Florida leads 38-34 so I don't think it's even possible to catch them in RW and also end up in a tie. So the magic number for the division is 9 points won by the Bruins / lost by Florida.
The league wants teams to actually try to score in OT - unlike the old 5 v 5 system which meant if you went for it but got caught in an odd man rush the other way and lost, you got 0 points. 1 point > 0 points. Now teams can play with reckless abandon in OT and it's a more exciting product. You don't lose out on a potential point if you lose in OT - it's already guaranteed. So you're incentivized to try for the win, instead of playing for the tie. I think it's awesome if they have to have some sort of OT / winner as opposed to just ties after 60 minutes (which I wouldn't be opposed to but probably wouldn't be liked by the masses).
