Bruins Round 2 Thread- New York Islanders

Cotillion

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The one thing they need to clean up the most (and it lead to at least one goal last night) is the passing in their own D-zone. Blind no look passes between legs (this led to a goal), skating the puck from the boards to in front of your goalie and trying to pass up the middle and it almost deflects into your goal (forgot who this was Carlo or Clifton), passing from the corner boards on a diagonal across the goal to the blue line (Krejci), etc... that shit has to stop and they do it way too often.
 

RetractableRoof

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The one thing they need to clean up the most (and it lead to at least one goal last night) is the passing in their own D-zone. Blind no look passes between legs (this led to a goal), skating the puck from the boards to in front of your goalie and trying to pass up the middle and it almost deflects into your goal (forgot who this was Carlo or Clifton), passing from the corner boards on a diagonal across the goal to the blue line (Krejci), etc... that shit has to stop and they do it way too often.
Especially against this team - they hunt that stuff.
 

durandal1707

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The top two lines are getting a lot of credit, and they should - the Bergeron line was as close to perfect as you can get for their 12:43 TOI. But the biggest change I've seen in this first game versus the Caps series is the 4th line. They were badly outmatched by Hathaway and co. last series, but they were excellent last night. Almost 90% expected goals, they outchanced the Isles 3-0 with two of those being high-danger. Kuraly, in particular, seems to be skating and forechecking much better, and they ate up some Pelech-Pulock shifts.

The only line that was underwater on expected goals last night was Coyle's. Not sure what to do about them, or who's THE problem on the line, or if all three of them are just not playing well.
 

RetractableRoof

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I also think the strategy of laying the body on the Islanders D at every turn is an important one that might take a game or two to pay off, but it was clearly a point of emphasis by Boston.
 

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So, there have been two different aspects of the Bruins’ offensive explosions that can at least partly be attributed to Bob fucking Essensa of all people.

Round 1, after Hall’s gorgeous top shelf walk, he credited Essensa with telling him earlier in the series, “Hey, there are a couple of times where you’re snapping your shot off and you have space to walk around the goalie a bit and use the space.” I’m paraphrasing, but it struck me. I wonder if Pastrnak’s NHL 94 cross the crease goal came from the same sort of scouting.

Before Game 1 Saturday, Cassidy was asked about Sorokin. He said that Essensa gave his scouting report to the forwards, telling them about his active legs that sometimes kick a rebound up to a dangerous spot. Pasta’s goal off the rebound of Bergeron’s shot seemed to be exactly what he was talking about.

Is this level of successfully applied insight from the goalie coach unusual or am I suffering from a bit of blue car syndrome where I was simply primed to see it? Because it’s fucking awesome.
 

Cotillion

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I have been listening to a fair amount of NHL radio in the car, and they have been mentioning Goalie coaches a lot on scouting recently. How they give details on how and where to breakdown the opposing goalie. Not sure if it's just Essensa they have been talking about as I keep dropping into the middle of conversations as I hop in and out doing errands.
 

Myt1

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I have been listening to a fair amount of NHL radio in the car, and they have been mentioning Goalie coaches a lot on scouting recently. How they give details on how and where to breakdown the opposing goalie. Not sure if it's just Essensa they have been talking about as I keep dropping into the middle of conversations as I hop in and out doing errands.
That’s interesting. The league seems to have a little more variance in styles lately than, say, 5-8 years ago (but less than 10+ years ago). I wonder if that’s driving some of it.

There was a good Athletic article talking about Tuukka’s transition to more of a stand up, in his edges style, which to my memory seems to have coincided with him breaking a couple year run of generally average play.

@Dummy Hoy, anything to this?
 

Dummy Hoy

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Goalie Bob has always been a legend, so I'm not surprised he was mentioned. Coaching staffs on the whole (as far as I know) are a lot more fluid these days- coaches surround themselves with bright people and today's coaches are more likely to listen to the people around them instead of being a Scotty Bowman dictatorship. Input from anywhere is important and no one would have better insight on beating goalies than a goalie.

While I think the league has more varience in goaltender style, that's more a product of the changes taking place and some goalies not yet adjusting or learning to adjust at least a little (Rask can still drop too early imo). I think there are probably some international based subtleties, but goaltending (at least in the USA coaching model) has shifted away from dropping down automatically. Players adjusted their shots and shooting patterns to beat butterfly tenders; staying upright longer and using your edges gives you a better chance in today's game.
 

tmracht

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Absolutely. The fact some goalies would drop so early just inviting top corner snipes was so puzzling to me but I was always a pure standup goalie so stylistically so very different.
 

Foxy42

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If both teams play their best, Bruins will prevail. Tuukka seemed off in the 2nd but was moving ok the rest of the way. Hopefully the extra night pre game 3 helps.

B’s in 6...
 

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Lauzon has been awful all series, was egregiously bad last night even without the stupid giveaway in OT, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if he's scratched on Thursday night. What a dunderheaded decision.

Rask has hinted he's dealing with some health issues. I thought Cassidy was harsh on him post-game, but the Isles outshot the Bruins 16-3 after the tying goal and Rask held them in it. I'm not enough of an expert to say if he should have had the breakaway, I would think that's not a goal you can blame him for.
 

burstnbloom

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Lauzon has been awful all series, was egregiously bad last night even without the stupid giveaway in OT, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if he's scratched on Thursday night. What a dunderheaded decision.

Rask has hinted he's dealing with some health issues. I thought Cassidy was harsh on him post-game, but the Isles outshot the Bruins 16-3 after the tying goal and Rask held them in it. I'm not enough of an expert to say if he shouldhave had the breakaway, I would think that's not a goal you can blame him for.
If I had to guess, it was the Palmieri goal which was an absolute nothing play that bounced around under Tuukka's pads and he normal has a handle on that stuff. You knew the islanders weren't going to be intimidated and not show up. I don't love losing that game but it took their best effort of the playoffs by a mile, two goals that bounced off feet and an egregiously bad play by Lauzon for them to win in OT. I think the Bruins clean that up and hopefully Smith is back on Thursday. That should be enough to deal with the inevitable home game surge and take control of the series.
 

cshea

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The Bruins have been pretty much dominant at 5x5 this series. As much as the dunderheads at NBC want to insist the Islanders are comfortable being caved in, they're not. If the Bruins continue to dominate like this things *should* go their way.

126-83 attempts (60%)
71-47 shots (60%)
70-33 scoring chances (68%)
19-9 high danger chances (68%)
5.8-3.09 xG (65%)
5-3 actual goals (63%)

Anything goes in a short series, but the Bruins have controlled play throughout. The PP has kept the Islanders afloat. 3 of 6 Islanders goals this series have come on the PP. Beauvillier tip in game 1, the Bailey pinball goal and Pageau finish last night. Bailey goal was a stroke of bad luck, that was a good kill up until the cross ice pass going in off our guy. I don't think discipline has been too much of a problem, but I'd like them to try and skate away from the post whistle scrums. Washington used those to get a few bonus PP's (remember when we scored, Wilson jumped DeBrusk and the Bruins wound up shorthanded!?!) and the Islanders are trying the same tactic and got a bonus call, and goal, on the Carlo non-sense penalty. It sucks, but if they are going to keep calling the retaliation, you gotta skate away. The refs always pick a random time to only take 1 guy and hand out a PP to "calm the game down."

As far as Lauzon goes, after sleeping on last night's game, I'd leave him in unless Miller is somehow available (feels unlikely). It was a terrible mistake at a really bad time but he's a better option than Tinordi. He's got a 56% xGF% this series despite getting only 25% Ozone starts. Scoring chances with him on the ice are 16-6 Bruins. High danger chances are also 5-2 Bruins. Obviously you can't make that kind of mistake in overtime but I also think Tinordi would make them significantly worse. I don't want to do that just to teach Lauzon a lesson. I'm sure he knows he fucked up.
 
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NYCSox

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Let's not forget the only reason the Isles are even here is because Jarry played goal as if he was Stevie Wonder. Control play, don't make stupid mistakes (Lauzon) and get solid goaltending and it will be fine.
 

RedOctober3829

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The Bruins have been pretty much dominant at 5x5 this series. As much as the dunderheads at NBC want to insist the Islanders are comfortable being caved in, they're not. If the Bruins continue to dominate like this things *should* go their way.

126-83 attempts (60%)
71-47 shots (60%)
70-33 scoring chances (68%)
19-9 high danger chances (68%)
5.8-3.09 xG (65%)
5-3 actual goals (63%)

Anything goes in a short series, but the Bruins have controlled play throughout. The PP has kept the Islanders afloat. 3 of 6 Islanders goals this series have come on the PP. Beauvillier tip in game 1, the Bailey pinball goal and Pageau finish last night. Bailey goal was a stroke of bad luck, that was a good kill up until the cross ice pass going in off our guy. I don't think discipline has been too much of a problem, but I'd like them to try and skate away from the post whistle scrums. Washington used those to get a few bonus PP's (remember when we scored, Wilson jumped DeBrusk and the Bruins wound up shorthanded!?!) and the Islanders are trying the same tactic and got a bonus call, and goal, on the Carlo non-sense penalty. It sucks, but if they are going to keep calling the retaliation, you gotta skate away. The refs always pick a random time to only take 1 guy and hand out a PP to "calm the game down."

As far as Lauzon goes, after sleeping on last night's game, I'd leave him in unless Miller is somehow available (feels unlikely). It was a terrible mistake at a really bad time but he's a better option than Tinordi. He's got a 56% xGF% this series despite getting only 25% Ozone starts. Scoring chances with him on the ice are 16-6 Bruins. High danger chances are also 5-2 Bruins. Obviously you can't make that kind of mistake in overtime but I also think Tinordi would make them significantly worse. I don't want to do that just to teach Lauzon a lesson. I'm sure he knows he fucked up.
The bolded is what I was afraid of coming into this series. I knew the Bruins are the better team, but they took way too many penalties against Washington but it didn't hurt them. If they kept doing it, it would and it has. The Islanders can not beat the Bruins 5v5 so stay out of the box.
 

cshea

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I think they've done OK. They've taken 6 penalties this series. That's not bad, it hasn't been a parade. 2 of the 6 were a too many men and a broken stick. The too many men should be cleaned up, but there's not much they can do about the broken stick one.

The remaining 4 were the McAvoy hooking, Ritchie hooking, Pastrnak goalie interference and the Carlo cross check. In aggregate I can live with those. The Carlo one is the toughest to swallow. Again, refs will randomly decide they need to take 1 guy and hand out a PP to turn down the temperature of a game. There is no rhyme or reason, they just do it. That's why I'd like to try to avoid post-whistle scrums but at the same time you don't want to just stand there and be a Sedin. Clutterbuck, Komarov, Martin, etc. are going to try and scrum each and every whistle when they are on the ice.
 

Dduncan6er

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Is Zboril ready to go? If not I'd leave Lauzon in there. Regardless of how bad he's been Tinordi is the only other option. And if I'm choosing between the 2 I'd leave Lauzon in there and hope his play improves.
 

cshea

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As far as I can tell, Zboril hasn't skated since the regular season finale. The extra pair at practice throughout the playoffs has been Tinordi-Vaakanainen.
 

NYCSox

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I think they've done OK. They've taken 6 penalties this series. That's not bad, it hasn't been a parade. 2 of the 6 were a too many men and a broken stick. The too many men should be cleaned up, but there's not much they can do about the broken stick one.

The remaining 4 were the McAvoy hooking, Ritchie hooking, Pastrnak goalie interference and the Carlo cross check. In aggregate I can live with those. The Carlo one is the toughest to swallow. Again, refs will randomly decide they need to take 1 guy and hand out a PP to turn down the temperature of a game. There is no rhyme or reason, they just do it. That's why I'd like to try to avoid post-whistle scrums but at the same time you don't want to just stand there and be a Sedin. Clutterbuck, Komarov, Martin, etc. are going to try and scrum each and every whistle when they are on the ice.
I'm far more pissed about nothing being called when Coyle was being mugged on the 2-1 SH break. That was inexcusable and completely changed the game. Suffice to say there was a lot of 2019 Game 5 history in my anger.
 

IdiotKicker

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I'm far more pissed about nothing being called when Coyle was being mugged on the 2-1 SH break. That was inexcusable and completely changed the game. Suffice to say there was a lot of 2019 Game 5 history in my anger.
That was a huge non-call. Was completely past the LD, and was either grabbed or hooked to prevent him from breaking away. Everyone in the rink was looking at it. Huge, huge shift in how that game turned out.

With last night's second period being the worst they've played all postseason and still having a chance to win, I feel good about heading into Game 3 knowing that they should be able to put that behind them and they should beat the Islanders if they show up at their best. Still haven't gotten any production from Hall this series aside from the ENG and we're even heading into Game 3.
 

daburgaman

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I think they've done OK. They've taken 6 penalties this series. That's not bad, it hasn't been a parade. 2 of the 6 were a too many men and a broken stick. The too many men should be cleaned up, but there's not much they can do about the broken stick one.

The remaining 4 were the McAvoy hooking, Ritchie hooking, Pastrnak goalie interference and the Carlo cross check. In aggregate I can live with those. The Carlo one is the toughest to swallow. Again, refs will randomly decide they need to take 1 guy and hand out a PP to turn down the temperature of a game. There is no rhyme or reason, they just do it. That's why I'd like to try to avoid post-whistle scrums but at the same time you don't want to just stand there and be a Sedin. Clutterbuck, Komarov, Martin, etc. are going to try and scrum each and every whistle when they are on the ice.
Id have to watch the replay again of the Carlo penalty - but I swear it looked like the red wasn’t going to call anything on Carlo. Then another 2 players got into a short scrum and went to the ice. And then the ref started pointing at Carlo and motioning him to the box. Now maybe he had already made up his mind / but my initial reaction was he wasn’t going to call anything until the 2nd scrum happened. And then just chose Carlo to go.
 

cshea

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I'm far more pissed about nothing being called when Coyle was being mugged on the 2-1 SH break. That was inexcusable and completely changed the game. Suffice to say there was a lot of 2019 Game 5 history in my anger.
Yep, legitimate gripe.

Playoff officiating is a huge problem. The rule book gets thrown out. I know people think there is, but there's no such thing as star treatment in the NHL. The refs "let them play" and do their best to even everything out. The Bruins have the puck 60% of the time at 5x5 but only 40% of the power plays (6-4 NYI). In the Washington series, PP's were 22-19 Washington. It's not just some sort of bias against the Bruins, either. If we're being honest, just one example, but the Bruins caught a break when DeBrusk was allowed to cross check Mayfield in the back of the head during their net front joust. Players are free to do whatever they want in these net front battles. Heaven forbid someone shoot a puck over the glass, however. You just can't let that go by!
 

Cotillion

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Yep, legitimate gripe.

Playoff officiating is a huge problem. The rule book gets thrown out. I know people think there is, but there's no such thing as star treatment in the NHL. The refs "let them play" and do their best to even everything out. The Bruins have the puck 60% of the time at 5x5 but only 40% of the power plays (6-4 NYI). In the Washington series, PP's were 22-19 Washington. It's not just some sort of bias against the Bruins, either. If we're being honest, just one example, but the Bruins caught a break when DeBrusk was allowed to cross check Mayfield in the back of the head during their net front joust. Players are free to do whatever they want in these net front battles. Heaven forbid someone shoot a puck over the glass, however. You just can't let that go by!
I was going to comment on that... a cross check to a head shouldn't go uncalled... it was blatant and out in teh open, but a guy swipes at a puck with a broken stick (that he may have even thought was still in one piece), sorry my hands are tied... I have to call it...

edit - though the announcers did rightly call out the crosscheck and didn't just dismiss it as "physicality" like they did with a lot of the islanders play
 

burstnbloom

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I was going to comment on that... a cross check to a head shouldn't go uncalled... it was blatant and out in teh open, but a guy swipes at a puck with a broken stick (that he may have even thought was still in one piece), sorry my hands are tied... I have to call it...

edit - though the announcers did rightly call out the crosscheck and didn't just dismiss it as "physicality" like they did with a lot of the islanders play
Ya, Leddy's obvious elbow on Kuraly was another one. The officiating in the playoffs always leaves a lot to be desired but its been particularly bad this year.
 

The Napkin

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Nah, it's okay. Leddy's not known for that. He's just an offensive guy, didn't mean to do anything. Nothing to see here.
 

BlackJack

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Nah, it's okay. Leddy's not known for that. He's just an offensive guy, didn't mean to do anything. Nothing to see here.
How many elbows to the face can you do before you're "known for that" and it becomes a penalty?
 

The Napkin

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that's the beauty of it - you're never penalized so you never become known for it. cf. Ovechkin. He's just having fun out there.
 

burstnbloom

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Nah, it's okay. Leddy's not known for that. He's just an offensive guy, didn't mean to do anything. Nothing to see here.
Shockingly stupid commentary from NBC there. It was a clear penalty, so was the one on coyle, so was the one on mayfield. So was the one Eric Staal committed last night in game 7 where he full on suplexed a dude. NHL officiating is inconsistent trash and it'll always be that way unless they have sea change in perspective.
 

kenneycb

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The Leddy comment was more about maliciousness IMO. Nick Leddy isn't someone who does that move on a regular basis. Doesn't mean it isn't a penalty but he's not Tom Wilson out there preying on vulnerable players to try and take their heads off.
 

Cotillion

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The whole lie to the "let them play" school of thought is they just accept that we can let guys nearly decapitate each other and that's good for the game, but don't you fucking dare loft a puck over the glass out of your defensive zone accidentally...


edit - talking about how commentators so easily downplay or eve cheer things that could seriously injure players and muck up the game... but when talking about a broken stick or over the glass... they just go "yep.. you can't do that... it's wrong"
 

begranter

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The whole lie to the "let them play" school of thought is they just accept that we can let guys nearly decapitate each other and that's good for the game, but don't you fucking dare loft a puck over the glass out of your defensive zone accidentally...


edit - talking about how commentators so easily downplay or eve cheer things that could seriously injure players and muck up the game... but when talking about a broken stick or over the glass... they just go "yep.. you can't do that... it's wrong"
Technically shooting the puck over the glass on purpose was always a delay of game penalty, but it was never called. They removed the intent part of the rule to make it black and white. In order to make a point about officiating the rules that have been made black and white are not really comparable to ones that are open to levels of leniency.
 

Cotillion

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Show me in the rule book where the ref is offered discretion in not calling a cross check to someone's head...
 

kenneycb

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It's not. But cross checks are only one penalty and there are plenty of other calls that can go either way based on factors such as whether the ref saw it, what angle he saw it at, the outcome of the event, etc. See DeBrusk's non-call last night. The game moves too fast to have black and white rules for everything. A broken stick, on the other hand, occurs in the vicinity of the puck 95% of the time. And it's 100% of the time for over the glass. So those calls tend to be easier.
 

cshea

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Miller and Smith are both skating prior to practice. That probably means they'll be unavailable tomorrow, but we'll see if either stay on with the main group. It is a step forward though.
 

cshea

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Smith is practicing with the main group with a regular sweater. That's a encouraging for his availability tomorrow.

Rask is practicing too.
 

cshea

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Zboril also practiced with the main group.

It doesn't look like any lineup changes are coming. Smith and DeBrusk rotated on Krejci's wing so I'm guessing they'll call Smith a game time decision tomorrow.

Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak
Hall - Krejci - Smith/DeBrusk
Ritchie - Coyle - Kuhlman
Kuraly - Lazar - Wagner

Grzelyck - McAvoy
Reilly - Carlo
Lauzon - Clifton
Tinordi - Zboril

Rask

Miller did not join the full group so he's likely not an option until game 5 at the very earliest.
 

kenneycb

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Has DeBrusk done anything of note outside of the first games of the Caps series? All I recall from the last game is him sending about 8 weak backhand passes to the slot that were easily intercepted.
 

Maximus

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Has DeBrusk done anything of note outside of the first games of the Caps series? All I recall from the last game is him sending about 8 weak backhand passes to the slot that were easily intercepted.
He's been useless and a non factor since early in the Cap's series. Not even leveraging his speed and the Isles D has manhandled him.