Boston Bruins Give Fans A Merry Christmas
Sometimes its hard to be a fan of the Boston Bruins. During the last offseason, the fanbase were incensed by some of the judgment calls made by the organization. New Bruins general manager Don Sweeney chose to move the team in a different direction. He chose to part waves with Dougie Hamilton and Milan Lucic. Then at last year’s draft he was able to score three successive first round picks, but couldn’t turn them into an effective defenseman.
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It was a rough start to this season. The B’s dropped their first three games. The B’s didn’t have a defensive core assembled. It appeared early on that the Bruins were heading for a tanking run the likes of only fans in Edmonton, Toronto, or Buffalo could understand.
Then thankfully, things started to turn around. Most of Sweeney’s moves made sense, validating the faith Bruins president (and former teammate) Cam Neely had in him. Slowly, the Bruins began climbing their way out of the pit they had dug for themselves. The young defensemen had no choice but to undergo some very rough on-the-job training, but it got easier as Dennis Seidenberg returned to the line up and Bruins captain Zdeno Chara started picking up the minutes.
Now, the Boston Bruins have shocked an awful lot of people, including many in the media. From a team that was barely in playoff contention at Thanksgiving, the surging Bruins enter the Christmas break with the second best record in the Atlantic Division, just one scant point behind the hated Montreal Canadiens. The B’s even broke their losing streak against the Habs with a convincing 3-1 win in the Bell Centre earlier this month.
It looks like Sweeney was the man with a plan all along. The Bruins are now a top ten team. (Currently ninth in overall standings.) The Bruins have the third-best goals per game average at 3.09. While the B’s power play has cooled as of late, it’s still the best in the league with a 28.9% success rate. The Bruins have completely turned it around on the penalty kill as well. The Bruins were at the bottom of the hill just seven weeks ago. Now, they’ve moved all the way up to 13th. They’ve become the most improved team in hockey since Thanksgiving.
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It looks like Claude Julien will be keeping his job afterall. Julien knew he had to tweak his game plan if he was going to stay in Boston. While Julien still likes his defensive-minded hockey, he was willing to open up the offense, and that certainly helped. The Bruins are sixth in the league when it comes to shots on goal, and a lot of the younger players have responded well to this newer strategy.
Things have gone so well, Claude Julien no longer has bad things to say about Ryan Spooner.
The team is playing well. Patrice Bergeron is playing like one of the best two-way forwards in the game. David Krejci is still having a solid year, despite the recent cool down in goals. Brad Marchand already has 15 tallies and is on pace for a 40 goal season. The blueliners (while still a work in progress) have answered the bell and are playing stalwart hockey, and most importantly, Tuukka Rask is playing NHL level hockey again.
While the fans have certainly gotten a nice present from the Black and Gold, one still has to wonder on what kind of gift they would like to get this Christmas.
What should Santa bring the Bruins this year?
The thing the Bruins need most is a little more security on defense. The blueliners have certainly improved as the season has gone on. However, the Bruins don’t really seem to have a plan ‘B’ if the injuries come like they did last year. The Bruins have a few prospects just hovering in Providence, and it may be in their best intrests to move them to gain the addition of a strong two-way defenseman. If they could pull that Christmas miracle off, they could really surprise everyone this season with a Cup run.