Don’t Wake Sleeping Bears

Tuukka Rask. What an awesome name. Oh and he won his first game of the season during the Bruins three game win streak.

Rumors of the Boston Bruins demise may have been greatly exaggerated. The Bruins have clawed their way out of last place (okay it’s only to fourth place but you can’t jump to first in one week) and look to be playing a better brand of hockey than what they were producing to begin the season. The Bruins are now riding a meager three game win streak in which they have outscored their opponents 18-5. In the first ten games of the season Boston only managed to score five or more goals once, in a 6-2 victory over Toronto in mid October. The Bruins have quadrupled that total putting up scores of five, seven and six respectively over this three game stretch.

Even more importantly two of the Bruins wins came against divisional opponents Toronto and Ottawa who last time we checked in were leading the Northeast Division. Toronto remains in first but the Bruins didn’t seem to notice while smacking seven goals into the net and shutting the Leafs out on Saturday Toronto. The Leafs had been 5-0-1 at home before skating with the Bruins.  Thanks to these impressive goal outbursts the Bruins now join Buffalo as the only teams in the Northeast Division with a positive goal differential at plus 10. There are only six teams in the NHL currently with a differential of plus10 or more, and the other five are in either first or second place, so the Bruins are clearly making striders forward.

Speaking of strides forward, the Bruins may have just started to get hot but one player has been so all year. Tyler Seguin, who’s been mentioned before on this blog, has been lighting it up all season, so of course he was an intricate part of this current hot streak. Seguin had his first career hat trick in the 7-0 devastation of Toronto and is currently tied for the league lead in plus/minus with +11. Seguin is turning into the offensive powerhouse the Bruins need to bring them to the next level. Everyone knows the Bruins defense is rough and unforgiving (it helps when you have a 6’9″ behemoth Slovakian, with the hardest slap shot in hockey back there) but Seguin adds a level of finesse and offensive fire power the Bruins lacked even in winning the Stanley Cup last season.

Nathan Horton and David Krejci must be watching closely as they have begun to play at a higher level, at least in the last three games. Krejci missed time early this season with an injury so his return to prominence has been delayed, but Krejci has put together back to back three point games in the Bruins last two skates with Horton adding one as well in a game effectively won by the two against the Islanders. Improved front lines for the Bruins is not something the NHL wants to see from a team that was already tough defensively.

However all is not totally well in the Bean. Daniel Paille took a slap shot to the face in Monday’s win over the Islanders. That is not something you just brush off your cheek and then keep on skating, although Paille did skate off the ice on his own accord. To say there was blood would be quite the understatement. Paille has a broken nose and will have surgery today and will then be listed as day to day for the Bruins.

The Bruins win against the Islanders on Monday began a five game home stand for the Bruins, with the biggest of the five games against Buffalo on Saturday. It’s unlikely that Boston will continue to light up the scoreboard like Oklahoma State’s football team but only seven points out of first the Bruins may have finally woken up from that hangover. It’s good to be in fourth (for now).

-Phil

Are the Bruins back? Let us know on Twitter (@seeuinoctober) or in the comments.

The First Tenth- Northeast Division

The Habs Not Scoring and Ryan Miller Not Allowing Them To. Sounds Right.

Boston Bruins- 3-5-0 6 points

The highlight of this season so far for the Bruins came before the season really started. On opening night the Bruins raised their 2011 Stanley Cup Champions banner to the rafters of the TD Bank Garden (must be crowded up there with all the ones from that green team that used to play basketball). After the festivities the Bruins were then felled by the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1.

So far this season the Bruins still seem to be suffering from the championship hangover. Through eight games the B’s are 3-5 and that’s with six games coming at home where the Bruins dominated in the playoffs last season. Boston faithful shouldn’t be too worried as 90 percent of the season still remains but there have been some negative signs. The Bruins SRS is 0.24 which is 32 points lower than their final total last year.

I Hear Lots of Water Helps Hangovers. Not Sure About Stanley Cup Hangovers.

The offense has been less than improved. The power play which was so ineffective last season continues to struggle (12.5 percent) and only 2.3 goals per game.  Furthermore the loss of David Krejci hurt quite a bit and the Bruins are still waiting for him to return to form, despite his absence .On the bright side, young gun Tyler Seguin has continued from his flash of brilliance in the Cup run. Seguin leads the team in points, goals and assists.  You know all the important things.

The defense and goaltending have been fine for the Bruins. Tim Thomas hasn’t been at his playoff level, but how long can a 38 year old goalie play like a god? Thomas is still putting up solid numbers allowing only 2.16 goals per game and accumulating all three of the teams wins.

So at the 1/10^th mark the Bruins record may not look Cup champion caliber but the Bruins are still the defending champions and should continue to improve. The Bruins will start the next tenth with a home and away double feature with the Montreal Canadiens. Maybe some old rivalry can ignite some goals for the Black and Gold.

Buffalo Sabres 5-3-0 10 points

A lot of people coming into this season were inspired by the Sabres season last year and with the addition of new blood thought Buffalo would come out and stampede through the Northeast. (What we at SeeYouInOctober didn’t pick them to win the division? I am astounded). Anyway aside from backtracking on predictions the Sabres trail only Toronto at the top of the Northeast division. And the Sabres competition has been pretty solid as they have taken down Pittsburgh (14 points), Florida (10 points) and Los Angeles (11 points).

Buffalo has been unforgiving on defense allowing only 1.9 goals per game the major reason behind their 5-2 start. However a defense can play as well as possible but if the guy between the doesn’t stand on his head, or at least try to, it doesn’t matter. Luckily the Sabres have Ryan Miller. Before last night Miller had gone 4-2 on the season with a save percentage of .946. Millers career high save percentage is .929. We’ll see if he can continue at this level but if he even stays in the same area code the Sabres might be more competitive than the Bills this season. (And that actually means something this year).

The Sabres have a four game home stand to close out October and head into November including some give me games against Calgary and Columbus meaning the Sabres should still be floating atop the standings when they head to Ottawa on November 5^th.

Montreal Canadiens 1-5-2 4 points

What is French for not good at hockey? I think so far this year Montreal is probably finding out pretty regularly. The Canadiens have managed only one win, only the Blue Jackets have fewer wins. The Habs have a minus 8 goal differential and have lost six straight. Montreal may not remember this but putting the puck in the net is the most important part of hockey. They have done a putrid job of that this season putting in 18 goals this season. It’s not out of lack of trying. The Canadiens threw 41 shots at the net in a 2-1 loss to the Panthers on Monday. The Panthers managed 10 less with twice the goal output.

Goalkeeper Carey Price has been planted firmly on his feet this season. Unfortunately in hockey jargon that isn’t a compliment. Price has not pulled over his success from last year to this one, allowing 3.13 goals a game and saving less than 88 percent of the shots taken against him. It is the second lowest save percentage among goalies with seven or more starts.

Raise Your Hand If Your About To Lose Your Job.

The Canadiens have been equally horrible when teams make it easier for them with the 29^th worst power play output (9.4 percent) in the NHL. Montreal has had plenty of opportunities (32) which isis right around the league average (30), but they have not played around average. At this point that would be a welcome sight in Quebec.

Tha Canadiens have gotten some solid, albeit futile, efforts from the core of their team. Max Pacioretty , Tomas Plekanec, Andrei Kositsyn and Tavis Moen all have five points and Yannick Weber has played well on defense with a team high plus/minus of +4. However these performances have been marred by the Canadiens poor play.

As the hotseat for coach Jacques Martin reaches inhuman levels, the Canadiens head into a difficult stretch for a team that has been difficult to watch (except for Bruins fans). The Canadiens have games against Philadelphia and Boston (twice) this week and then play four of five games on the road heading towards mid-November.