NHL Northeast Division 2009/2010: Review and Preview

(Photo by Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images)

he Northeast division had the second best winning percentage in the league last year at .561. Like the Northwest, they’re catering to some of the more rabid fan bases in hockey and so tend to spend and at times overspend every year. When Montreal, Toronto, or Ottawa don’t have a big new free agent signing by July there’s some screaming going on.

Boston has gotten into the same boat and has found itself in huge cap trouble this year. I’d expect Ottawa and Toronto to improve marginally and Boston to slip back a bit this year. Montreal and the only inactive northeastern team, Buffalo, should mill around just where they were last year.

Boston Bruins

Boston was the best team in the regular season in the east last year. They swept the Canadians in the first round. They then took too long to get going again against Carolina. They lost in seven to the Hurricanes.

Boston was running one of the better goaltending tandems in hockey last year with Tim Thomas and Manny Fernandez teaming up. Thomas played two thirds of the team’s minutes. Among goalies that played at least a third of their teams minutes Thomas lead the league with a .933 save percentage and 2.10 GAA. This was on a Boston team that was offense oriented and gave up 30.8 shots per game.

This was the tenth highest total in the league and yet Boston had the best team goals against average in the league. They gave up a league fewest 196 goals. Manny Fernandez was left unsigned and 22-year-old prospect Tuukka Rask will be asked to assume the backup role. Thomas can be expected to play more games with a youngster as his backup and it will be interesting to see how those added minutes affect his Vezina trophy winning numbers.

Boston will be hoping to tighten up their defense this year. Gargantuan Zdeno Chara will lead the way with his physical presence and huge shot. Dennis Wideman gives them a second offensively skilled defenseman. Andrew Ference is a smaller guy but a good puck mover and skater. He’s pretty precise in his own zone and rarely makes mistakes.

Youngster Matt Hunwick was resigned for two years at $1.45 million a year. That gives them more puck moving youth on the blue line at a bargain price. Mark Stuart is another young defenseman though with more limited skills. He provides a more physical presence. Gritty veterans Hnidy and Ward were left to sign elsewhere because the Bruins didn’t have the cap space to bring back everyone.

Boston signed enigmatic defenseman Derek Morris for a year at 3.3 million dollars. Morris is an in-betweener. He’s not a shut down defensive defenseman and he’s not an offensive threat.

That tends to get him underestimated because he’s hard to categorize. The former first round pick is still a good skater and puck mover. He doesn’t have the finishing skills of a first class power play quarterback. He’s also more physical then you’d think. He can fight most of the leagues middleweights as well. Morris keeps the defense a collection of fast moving defensemen. He represents an upgrade from Hnidy and Ward and should be able to fit in nicely on the second defensive pairing. I think the defense will be better this year with him.

The forwards were Boston’s strength last year and their greatest strength was right down center. Savard is probably the second or third best playmaker in the league and fast and tricky to boot. They resigned David Krejci, perhaps the best second line center in the league for $3.75 million a year. That’s nice considering the year before that they paid Ryder four million a year.

Patrice Bergeron was one of the great young players in the league before his concussion. He hasn’t completely regained that form yet but perhaps this year he’ll manage to improve over last year which will allow Boston to grow the offense internally.

The big problem this year will be finishing. Boston chose to re-sign David Krejci and Matt Hunwick. They had no money left for last year’s goal scoring leader Phil Kessel. His 36 goals went to Toronto. Next on the depth chart was Michael Ryder but he’s historically topped out at 30. There has to be a hope that Marco Sturm back from injury, big fast Blake Wheeler, and the finely aged Mark Recchi can provide the scoring they’ll need. It is a little troubling. Lucic, Thornton, and Begin give them sandpaper and perhaps Lucic will chip in with 20 goals this year.

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