BEAR FACTS: Boston Bruins Week in Review

To say that the Bruins had a great week would be lying.  A good week would be a stretch.  They had a so-so week.

They bookended both wins this week with a couple of losses, with one I felt they should have had.

With the loss on the 20th, Boston slips to third place in the conference with three more games to play before the All-Star Break.

Jan 15: Pittsburgh Penguins

Twice before this matchup, the Bruins came back from a two-goal deficit to pull out the win, and rather convincingly at that.  They fell two goals back again, only to tie it up, making people from both sides think, "here we go again."  This time it was not the case.  Jordan Staal scored early in the third period to break the stalemate, and it turned out to be the game winner.

Both Pittsburgh goals were rather fortuitous, with an off-the-skate rush to the net by Chris Kunitz and the behind-the-net bounce off the dasher to Pascal Dupuis, who was all alone.  Staal's goal was money.  He was in the right spot for the pass at Rask's doorstep to make it count.

Still, they managed to get the win without Sidney Crosby, so great effort on their part and a great job by their goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury.

Jan 17: Carolina Hurricanes

I really can't say much about this game other than the Bruins handed them their butts with a 7-0 shellacking.  Carolina clearly did not show up for this game.

Big Z, Zdeno Chara, earned his first career hat trick that night.

Not one Carolina player made the positive side of a plus/minus.  In fact, 16 players out of 20 were in the minus side of that stat.  The others were even.

The Bruins, on the other hand, had 14 players in the plus side and four were even.

Jan 18th: Carolina Hurricanes, Part Deux

The Canes showed some response to the embarrassing loss they got from the Bruins in the second game of the home-at-home series.

Although they peppered Thomas with 45 shots, only two got through. The Bruins one-upped that with three goals to take the home-at-home series sweep.  The 43 saves by Thomas was his career high.

Jan 20th: Buffalo Sabres

The Sabres have, for the most part, the Bruins number.  This night, Derek Roy and Drew Stafford (who scored seven goals, six of which were hat tricks in the last two meetings) were out with injuries, so the effort should have been there to take it to them.  Another player who has had great success over the Bruins is Thomas Vanek, who, after this game, has notched 42 points in 39 career games against them.

Mark Recchi stepped up and said as much.  The Patriot Ledger posted:

“We didn’t have everybody going,” Recchi said, “and that’s what happens when you don’t have everybody going. When we’ve got 20 people going, we’re just really tough to play against. We don’t have everybody going on all cylinders, competing at the level we should—it just makes it hard for us.”

Claude Julien stated that it wasn't so much a horrible effort, just that they were caught flat.

Vanek's goal should not have happened, as it was the result of a sloppy turnover.

Jason Pominville's goal resulted in Steven Kampfer wiping out and turning over the puck, which resulted on a three-on-two rush.  Rask stopped Vanek's initial shot, but Pominville was at the doorstep to clean it up.

Buffalo's goalie, Ryan Miller, was both spectacular and lucky in this game, as there were some shots that missed by inches, and the game could have easily went the other way. But luck can play a part in even the greatest goalie's career.

The Good

So far, the Bruins have been playing great for the month of January.  They are currently 6-3-2, earning 14 out of a possible 22 points and are third place in the conference standings.  None of their losses were blowouts so far, with two goals being the worst deficit to lose by.

The effort to get to the goalies has been there as of late.

The Bad

When the Bruins play flat, they play flat.  Defensive breakdowns have resulted in them scrambling to get back into the game, and this cannot continue too often, especially when the postseason comes into play.  Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

The Ugly

Not too much in the ugly department this week.  The defensive breakdowns were bad, but not really bad enough for the rank of ugly.  I'll cut them a break this week.

This is Cory Ducey saying, "Hit hard, but keep it clean."