Boston Bruins: Player-by-Player Report Cards Through First Quarter

The Boston Bruins have more or less consumed the first 25 percent of their 2011-12 regular season schedule. That first quarter has been a bipolar timeline split between three-plus weeks of a hangover-induced hole and three weeks of above-and-beyond performances just to restore normalcy.

And right at the 20-game mark, the reconstruction process could not look much more complete. The team that won last year’s Stanley Cup and has garnered two of the last Northeast Division titles is back within the top three of the Eastern Conference after a shootout thriller over Buffalo.

Considering their previous position, last place in the conference with a 3-7-0 record, the Bruins could not have kicked enough ice chips over their slipshod start without a vast, unified multitude of above-average individual performances.

On that note, here is an evaluative capsule of each active Bruin’s efforts through the first seven weeks of action.

Tyler Seguin: A

He may have had a bit of a recent cold spell, but that’s going to happen to most everybody.

On the whole, Seguin has progressed ahead of schedule to start his sophomore season. He took only 15 games to match last year’s 74-game output of 11 goals and has added 10 helpers. Upon splashing a recent four-game drought on Wednesday, he tallied his 12th strike within 20 games.

More strikingly, Seguin has not finished a single night in the plus/minus red. Rather, he has steadily sculpted a plus-18 rating through the first 20 games.

Tim Thomas: A

This was not supposed to happen after such a grueling spring and such a short, hectic, celebratory summer. And yet it has.

Thomas has played more than two-thirds of the Bruins schedule and is on pace to finish with a record and stats spread not unlike the one that garnered him his second Vezina Trophy in 2010-11.

At 10-4-0 with three shutouts, a 1.85 goals-against average and .936 save percentage, Thomas has yet to allow more than three goals in a game and has not yielded a deficit his team wasn’t capable of surmounting.

Patrice Bergeron: A-minus

Even during the acrid month of October, Bergeron has been one of the Bruins’ few specimens of consistency. He has not gone more than two consecutive games without at least one goal or assist and has won half or the majority of his faceoffs in 17 out of 20 ventures.

And only once has he been held without a shot on net for a full game. All he did that night was set up each installment of Seguin’s hat trick against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Zdeno Chara: A-minus

The towering, durable Chara is on pace to throw at least 30 more hits this season than he did in either of the previous two.

As of Wednesday’s final horn in Buffalo, he is tied with Bergeron for the team lead with 12 assists to go with his three goals, including two on the power play.

Chris Kelly: A-minus

Kelly is in the company of Seguin and Thomas as one of those Bruins to have decisively exceeded expectations so far.

Very few, if any, expected the third-line center to follow up on his productive playoff, when he charged up a 5-8-13 scoring log in 25 games.

And yet, through 20 games this regular season, Kelly has tallied two more goals and one more in six fewer games.

Tuukka Rask: A-minus

Rask’s primary weakness has been penalty killing. Of the 14 goals he has allowed in six starts, six have come on an opposing power play, including two 5-on-3 conversions.

Apart from that, plus one emotional outburst that invited those 5-on-3 goals against Carolina, Rask’s efforts have been irreproachable. He has kept his team in every game just as proficiently as Thomas has and he is finally getting his due in the second month of the season with three straight victories to bring him up to a .500 winning percentage.

Brad Marchand: B-plus

Marchand is on pace to eclipse his 21 goals and 41 points from last season. Assuming he dresses for all 82 games and continues to produce at the same rate over the remaining three quarters, he ought to finish with about 28 goals and 65 points.

And remember that, at this time a year ago, he had only two goals and five assists. This year, his first full season as a top-sixer, he has thrice as many goals and twice as many points.

Rich Peverley: B-plus

Much like Kelly, his fellow 2011 trading deadline import, Peverley has produced at about the same rate in the first quarter of this season as he did through all of last year’s postseason.

His only egregious stretch has been a four-game scoreless skid at the tailend of October, which coincided with the team’s season-worst three-game losing streak. Other than that, Peverley has not gone more than two games without a point.

Johnny Boychuk: B

The rugged rearguard has not left very much room for complaint. Boychuk has sprinkled on two goals and three assists, has the second-best rating (plus-eight) among Boston blueliners and is second on the team with 30 blocked shots.

In addition, after accruing 10 penalty minutes in October, Boychuk has been much more disciplined during the team’s active hot streak, taking only one minor penalty in his last nine appearances.

Gregory Campbell: B

Campbell is usually a winner at the faceoff dot and is now sprinkling out some tangible offensive contributions after a pointless 10-game October.

Joe Corvo: B

The newly acquired defenseman got off to a sour start in Boston, steadily digging himself a minus-six hole in his first 11 games. But since then, he has steadily improved that rating to a plus-seven while upping his point collection from three to nine assists.

Andrew Ference: B

He has done his day job with little trouble, but lately, Ference has stood out with his offensive output. He just scored goals in back-to-back games for the first time in his 658 NHL appearances and could be on his way to a career year as a Bruin with up to 30 points within reach, assuming he stays the course.

Most strikingly, through 18 appearances so far, Ference has pitched in two power-play assists. That’s one more than he mustered in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 season combined.

Nathan Horton: B

Since he seemingly perked himself up with a recent self-effacing address to the media, the only item Horton really needs to spruce up is his minus-one rating.

In the midst of upping his totals by four goals and four assists over his last eight appearances, Horton has joined the likes of Seguin and Chara as Boston’s most fruitful power-play producers. That doesn’t say a lot, but it says more than nothing.

Adam McQuaid: B

McQuaid’s output in most departments, particularly in body checks, does not quite stack up with the majority of his colleagues. Then again, he has missed five of the first 20 games and usually receives the least amount of ice time among the Bruins' blue line brigade.

But to his credit, in that relatively limited amount of work, McQuaid has flaunted a fair share of pluck with 29 blocked shots, right behind Boychuk for third on the team.

Jordan Caron: B-minus

His appearances have been sporadic, but amidst the more volcanic portion of the Bruins’ November hot streak, Caron has chipped in a little when he has suited up. Between Nov. 7 and Nov. 15, he collected a goal and two assists in four games after mustering zero in his first seven outings.

Milan Lucic: B-minus

Lucic had a kinetic three weeks between Oct. 20 and Nov. 10 that saw him post eight goals and five assists in a span of eight games. But he has sandwiched that with two big slices of musty white bread, although he may have turned back in the right direction on Wednesday with an assist on Chara’s equalizer.

Lucic’s physicality was also lacking in the young weeks of the season, although he has since picked that back up. So much so that he entered Wednesday night’s action in a three-way tie with Chara and Dennis Seidenberg for the team lead with 45 body-checks.

Dennis Seidenberg: B-minus/C-plus

As mentioned, his physicality is still up there with the likes of Chara and Lucic, as it ought to be. His plus/minus has improved immensely in harmony with the team’s turnaround in the win column. And he is running away with the team lead in the department of blocked shots.

But offensively, Seidenberg still ought to be putting a little more on his transcript. He has sprinkled three assists over his first 19 games, but has yet to hit the net on any of his 40 registered shots. Of those 40 stabs, 28 were inflicted in October whereas only 12 have come over the last nine games.

Shawn Thornton: C-plus

He is tough as usual, to be sure. But for someone who hit double digits in both the goal and assist column for the first time in his career last season, Thornton isn’t doing much to follow up this year.

Daniel Paille: C-plus

He did sacrifice his face and three games on a routine block against the Islanders Nov. 7. But other than that, even for a fourth-liner, Paille has not been producing at quite the same rate as he has previously.

David Krejci: C

Six of Krejci’s eight points have been crammed into back-to-back 1-2-3 nights against Toronto and the New York Islanders. Since returning from a brief injury sustained in an Oct. 11 practice, he has sandwiched that brief production spurt with a pair of scoreless skids lasting five games apiece.

In addition, he still has yet to make up for his team-worst minus-three rating.

There is no reason to think Krejci cannot improve upon all of this, but he has to go out and do that before he gets any credit.

Benoit Pouliot: C-minus

Apart from two grittily executed goals on the opposing stopper’s porch and a recent shootout clincher in Buffalo, the start to Pouliot’s tenure in Boston has been uneventful, at best.

Matt Bartkowski, Zach Hamill, Steven Kampfer: Incomplete

These three rookies have combined for 10 appearances thus far. Bartkowski and Hamill are seeing regular action down in Providence while Kampfer has kept on patient standby as Boston’s seventh defenseman.