Well I'm not Waiting for the Regular Season
A look at Preseason Fighting
Prior to a September 23rd it seemed that nobody had told Washington Capitals enforcer: Joel Rechlicz that speeding fits colliding with your skull often inflict pain. But not to worry, by the 15th minute of that night's game against the Bruins, Milan Lucic had enlightened him...sort of.In a ferocious fight that left Rechlicz bruised and out of sorts, Lucic absolutely wrecked poor Joel landing punch after punch while engaging in a seemingly endless fight that seemed only fit to be drawn out in a Roman gladiator arena. But no matter how brutal it is, fighting is a part of hockey, interwoven with the game and completely necessary among the factoids and memories in the NHL's great history. We all know fighting is bad. It turns brains into mashed potato and leaves knuckles un-recognizable by the end of their careers as enforcers. There is obviously a strong argument already staked on the subject of banning these brutal bouts but at the same time it is guys like Shawn Thornton, Zedeno Chara and Milan Lucic that make you finally realize that those futile arguments are well, futile.
But nevertheless there is one aspect of fighting that can be far more thoroughly questioned. Why do preseason fights even exist? The games do not count, the scores mean nothing. These games are almost invisible, meaningless, and free of any weight or value to their winners. But while that may be true, the injuries sustained in these strangely violent exhibition games are anything but nonexistent.
After Bruins fans were treated to their first preseason fight in over 2 calendar years back on September 16th, the black and gold have managed to successfully accumulate a whopping 9 tussles in just 6 games.
“Obviously there’s a lot of cons in fighting in preseason. You don’t want to break a hand or get a concussion or anything like that from fighting in the preseason,” Lucic said after the Bruins won 3-2 in overtime at TD Garden. “But you know the pros are you’re showing that no matter what the situation is or no matter what the game is, you’re going to stick up for yourself and your teammates no matter what the situation is. And that’s what it basically was. I didn’t really have a choice. So like I said, it was just good to get into one. And it was a long one. I had to catch my breath after that one.”
The fight Lucic was referencing there was the same one in which the picture above was taken and came after teammate Dane Byers was absolutely cleaned out by a 26 year old Rechlicz who was just 2 seasons removed from a 200+ PIM season in the NHL. Insanely, even after Rechlicz stumbled back to his dressing room following the merciful end to that bout, he returned to the ice and decided to pick a fight with yet another enraged Bruin: Johnny Boychuck.
Once again countless punches were thrown and this time Rechlicz actually took Boychuck down. That fight in particular obviously made Bruins fans mad. The Boychuck hit that spawned that fight was not even hard enough to take its recipient down. But within seconds Rechlicz had Boychuck pinned against the boards while taking a good 2 or 3 defenseless punches to the ribs. If it is even to exist, preseason fighting should be reserved for big time offences. Hitting the goaltender, boarding, charging, those are the kinds of crimes meriting of a fight. Not a simple center ice collision.
As was said before, the Bruins have accumulated 9 fights this preseason. That is slightly abnormal as these 9 fights are the highest since the team recorded 15 in 2009-2010. Another far stranger fact though is that that with 9 fights in 6 games the Bruins are averaging 1.5 fights per game. That is almost identical to the 1.5 in this last season and the slightly lesser 1.3 fights per game the year before.
So why fight like this, why is there no discrepancy between regular and preseason fight tallies when in one set of games, wins and losses are treasured like gold and in the other they are thrown away like Twinkie wrappers. Because for some kids playing in these games, this is as close as they will ever get to the NHL. Fights are a product of high stakes, competing players and upped anxiety surrounding a single game and when you have college kids fighting it out to realize their ultimate hockey goal, the amount of anger and competitive nature is as high if not higher than that of a regular season game when the roster is set and the salaries are confirmed.
There are arguments for and against fighting in hockey but while regular season battles are nearly set in stone, the stories surrounding these 9 preseason battles are in a way, far more intriguing.
Chris Kelly celebrating the biggest personal achievement of his career: his OT winner in game one the 2012 NHL playoffs
The Boston Bruins as a team have played 5 preseason games and are a cumulative 4-1, their only blemish amidst so much foretelling success being an 8-2 beat down last Thursday at the hands of the Redwings.
Jarome Iginla has made his transition to the spoked be seems like it never happened and Milan Lucic has already made the dentist far to familiar with Looch's opponents. Malcom Subban has been great and seems much closer to being NHL ready than many had previously assumed.
For the first time in over 2 seasons, preseason hockey has returned to the NHL schedule and for the Bruins, a host of off season signings left many questions unanswered. With situations like Jarome Iginla an the chemistry surrounding him and his new line-mates, the preseason has ANSWERED questions. But in the cases of Malcom Subban and the combination of Chris Kelly and Carl Soderberg is has only spawned them.
Chris Kelly, a 32 year old versatile Bruins forward has been with the team for 3 seasons now an despite his 6 years in Ottowa has broken into the minds of hockey fans as a Bruin not a Senator. He was traded to Boston in the final months of their 2010-2011 regular season before making a strong impression as the teams 3rd line center in the playoffs. There he scored 5 times and saw his team storm all the way to a cup championship. Kelly got off to a good start in Beantown but sported an even better sophomore campaign in 2011-2012. He scored 20 times that year and did not miss a game. Kelly seemed to be the big name answer to a Bruins 3rd line that had struggled for so many years but as quick as the praise began to come forth, he bottomed out.
Chris scored just 3 times in the lockout shortened 2013 season and was a complete non factor in the ensuing playoffs scoring just two goals, both of which came after Kelly failed to score in the initial 3 rounds of the NHL tournament. The Bruins were back to rock bottom. They shipped Tyler Seguin out of town and seemed to be looking to do the same with Kelly. But as time went on, no moves were made so Bruins fans finally looked to fix the problem at hand not simply throw it away.
Chris Kelly is great but the Bruins need someone for him to feed off of. Fact is, that person was already in the Bruins organisation and had already played briefly with Kelly. That persons name is Carl Soderberg.
After he was drafted by the Blues back in 2004, Malmo Sweeden native: Carl Soderberg returned to his homeland lacking what he so dearly yearned for: an NHL contract. As it stood, the Blues wanted Soderberg but not enough to pay him. Turns out, while the Bruins like the Blues did not want to lock him up for a contract, they were willing to give up some decent assets to simply call dibs on Carl. In July of 2007 they traded backup: Hannu Toivonen for the rights to the Sweed.
But nevertheless, the Bruins sent Soderberg back to Sweeden where he would play 5 more seasons as he would progressively increase his scoring output all before he finally complied 31 goals in this past season leading his team to the playoffs all before he gained the elusive call by the Boston Bruins. Soderberg was comming to Boston.
"You know, Kells and Carl are really good players, they work well together and so I'm just trying to help out when I can and if I can give them a little bit more space, then that's all the better." 3rd line companion Riley Smith said of his teammates.
3rd line's the Charm
Why the combination of Chris Kelly and Carl Soderberg may prove crucial in 2013-2014Chris Kelly celebrating the biggest personal achievement of his career: his OT winner in game one the 2012 NHL playoffs
The Boston Bruins as a team have played 5 preseason games and are a cumulative 4-1, their only blemish amidst so much foretelling success being an 8-2 beat down last Thursday at the hands of the Redwings.
Jarome Iginla has made his transition to the spoked be seems like it never happened and Milan Lucic has already made the dentist far to familiar with Looch's opponents. Malcom Subban has been great and seems much closer to being NHL ready than many had previously assumed.
For the first time in over 2 seasons, preseason hockey has returned to the NHL schedule and for the Bruins, a host of off season signings left many questions unanswered. With situations like Jarome Iginla an the chemistry surrounding him and his new line-mates, the preseason has ANSWERED questions. But in the cases of Malcom Subban and the combination of Chris Kelly and Carl Soderberg is has only spawned them.
Chris Kelly, a 32 year old versatile Bruins forward has been with the team for 3 seasons now an despite his 6 years in Ottowa has broken into the minds of hockey fans as a Bruin not a Senator. He was traded to Boston in the final months of their 2010-2011 regular season before making a strong impression as the teams 3rd line center in the playoffs. There he scored 5 times and saw his team storm all the way to a cup championship. Kelly got off to a good start in Beantown but sported an even better sophomore campaign in 2011-2012. He scored 20 times that year and did not miss a game. Kelly seemed to be the big name answer to a Bruins 3rd line that had struggled for so many years but as quick as the praise began to come forth, he bottomed out.
Chris scored just 3 times in the lockout shortened 2013 season and was a complete non factor in the ensuing playoffs scoring just two goals, both of which came after Kelly failed to score in the initial 3 rounds of the NHL tournament. The Bruins were back to rock bottom. They shipped Tyler Seguin out of town and seemed to be looking to do the same with Kelly. But as time went on, no moves were made so Bruins fans finally looked to fix the problem at hand not simply throw it away.
Chris Kelly is great but the Bruins need someone for him to feed off of. Fact is, that person was already in the Bruins organisation and had already played briefly with Kelly. That persons name is Carl Soderberg.
After he was drafted by the Blues back in 2004, Malmo Sweeden native: Carl Soderberg returned to his homeland lacking what he so dearly yearned for: an NHL contract. As it stood, the Blues wanted Soderberg but not enough to pay him. Turns out, while the Bruins like the Blues did not want to lock him up for a contract, they were willing to give up some decent assets to simply call dibs on Carl. In July of 2007 they traded backup: Hannu Toivonen for the rights to the Sweed.
But nevertheless, the Bruins sent Soderberg back to Sweeden where he would play 5 more seasons as he would progressively increase his scoring output all before he finally complied 31 goals in this past season leading his team to the playoffs all before he gained the elusive call by the Boston Bruins. Soderberg was comming to Boston.
"You know, Kells and Carl are really good players, they work well together and so I'm just trying to help out when I can and if I can give them a little bit more space, then that's all the better." 3rd line companion Riley Smith said of his teammates.
Soderberg has sported an improved style of play in this preseason accounting for 3 goals and quite a few nice bursts of speed and confert in and around these US rinks that are almost 10 feet thinner than those in Sweeden. As for Chris Kelly, his work in the preseason has accounted for 2 goals of his own as well as an assist on one of Soderberg's 3 preseason goals. The combination of Carl Soderberg seems to be the compliment that Chris Kelly has needed all this time.
My thoughts on Malcom
A brief scouting report on Malcom Subban
Recently, the Worcester Sharks in collaboration with the New England Sports Center and the Providence Bruins organization put on an AHL preseason match-up before a slim crowd of 2,000 people packed into the NESC's small - rink one - arena in Marlborough.
I was there, clutching a surprisingly helpful lineup-card in hand while I pinned my eyes to the sweater, the name on the back being one I had no clue would be here tonight: Malcom Subban. Seeing that he is the brother of hated Montreal Canadian: PK Subban, Malcom's surname is not one unknown to Bruins fans. What is unknown however is the simple thought of cheering for a man with that surname.
Malcom is 19 years old and plays for the Bellville Bulls of the OHL (Ontario Hockey League). In his 4 years there however he has already solicited a whole boatload of cheering from his fans. Many of those cheers were for any one of the 1355 saves he made in a career season in 2012. But those junior hockey stats were soon rendered worthless as the slate was wiped clean earlier this month when Malcom Subban joined the Boston Bruins preseason starting squad. There he started 1 game and appeared in another holding a 29 minute shutout in his Bruins debut back in preseason game number 1. Malcom made 12 saves against his brothers Canadians.
But before long, trouble struck as after allowing 8 goals in a September 19th demolition at the hands of the Redwings, Malcom was demoted to Providence and his brief tenure as a 2013-2014 Boston Bruin came to a painful close.
But here in Providence, Bruins fans as well as Subban were treated to a reality check. As it stood, we always knew that there was no way Subban would make the Bruins and in a way his lack of participation in Providence training camp and preseason might have possibly hindered his possible performance as an AHL goalie in 2013. But nevertheless, in the game that I saw him take part in, that lack of participation was not evident.
Subban made 29 saves in the contest and allowed just 2 goals. His team was handed the loss but there is a strong argument to state that it was not Malcom's fault. As a fan sitting just over 45 feet from the crease, Subban's 2 goals allowed were just 2 tallies among so many shots that without his presence and crucial saves could possibly have multiplied into 4 or 5. In addition to that, the second goal that Subban allowed came on a delayed penalty where the Sharks were able to pull their goalie for an extra attacker. This advantage was clearly evident as after some good work in the corners, the Sharks were able to work the shot back to a point man who ripped one home from outside the circles to break a then 1-1 tie with just over 3 minutes remaining in the game.
Yet when you cast aside those two defensive miscues that left poor Malcom out to dry the Toronto native was stellar making stops through traffic and despite an obvious difficulty at handling rebounds off of long range shots, neither of the 2 goals he allowed came off of shots within the hash marks. His comfort in the crease showed from the first warm-ups on as he was almost never sliding around. The edges of his skates were always firmly dug into the ice and he seemed to be fully contempt at staying inside the small confines of the blue shaded goal crease. This close proximity to the goal and lack of cutting down of the shooting angle was made possible by both a wing span of 79 inches that allowed him to easily cover both posts at the same time and some leg power and reflex skills that were ranked higher than many forwards in the 2012 draft in which Malcom was selected in.
In my mind, it is true that Malcom Subban is not NHL ready but AHL, that might be a different story.
Main Notes
Main Notes
- Strong on shots through traffic, no goals allowed from within hash marks or with screens in front of him.
- Wide wingspan: 79 inches (7 inches wider than the goal itself)
- Comfort in crease: was never sliding around, rarely out of position.
- Slight difficulty at handling glove side pucks and controlling rebound produced from that side.
- Never lost focus on game even after he was beaten with just 3 minutes to go.
- Has been with Boston Bruins all preseason, September 27th game was debut with Providence
Who's 2
A look at the Bruins backup goal-tending situationTuukka Rask will likely start upwards of 60 games in 2013. At this point in time, there are no doubts of what this man is capable of. 19 wins last year and a GAA of 2.00. He led his team to the finals, making the saves when the counted and always going 100%. Unlike last year, the situation regarding the number one spot on the Bruins goal tending depth chart is one of fortitude and solidification. Tuukka will, like he was last season, be the face between the pipes for almost two 3rds of 2013-2014 season. The only problem is who plays those last say 20 games.
Last season, the answer and filler of those 20 games would logically have been Anton Khudobin.
He played admirably in his rookie year snagging 9 wins in 14 starts while only allowing a GAA of 2.03. When Tuukka had to take a night off, Anton Khudobin was there to fill the void. The only problem with that scenario was that Khudobin was too good per se. Following Boston's elimination from the finals back in June, Khudobin immediately expressed his wishes to move on from Beantown. He knew that with Rask playing so well in his resurgence as a starter, Tuukka would be here for the rest of the decade meaning that long story short, a long term deal between the Bruins and Khudobin would obviously involve a lot of bench warming.
By July 5th, the Bruins had lost their stellar backup. On that day, Khudobin signed a 1 year 800,000$ contract with the Carolina Hurricanes
But as Anton Khudobin cleaned out his TD Garden locker, 2 other men christened theirs. After Niklas Svedberg signed with the Bruins back in 2012, the 24 year old Swedish native iced once of the best seasons in he history of AHL goaltenders. He ripped home an astronomical 37 wins while allowing a GAA of just 2.17 and won the honor as best league goaltender. Following the conclusion of the AHL season there was no doubt that Svedberg would be the backup in 2013 but in the blink of an eye, Peter Charelli made a questionable move bringing in a man named Chad Johnson. With just 10 NHL games under his belt, Johnson may not be the primary choice for backup. But as it stands, through 3 years split between the Rangers and Coyotes he has not been bad. Until game one of the preseason. Johnson allowed 3 goals in just 29 minutes of play amidst Boston's 6-3 preseason opener win over Montreal and he was not happy.
“It was a tough one, for sure. You want to get into the flow of things, but I didn’t get off to a good start. The first shot I had on me I mishandled the glove, and that wasn’t good. Then there were penalties, so there was never flow to the game as we scrambled along,” said Johnson. “There was no flow to my game, and it showed. I didn’t play the way that I wanted to, obviously. It was disappointing, but you can’t worry about it now while focusing on putting out your best performance in the next game.”
At this point in time, we really don't know who will back up the Bruins in 2013-2014 but regardless of that, the season will be upon us very soon and as a fan of the Bruins, I cannot wait.
Dates to circle
Most anticipated games of the 2013-2014 Bruins season
October 3rd vs Tampa Bay Lighting: The Bruins play their first game of the season kicking off against a lightning team that will be looking to begin their year by knocking off one of the best teams in the east.
October 12th at Columbus Blue Jackets: After an off-season full of different moves, the Bruins will play against Nathan Hornton for the first time in almost 4 years.
October 17th at Florida Panthers: After Tim Thomas's competitive spirit was reignited by Boston's run to the cup, he will likely play his first career game against the Bruins during a 7:30 home game for the Panthers.
November 5th vs Dallas Stars: Tyler Seguin will make his return to the Garden as he will likely be one of the top players on a Stars team that is expected not to be playing very well in 2013-2014.
November 9th vs Maple Leafs: A little over 6 months after the Maple Leafs saw the Bruins erase their 2 goal lead in the final minutes of game seven they will return to the Garden in a game 7 rematch.
January 19th at Chicago: The Bruins will likely endure chants of "WE GOT THE CUP" when they head to the Windy City for a Stanley Cup rematch.
February 9th - February 25th: The NHL season will be briefly suspended due to the Olympics in Sochi. The Bruins however will likely have several representatives over in Russia as Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and Milan Lucic have all been intertwined with Canadian team training camp.
April 13th at NJ Devils: The Bruins will wrap up their regular season with a 3 PM meeting with the Devils.
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