2013 in 8 Days: Best Bruins Moments of 2013

Christmas has come and gone and New Years Day is just around the corner. During the 8 days spanning from Christmas morning to New Years morning Go, Titletown will add daily updates to an 8 part series remembering the highs lows and all around heartwarming moments of 2013 in Boston Sports as well as a look ahead to what we might see in 2014. This is not a statistical analysis of these 298 professional sporting events that took place in Boston in 2013, this is a written rehashing and a reminder that we are the greatest sports town on the planet. 

Complete Schedule 

December 25th- A Year of Leaders

December 26th - Best Patriots Moments 

December 27th - Best Red Sox Moments

December 28th - Best Bruins Moments

December 29th - Top Plays 

December 30th - Top Games

December 31st - [To be determined] Is the Boston Athlete of 2013

January 1st - The Promise of 2014

May 13th will be a day forever remembered in Boston sports as the day Patrice Bergeron scored the 21st century version of 'The Goal'.

Down by 2 with less than a minute and a half to go in the game, Claude Jullian pulled Tuukka Rask and put the fate of the Bruins on the sticks of his best players. As we now know, those best player delivered as Milan Lucic, Patrice Bergeron and Patrice Bergeron again all scored, combining to tie the game late and then win it in OT thus sending the Bruins to the 2nd round and Boston in to flat out celebration mode. 

That day was the highlight of a strange year of Bruins games.

First and foremost, what gets lost in the shadows of Game Seven in Toronto as well as the other assortment of exhilarating moments of 2013 is the fact that the NHL season did not even begin until January 19th as a result of the schoolyard bully that was the 2013 NHL lockout. However while anger at the league was something that was prevalent for the many hockey fans, the Bruins did their best to regain the trust of their fans lowering ticket prices and playing like they were shot out of a cannon via their winning 14 of their first 18 games however even with that majestic start, the Bruins finished the season with the 4th seed of the Eastern Conference and went into the playoffs pitted in a story-line filled series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Over the course of that series, we saw Tyler Seguin's career in Boston fall apart while Game Seven delivered one of the greatest moments in Bruins history.

The Bruins won that game and then won 4 more in the second round to drop the Rangers and knock John Tortorella out of the coaching job in New York. Once in the conference final, the Bruins made an effort to stick it to Jarome Iginla for choosing the Penguins over them in a mid-season trade opportunity and they surely did sweeping the best team in the east out of the playoffs and moving on to their second Cup Final in 3 seasons. 

Moving into a broader lens it is no secret that the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals between the Bruins and Blackhawks rapidly turned into one of the greatest championships in the history of sports. The Cup delivered us 3 overtime games and a season that stretched father into June than any other in NHL history. We saw games that lasted 6 hours and games where 11 goals were scored but no team ever held a lead larger than 2 goals, and then we saw 17 seconds. 17 seconds where a 2-1 Boston lead turned into a 3-2 Chicago win and Boston's elimination from the playoffs. 

The Bruins are a team that will strive for nothing short of a championship and while they fell just 2 wins shy of doing just that in 2013, the Bruins went into complete overhaul mode during the off-season dropping Nathan Hornton and backup Anton Khudobin while trading away stars like Rich Peverly and Tyler Seguin for a list of prospects and one star winger. Oh and by the way the Bruins finally snagged Jarome Iginla via free agency.

Riding the success of a whole new cast of characters, the Bruins ended 2013 just like they began it, winners of game after game and contenders for the NHL's ultimate prize. There was a story enclosed between these up and down games of 2013.

This is a ranking of the top 3 of those tell-tale moments...

1) May 13th: Patrice Bergeron ties Game Seven vs. Toronto

In the words of Jack Edwards, "the Bruins were getting run out of their own building" until desperation took over. Down 3 late in the game, Nathan Hornton scored to bring the Bruins within 2. However the Bruins failed to bring the score any closer and with 2 minutes to go it was clear that it was time for a last ditch effort to salvage the win. With 1:30 to go in the game, Tuukka Rask was pulled in exchange for a 6th attacker and within seconds, that immediately paid its dividends. Milan Lucic scored with 1:20 go while Patrice Bergeron tied the game via his shot through a screen with 52 seconds left. It is important to note that Rich Peverly almost won the game 20 seconds later when he grabbed the puck at the top of the crease with James Reimer down and out and roofed the puck over the net. Nothing to worry though as when Bergeron grabbed the puck in a similar situation he made no mistake in slamming it into the back of the net.

2) April 17th: Bruins fans sing national anthem following marathon attacks

2 days after their city was torn apart by one of the most terrifying acts of evil this city has even known 17,000 Bruins fans came to the TD Garden on April 17th and when they were asked to sing a rousing rendition of the Star Spangled Banner that was thousands of voices strong. The Bruins lost the ensuing game to the Sabers but even that held a magical moment for those suffering from the fallout of the bombings as the two teams both gathered at the center circle and raised their sticks to the rafters in remembrance of those who died at the finish line.

3) February 12th: Bruins score 2 in the final seconds to tie game vs. Rangers



You know the comeback where the Bruins scored 2 goals with the goalie pulled...no, the other one. On February 12th, the Bruins found themselves shutout through the first two periods of their game against the Rangers but erased that trend with goals from Milan Lucic and then Brad Marchand both with Tuukka Rask out of the Boston net. As Boston celebrated that tying goal the phrase used by NESN Jack Edwards to describe Bergeron's magic months later was actually first used there as when the play by play man first screamed "hearts of lions" he was talking about Brad Marchand not Patrice Bergeron. 

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Who's 2: A look at the interesting battle for who will claim the role as Tukka Rask's backup in 2013-2014

Tuukka 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. 

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Anton Khudobin signed by Hurricanes: Who do the Bruins plan to replace him with?

In the midst of the Tyler Seguin/ Rich Peverly trade, the Nathan Horton departure, the question of will Jaromir Jagr return next year? And the speculation over an impending mega deal to resign Tuukka Rask, the name of Bruin backup net-minder Anton Khudobin has failed to cross the minds of well anyone.

Nevertheless after a season and postseason where the focus of peoples goal-tending attention, directed towards the Bruins was largely fixated on star goalie Tuukka Rask, it was an unsung hero in Khudobin that really did play a huge role in bringing this team through the regular season a positioning them for this deep 2013 playoff run.  

In the 14 games this now 27 year old started for Boston this year, Khudobin went 9-4-1 accounting for 29% of the Bruins final record and allowing just 31 goals against to constitute a GAA of just over 2.30.

You see the point of a good backup is not just to give your starter rest (if that were true, the Bruins would have only won 20 games this year and finished out of the playoffs) the backup is supposed to give you a chance to win and that is just what Anton Khudobin did this season. 

After years of paying his dues down in Providence, Khudobin was finally given the chance to become a regular goaltender and while stats can be misleading, anyone who watched this 2013 Bruins team could recognize that Khudobin HAS proved that he could easily become a guy paid far more than he already is and a guy who, so long as he is placed on an average goal tending team, could reasonably be in the running to become a starting goaltender in the NHL.  

Nevertheless at just after 4 PM today, speculations of Anton Khudobin being on the move became a reality when he signed a one year 800,000 dollar contract with the Hurricanes. Now this is where things get a little weird. Coming into the off season, Khudobin was expected to, if he was moved; go to a market where he would be competing for more money and a starting role. That isn't going to happen in Carolina. 

Fact is, Khudobin signed for 75,000 dollars less than what he was paid this year and signed with a team that already has Cam Ward: a 29 year old stud that is still showing no signs of slowing down. 

Yet this is not Raligh, this is Boston and after a pretty awful month in Boston sports (Hernandez, the Bruins losing the cup, and a bunch of Celtics trades) there might be an upside to this Khudobin departure, and that upside has a name: Niklas Svedberg.

Niklas Svedberg

Born on September 4th 1989, a now 23 year old Svedberg was signed into the Bruins organization back in May of 2012 binding him as an undrafted goaltender slated to play as starter in the Bruins AHL affiliate Providence.  

Originally playing over in Sweden, Svedberg spent 8 years is various European leagues even making the Olympic team at one point before eventually making a name for himself as he eventually managed to compile a combined GAA of 2.55 (2.86 in Olympic hockey) all before finally making his debut in Providence back in October. 

Energetically leaping into American hockey, Svedberg quickly began to turn heads as he exploded out of the gates winning 5 straight games before getting handed his first AHL loss. Still dominant as ever, Svedberg was named to the AHL All-Star game in January before finishing the season with a win-loss-OT loss record of 37-8-2 and a GAA of 2.17 that is actually sizably better than the final season in Providence of current Bruins starter Tuukka Rask. 

Table comparing Tuukka Rask and Niklas Svedberg's final seasons in Providence

	GAA	Win	Loss	OT loss
Tuukka Rask	2.50	33	20	4
Niklas Svedberg	2.17	37	8	2

In a way you can say that the Bruins really did run away with this trade off, I mean, bringing in a guy who if he performs like he did in the AHL could oust Tuukka Rask (although after hearing of the contract Rask will sign, that is never going to happen) and letting go of a goalie who in a few years could easily be demanding a multi-million dollar deal seems like a more than fair trade for Boston. 

Niklas Svedberg is the perfect guy to backup Rask, it just fits the deal, "the backup shouldn't just rest your starter, it should give you a chance to win" and that is exactly what Niklas Svedberg of Sollentuna, Sweden will undoubtedly perfect, right down to an art. 

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The case for using backups in playoff games: Why Anton Khudobin should have started a playoffs game this year

                                                               

Anton Khudobin, Ray Emery. Two guys that proved themselves admirably during the regular season yet still cannot manage to secure a start in these playoffs. Not to diminish the success of guys like Tuukka Rask or Cory Crawford but  when you look back at the first 3 rounds of the playoffs there are countless instances where you would have a pretty good argument to say, why on earth would a coach be so stubborn as to stick to their "starting" goaltender.

The Pittsburgh, Boston series: now granted at that point their backup (Marc Andre Flurry) wasn't very good but nevertheless, after allowing 9 goals in the first 2 games alone, one would assume that Flurry would be given the right to start game 3. Wrong! Vocoun started both game 3 and 4 as the Penguins went on to be swept out of the playoffs.

The Philadelphia Boston series back in 2009, a series now immortalized as the first time in a long time that a pro sports team came back from a 3-0 series deficit to win in a 7th game. At that point in time, Tuukka Rask was the Bruins starter yet even after winning the first 3 games of that year's semifinal, the Bruins collapsed surrendering 5 goals in game 4 to allow the Flyers to at least for a time stave off elimination. So okay, when you have a 3-0 its not terrible to have an off day yet when Boston was blasted 4-0 in game five then you got to wonder if it was time for a change. Also, just a little addition to that, Tim Thomas was the backup that year. Imagine what could have happened if the Bruins had played Thomas in any of the 4 games in with the Flyers instituted their comeback? Well chances are the Bruins would have snagged that crucial 4th win in that series meaning that they would have moved on to the conference finals to play... the Montreal Canadians who they would beat in the playoffs one year later. Who knows, if the Boston Bruins had deviated from their struggling Tuukka Rask Boston could have gone to the cup in 09, imagine that. 

So the evidence is there that coaches are more stubborn when it comes to playoff starters but why? I mean we have all witnessed the ongoing saga of Luango or Schneider in Vancouver where whenever a guy even loses a single game his job is in jeopardy yet when Tuukka loses his mind in the 2009 2010 playoffs even with a guy who won the Vesna that same year breathing down his neck coach Claude Jullian never pulls him. 

So here we are in 2013, Tuukka Rask fresh off perhaps the worst game of his season and Cory Crawford looking to rebound after a almost equally terrible outing you got to wonder is a change in net imminent? Well not for Boston.

You see while Rask did allow on more goal then Crawford did back in game 4 when you look through the 11 tallies in that game all had different themes if you will. All but 1 of the goals scored on Rask were either through intense screens or hopeless 2 on ones while for Crawford, all but the Bergeron goal at the end of the second period were ones where Crawford was square to the shooter and really had no business letting in.  

In addition to that while when you look at regular season stats it is true that the Bruins backup Anton Khudobin is probably not a Stanley Cup caliber goalie, the Hawks bench warmer Ray Emery is. In the 19 games Emery played this season he allowed just 36 goals to complement a 17-1-0 win-loss-OT loss record. 

So Emery: a guy who allowed 5 or more goals just once all year, or Crawford: a guy who once allowed 6 goals in back to back games and someone who allowed 5 in game 4 alone. I'd pick Emery.  

It's a strange truth that to an outsider is difficult to understand. Nonetheless, when you think about it for some strange reason this strange flood of league wide coaching stubbornness seems to pay off as each of the last 3 Stanley Cup champions have had the same goalie in every single one of their playoff games. 

So with that knowledge, let’s all just hope that Ray Emery starts game 5 :)

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