On a mission: Bruins extend winning streak to 11 games and clinch playoffs using their size to their advantage

The Bruins have not lost a game since March 1st against Washington. That means that in 21 days, the Bruins have won 11 straight games, to account for their longest win streak since 1971. This streak has included wins over great teams like the Rangers, Habs and Lightning but it was Friday night that drew the attention of the hockey world. 

In a game that started at 9PM, Eastern Time, the Bruins were in a position where, if they could grab a win against the surging Avalanche, they would be in the playoffs regardless of what any other team did. But Colorado did not plan to make it easy and they certainly followed that plan. 

You see this game was a one played by opposites. The Bruins are a team built on power and brutality on and off the puck. They are also a team that relies on guys like Jarome Iginla, Patrice Bergeron and Milan Lucic to pound the puck into the net. Those are all veterans. But Colorado is different. Coming into the game, they had logged just 26 fighting majors that were enough for 19th in the league. But Colorado does not need fights. They win games not with checks or punches but instead with dazzling explosions of speed and proficiency and calmness with the puck on their stick. They get the large majority of their scoring from players like 3rd year left wing - Gabrial Landeskog and rookies Matt Duchane and Nathan McKinnon. 

With these two teams going at each other with playoff positioning on the line, this game threatened to turn into one of those documentaries about the Serengeti. The small nimble wildebeest (Colorado) spends hours running as fast as it can away from the angry lion (Boston) only making that lion angrier when it cannot catch dinner. 

Instead, this game just followed the plot line of World War Z. After pushing back in the first few minutes of the game, the Avs were caught puck watching early and eventually converted from foe to victim of the Bruins army. 

Even the referees could not stop the onslaught. Just 1 minute and 48 seconds into the game, massive Bruin rookie - Kevin Miller, locked his sights on Avalanche rookie, Nick Holden. Locked up in a tight puck battle, Miller, finally delivered the hit that sent Holden crashing to the ice wondering what state he was in. Bizarrely, the hit was deemed an elbow and Miller was sent to the box. But that did not crush the Bruins sprites. Just about 3 minutes after the Holden hit, Patrice Bergeron broke the game open with his 21st goal of the year. The goal came as a result of great work by Patrice Bergeron to push the puck through 4 Colorado players. 

Dougie Hamilton took the puck at the blue line and awakened the Avalanche to their defensive error that left both Brad Marchand and Zdeno Chara wide open inside the hash marks. Colorado overcompensated though and did not leave a man to cover Bergeron who proceeded to dash towards the net, and bang in Hamilton's rebound for the goal. 

“He made a good play to go to the net, and I just put it into him,” Hamilton said when asked about the goal. “I think I hit him right in the chest at the start, and it was a good finish after that, so I was pretty happy to have that.”

Colorado mustered a bit of a push after that goal, but the Bruins quieted that when Gregory Campebll dropped the gloves against 6 foot 2, 210 pound Cody McLeod. Though McLeod pounded at Campbell's head like he would a nail, Cambell held his own and eventually came back in the fight to land at least 3 strong jabs to MeLeod's jaw. That fight showed that the Bruins were not here to play street hockey. 

Over the next 2 periods, his were common. 

“I think it was a normal situation, considering we've been off for a couple of days, and again, there's thin air here, and that first period's always a bit of a challenge,” Coach, Claude Julien said. “So all of those things together, we knew we had to grind it out through the first.”

But in the second, they were just plain bullies. They defended their blue line like it was their house and the Avalanche were a hoard of zombies and forechecked and backchecked as if the winner of this game were not the team who scored the most goals but instead the team who broke the most bones.

“Second period, we kind of had to start getting pucks behind their Ds and playing more in their end, and the further the game went, the better we got. I thought we played a smart third, just putting pucks in deep and making them go back for every puck they wanted to bring up the ice. So that was kind of what we looked for and as the game wore on, I thought we got better all the time.”

The hits helped generate chances especially in the 2nd and 3rd periods when strong forechecking by the Bruins wingers allowed for their centers to pick up at least 3 great chances in front of the net. But the big hero of this game was Chad Johnson who earned his 2nd shutout of the season Friday night. He saved all 31 shots taken against him. 

“To be in front of these guys with such good systems, and a good D corps, and offensive players that want to play defense, too, you know, it helps me out a lot,” Johnson said after the game. “It helps the goalies out, and our whole team, so it's fun to play in front of our team when we're so committed defensively and we're out there to win and we expect to win.”

All and all, the Bruins are looking to be one of the scariest teams in hockey for other teams to play against. In a part of the schedule Bruins fans have dreaded all year, their team has owned the hockey world, climbing out from a tight race for the division and into a position now where massive numbers work to fairly define the magnitude of Boston's late season charge. They are 16 points clear of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the Atlantic Division lead. They are 6 points clear of the Penguins for the Eastern Conference lead and they are tied with St Louis for the title of best team in hockey. For the 4th time in the Claude Jullian era and the first time since 2011-2012, the Bruins have topped the 100 point plateau and for the first time in the Claude Jullian era, they have won 11 straight games.

Bruins fans, whatever you have been doing during these games for the past 2 weeks, DO NOT CHANGE IT! Let’s keep this streak going. 

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Bruins stunned in Buffalo: Late game collapse renews questions regarding goalie Chad Johnson

When we look back on this game come the end of the year, it will be remembered not only because of the stunning Bruins collapse at its end but also because of the team that did the stunning. Fact is, the Bruins lost to the Buffalo Sabers Wednesday and though they were spectacular at times, a game tying goal with 43 seconds left in the 3rd period and then an OT winner by Buffalo 42 seconds into the sudden death period left a taste beyond sour in the mouths of Bruins fans.

As good as milestones like Brad Marchand's 20th goal, Chris Kelly's 5th goal and the solidification of the Bruins' ability to erase leads by opposing teams made the better part of this game fun, the end wiped away that all. This was not the way the Bruins wanted to resume NHL play and though the team could be blamed for the first 3 goals scored against them, it was their goalie that was at fault for the two goals that ultimately lost the game.  

Fact is this is at the very least the 3rd game that Chad Johnson has blew for the Bruins this season and though statistically, he is not that bad, Johnson has been a man who, all season long has simply botched saves that he really should have grabbed. The fact that he is so consistently inconsistent ought to be troubling to some Bruins fans and the team itself. One second he is absolutely robbing guys like he did in 4 straight games at the end of January and the beginning of February and another he is allowing goals like the infamous wrap around goal back in December vs. Buffalo or the two at the end at this game. 

Earlier this month, when Johnson was still flying high from his stellar month of January, Tuukka Rask eluded to the importance of having a good two man tandem in net. 

"It's huge for us," Rask said "You need two good goalies throughout the season, because the season is so long. With March coming up, it's going to be a crazy, crazy month, so you're going to need two goalies. It's been good to see him get into this groove and helping us get the wins." 

"His record speaks for itself," Julien said. "The way he played tonight, even though people are going to say he didn't get tested, we know that's as big of a challenge for a goaltender as any, especially when you're playing a team that has a lot of skill. He's been playing well. It's been great." 

But now, this game, goals like these remind us of how quickly things can change. 

After Boston drew even with the Sabers late in the 1st period, they were once again out played at the beginning of the second meaning that after a roughing call that was marginal at best, this Bruins penalty kill was put to the test by a very desperate Sabers team. Roughly 55 seconds into the man advantage, a hard slap shot in from the blue-line seemed to catch Johnson by surprise bouncing off his pad, around the net and onto the stick of Tyler Myers. Still lost in the crease and unsure of where the puck was, Johnson was easily beaten by the off balance wrist shot that put the Sabers ahead 2-1. 3 minutes later, he was beaten again, this time by yet another wrist shot lacking power or any redirections. 

Luckily for Boston, Johnson locked things down from then on holding off any further damage while the Bruins offence managed to chip away and eventually tie the game in the 3rd period. When Milan Lucic scored the Bruins' 3rd unanswered goal, the game seemed to have been won. But then the Sabers pulled their goalie and once again, Johnson let up. With the puck stuck back in the corner, Brad Marchand missed a check and allowed Matt Moulsen to swing around to the front of the net. When Chad Johnson fell into the butterfly, he failed to plant his legs and slid awkwardly away from the puck. Moulsen scored into the empty net and so, yet another mistake had cost the Bruins a chance at a sure 2 points. 22 seconds into overtime, the game would be over. 

That goal beat Johnson five whole upping his number of mistakes to 4. 4 shots that he should have turned aside and 4 shots that if he did so would have reversed the outcome of this game.

Bruins fans, Chad Johnson was never a long term fix for the Bruins situation in the backup goal tending slot and as games like these continue to pile up, they only further the possibility and meaby even likelihood that come next year, there will be a new man backing up Tuukka Rask. 

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The break thats not a break: While fighting for gold sure is a thrilling experience for a player, the Sochi Olympics throw a wrench in the NHL's interworkings

The Bruins play their last game before the Olympic break on February 8th. That game will be their 57th game of the year meaning that as they must eventually get to 82, the fact that for 2 weeks there will be no additional games played stinks. As a result of that, the 5 Bruins going over the Russia this month will return to Boston facing a slate of 25 games in 49 days. They will play 8 back to back sets between February 26th and the end of the season and will never have a break longer than 2 days.

For a team that has been forced to deal with as many injuries to key players as the Bruins, this inconceivable workload could be greatly detrimental to the teams position going into the playoffs. One of the biggest reasons this may be true is that that the Bruins are a team that every year they have made a cup run with this team they have had a star goaltender playing star caliber goalie. However, when you are sitting there in thick pads for hours that are punctuated by saves that demand groin ripping flexibility fatigue becomes a very noticeable thing and has shown that it is already getting to Boston goalie, Tuukka Rask.

As we look ahead though, the Bruins cannot have that. Not only will Rask need to fight through the hectic month of March that follows the Olympic break but he himself will be playing in Sochi during that break and will likely log massive minutes on his goalie oriented Finnish Olympic team.

The Bruins know this though and are smart not to pretend that the Olympic break is actually a break. For Tuukka Rask who has been slowly slipping statistically, his coach has been giving him some time off as he was hastily pulled from the game against Montreal and played fewer games in the month of January than he has in any other month this season.

But what has also changed in this run up to the break is the play of the Bruins backup goalie, Chad Johnson.

"You need two good goalies throughout the season, because the season is so long." B's coach Claude Jullian said when asked about Johnson's play. "With March coming up, it's going to be a crazy, crazy month, so you're going to need two goalies. It's been good to see him get into this groove and helping us get the wins."

Excluding the game against Montreal, each of the last 4 games Johnson has appeared in have been wins as he has also effectively lowered his GAA down to a respectable 2.14. Secondly, it has now been 7 games since Johnson's season was seemingly thrown off course via a 4 goal shellacking by the Buffalo Sabers back in December and since that day, Johnson has allowed just 8 goals on 131 shots fired his way. 

"His record speaks for itself," Julien said. "The way he played tonight, even though people are going to say he didn't get tested, we know that's as big of a challenge for a goaltender as any, especially when you're playing a team that has a lot of skill. He's been playing well. It's been great."

"It allows me to go about what I expect, as far as playing time for a goaltender, so you certainly haven't been forced to overutilize a goaltender, and that way it makes it real comfortable."

But Chad Johnson's emergence and the conservative approach used when dealing with Tuukka's playing time has not been the only thing that has come out of this pre-Oylmpics drama. 

After he was named to the Slovakian Olympic team earlier in January, Bruins captain, Zdeno Chara was told recently that Slovakia would love for him to carry their flag in the opening ceremony set to take place before the NHL season is suspended. In a greatly commendable gesture on the part of the Bruins, they allowed their star deference to forgo games against the Blues and Senators so that he can accept such an honor. 

"What this guy has done for our organization and the honor that it represents to carry the flag for your country, how can you not support that opportunity," Claude Julien said. "So we're doing a job here, it wouldn't be different if he was injured, I'd rather send him there knowing that he's healthy and he's getting rest versus having a guy injured in your lineup not knowing when he's going to come back. So we're not under bad circumstances, we're under good circumstances with him."

Chara who leads the entire team in power play goals among other things will be sorely missed especially against the speedy Blues where a strong figure defending the blue line would go a long way towards halting the attacks of guys like David Backus or Alexander Steen. But nevertheless, if you are going to allow your players to go to Sochi than you cannot prevent them from taking part in the opening ceremony if they so please. 

The Bruins know this but ought to be feeling at least a little irritated by this whole thing. 

For 2 weeks in the middle of a professional sports season, that season will go into hibernation mode leaving its players to go play in the Olympics as they will move from being under the jurisdiction of the NHL to that of the IOC. What if someone is hurt? What if someone has trouble regaining chemistry after the layoff or what if one of the 5 Bruins going to Sochi gets tired playing up to 15 more games in a season than they usually would? 

Well frankly we do not know but what we do is that this does not work and come the 2016 Olympics the NHL will likely play on right through those games. 

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Chad Johnson has arrived: Bruins top Edmonton 4-0 off of 3rd line excellence and Chad Johnson shutout

2 days after Montreal handed the Bruins one of the most disappointing losses suffered by the Bruins in a while they god back on their horse as they welcomed Andrew Ference back to Boston for the first time since he signed with the Oilers last summer. 

Long story short, they did not suffer a repeat of the Montreal game and combined a much better defense with a speedy drive to the net that produced an all-around complete 4-0 win for the Big Bad Bruins. One of the biggest contributing factors to this victory was Chad Johnson who all season long has been a man who may have been getting a bit too much criticism. 

After he was signed in the offseason, Johnson has never fallen from the role of Tuukka Rask's backup and frankly, he has only messed up once back when he allowed a rather easy wraparound goal a few months back in Buffalo. To state plainly, after Niklas Svedberg proved to be no better than Johnson when he got his game, the Bruins have since learned that this 27 year old Canadian is the best that they have. But that makes him sound bad. In this his 16th game played as a Bruin, Johnson logged his 10th win of the season as well as his first shutout in Boston and his second of his career. Of the 22 shots Johnson stopped one of them in particular stood out. With just under 15 minutes to go in the first period, the Bruins committed a turnover in the offensive zone and then got burned on defense leaving Johnson all alone as the massive Alex Hemski came barreling towards him. 

Johnson however stayed square and even as Torey Krug lost his stick and sent it careening across the chest and face of his goalie, that goalie did not budge holding the butterfly all the way through and shoving the puck wide of the net to preserve the then 0-0 tie game. 

From there however, the Bruins offence took over. To give a bit of background, the goalie they were going up against, Ben Scrivens was fresh off of playing the best regulation shutout an NHL goalie had ever played logging 60 saves in a 3-0 Edmonton win Wednesday night. Through the first period of Saturday's game however, Scrivens who was also coming off of a great 2nd and 3rd period in the game before his record breaking performance, he alone had turned away 90 straight shots. As the moved into the 2nd period against Boston and looked to stretch that streak to triple digits, David Krejci proved that he had other plans. With just under 30 seconds remaining in an early 2nd period power play, Jarome Iginla, Milan Lucic and Zdeno Chara decided to all pile within 2 or 3 feet of the Edmonton crease as they looked to isolate a stickless Jordan Eberle. But as no lanes opened close to the net, Iginla turned and quickly dumped the puck off to the cool headed David Krejci back at the top of the faceoff circle. As he lunged forward to receive the pass, Krejci somehow torqued the puck past Scrivans and gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead and their first goal since the first period in Montreal. 

As usual though, Krejci showed no emotion remaining focused on the close game that would stay that way until about a quarter of the way into the 3rd period. 

6 minutes into the 3rd period with the game still sliding ever so slightly in favor of the Bruins, Dougie Hamilton took the puck at his own blue line and split past the defense as he went around the boards. At around the face off dot, Hamilton lobbed an easy shot at the left pad of Scrivans all the while knowing that he would be able to pick up the rebound as he did. Without hesitation, Hamilton slammed his skates into the ice and turned through the back of the net all as Scrivans lost track of him and took just a fraction of a second to get to the opposite post than Hamilton. Hamilton saw this and with the utmost ease looped the puck inside the crossbar and past Scrivans to give the Bruins the lead and officially beat his scoring stats from a year ago.

Though the game was not done, it was that goal that pretty much sealed this game. But the Bruins did not care. In true Boston fashion, the B's continued to press late into the 3rd and added goals by Carl Soderberg and Torey Krug to their already productive night. 

Excluding the Montreal game, the Bruins have been a driven, relentless team of late as for the 4th time in 5 games, they relied on the great work of their veterans to propel the team to victory. And yet, after 3 different Bruins logged 2 point nights, Chad Johnson was the star of this show playing better than he ever has since coming to the Bruins. 

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Boston Bruins vs. Buffalo Sabers game preview: Win crucial for battered B's

Boston Bruins (23-10-2, 48 points) vs. Buffalo Sabers (9-23-2, 21 points)
TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts
December 21st, 2013, 7:00PM 

Call it what you will, but Thursday night's 4-2 loss to Buffalo was demoralizing. Coming into the night, the Sabers had scored just 7 1st period goals all season long while winning 3 straight games just once all season. They were and still are the worst team in hockey and yet over the course of a near 18 minute span, they turned a 2-1 Boston lead into a 4-2 loss for the Big Bag Bruins. Tell me how that does not sting. 

Now the Bruins did not necessarily play badly during that 5 minute stretch in which goals 3 and 4 for the Sabers were scored as for the majority of the 3rd period they dominated play out shooting their division rivals 15-5 in the frame. However if you felt the need to blame somebody for both those goals that somebody would in both cases be 27 year old Bruins goaltender, Chad Johnson. The streaky goaltender has already played more games this season than he did in his previous 3 seasons combined. However, after failing to come through for his team in key situations Bruins fans may be forced to ask the question, is Johnson necessarily the answer to the question, who should back up Tuukka Rask? 

But he is not the only question mark on this Bruins roster going into the second half of Boston's first home and home set of the season. Over the past month or so, the injury report has been constantly growing as the Bruins defense alone has been ripped apart more than any other facet of the team. By the end of Thursday's game, 3 Bruins who without injury would have been on the ice were not even present on the bench. D-Men Dougie Hamilton, Kevin Millar and Adam McQuaid have all been missing for the past few weeks with an assortment of injuries ranging from a lower body ailment for Hamilton to a concussion suffered by young call-up Kevin Millar. 

As a result of these injuries, the Bruins have been forced to call up a wide array of young AHL starters including but not limited to, David Warsofski, Matt Fraser and Nick Johnson. One byproduct of that infusion of young men into this lineup is the fact that the existing Bruin's veterans are forced to truly stand up which is not necessarily a bad thing. Zedeno Chara has already shouldered 200+ minutes of ice time in the month of December while others like Jarome Iginla and Milan Lucic have stepped up the physical play and rocked anyone who has tried to go after their near teenage teammates.  

This kind of peace of mind that can be brought about upon a player whose teammates are taking punches for their sake and yet what definitely feels even better is a strong, dominant win. 

When the Bruins and Sabers square off this evening, they will have a chance not only to beat a weak Sabers team but beat them up.

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Whats wrong with the Boston Bruins: A look at the red flags raised by the past week of Boston losses

After starting the season 7-2, the Bruins came into an October 26th game against the Devils looking to retain their spot at the top of the Atlantic Division. Prior to that game they had won 4 straight and as they retained a 3-2 lead late in the 3rd they found themselves just minutes away from their longest win streak since late last February. They were just over 3 minutes away from the win when it all fell apart.

Tory Krug committed a high stick that sent him to the penalty box for a 4 minute double minor and then, just seconds later, down went Patrice Bergeron who skied the puck over the glass and put the Devils on a 5 on 3 power play for the rest of the game. New Jersey soon pulled their goalie scored once and then scored again to not only tie the game but win it in regulation.

The Bruins have now played 3 games since that crushing loss and through that span of time; things have rapidly spiraled out of control. They have lost 2 of 3 and have been beating 8-6 on aggregate scouring. Even after the New Jersey game, the Big Bad Bruins still retained the top spot in the Atlantic division but after this recent dry spell they have fallen 4 points back of the division leading Lightning.

As you look into it, the various factors that have befallen the Bruins in their recent losses have been here all year. First and foremost, the Bruins need more out of their 2nd through 4th lines as 36% of the 94 points scored by Bruins players this season have come out of the Krejci, Lucic, Iginla line. By comparison that is 18 points higher than the 18% of team points smacked in by the Bergeron, Smith, Marchand line and 28 percentage points higher than the 10% held by the 3rd line.

As you look back it was noted early on how much the dependency on the top line was dangerous and it seems that through these last 3 games we have been shown that danger not just told about it. Krejci, Iginla and Lucic have combined for just 1 goal leaving a gaping hole in the Bruins attack. With the exception of Carl Soderberg no one has stepped up and for that reason, down the Bruins go.

But as you examine the box score it is the situation in goal that, however strange, has shot the Bruins in the feet. Now there is no doubt about current starter Tuukka Rask. Rask is 7 and 4 with a GAA of 1.73. He has accumulated a save percentage of .940 and above all allowed more than 3 goals just 3 times all year. Tuukka has been playing like a Vesna candidate and there has never been a question regarding in the excellence of his play. No the guy who has killed the Bruins is the man who has come in when Tuukka simply needs a day off.

In the minds of Bruins fans, Chad Johnson was never the answer to the question of who to fill the role of backup goalie and he has shown it in the 2 games he has appeared in this year. He has allowed 5 goals in 2 games of action and after posting a saver percentage of just .900 in Saturday's 3-1 loss to the Islanders it may be time to test out Niklas Svedberg once again. 

The Bruins have played 3 fewer games than any other team in hockey this season but that is no excuse. They are just 4 points secure of a playoff spot and need to get going. Good news Bruins fans, we might be in for a surge in the coming weeks as 6 of their next 8 opponents are currently out of the playoff picture.

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