BOSTON, Mass. – It’s probably a very good thing that I am not in charge of the Boston Bruins because I am already satisfied with their season. As far as I am concerned, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman can hand the Stanley Cup to Zdeno Chara right now. I can’t really explain why I am thinking this way. Perhaps it is because the team was so darn bad just two years ago and it is playing so well right now that a playoff series loss would ruin things. With 94 points last season the Boston Bruins eked their way into the playoffs where they were eliminated by the Montreal Canadiens in a seven-game series. The fact the club had even made the playoffs was surprising because the club gave up ten more goals than they had scored, had a worse record at home than they had on the road and only one playoff team (Anaheim) and four overall had fewer goals than the 212 scores Boston produced. This season, the statistics – and the results – have been completely opposite. This year, the Bruins lead the Eastern Conference by a seven-point margin and have outscored every team in hockey. They have stuck to their defensive roots as only one team, the Minnesota Wild, have allowed fewer goals – and the Wild have scored 39 fewer goals than Boston has. Perhaps I am thinking so highly of the Bruins because sports in Boston just aren’t all that great right now. We’re not Seattle-bad, but there are some rotten things going on lately. Let’s get the Celtics out of the way first. They are awesome and I think Paul Pierce is a genuine Hall-of-Fame hero both for his play and his determination to stick with the organization. But you know what? I am not a basketball guy. That happens when you are a smaller guy and the best thing about high school basketball is that my dad had dental insurance in case someone rammed my crappy shot back into my face. The fact the Celtics are awesome is cool, but honestly, they are just a blip on my sports radar. How about the Red Sox and baseball? Well, the Yankees just jammed $180 million of coal into Red Sox Nation’s stockings two days before Christmas. Right now it looks like the only way the Yankees will lose this year is if Bernie Madoff bought all the luxury boxes at their new palace, the Steinbrenners go bankrupt and the Fed has to bail the club out (just typing that brings a smile to my face!). You know things are going tough for the football team when their best player is down for the year fifteen plays into the season and now one of your fearsome defenders is getting tackled – by a fan. The Patriots have to beat the Buffalo Bills and then they have to root for the New York Jets later in the day, just to make the playoffs. That’s a long way down for a team that was just one or two plays away from perfection last year (knocked off by a New York team no less). So how did the Bruins get so good all of a sudden? With all due respect to Michael Ryder and/or Blake Wheeler , the club has vastly improved without the signing of a flashy free agent or a large trade (or any trade if you’ll excuse the Andrew Alberts – Ned Lukacevic blockbuster). There are three factors in my mind which have led to this amazing change of events as the league nears the halfway point. Those factors would be management, coaching and the players who have bought into the system. In one of those strange turn of events, the Bruins had to settle for their second choice for a general manager in Peter Chiarelli after Ray Shero spurned Boston to take over the Pittsburgh Penguins. No one knows how it would have turned out if Shero had taken the post, but it is doubtful it could have turned out any better for the Bruins. In Chiarelli’s second season, the team improved 18 points and made the playoffs. In this his third season, the club is one of the league’s elite. The secret to the Bruins success is their depth. The team has been able to ice four effective lines all year long and has been able to play all six defenders without fear of a big drop-off. The club has been able to do so despite losing key players to injury. Whenever a player has gone down to injury, there has been a player on the farm in Providence who has come up to the NHL and played well. Some of the recalls, Matt Hunwick for one and to a lesser extent Vladimir Sobotka , have played so well that they may never return to the AHL. The second factor is coaching. After selecting Dave Lewis to run the team after he was named GM, Chiarelli pulled the plug on Lewis after a single season. Chiarelli struck gold with his second coaching hire when he brought in Claude Julien . Julien put a system into place which led to the club being one of the finest defensive teams in the league last year. However, due to a lack of firepower Julien was stereotyped as a defensive wonk who only knew how to slow things down and trap the life out of other teams. Now that he has offensive talent this year, no one in their right mind would accuse Julien of being a defensive elitist. Julien’s staff is a balanced one which includes Doug Houda , Craig Ramsay and Geoff Ward on a full-time basis and goaltender coach Bob Essensa who works with the club’s netminders in both Providence and Boston in part-time duty. Julien and Ward have worked together in the AHL, Houda brings character (he has served as a captain as a player) and defensive acumen while Ramsay has a wealth of experience earned as a head coach for other NHL clubs. Even with the top-notch management and coaching in place, none of this would be possible without the players and their willingness to accept their respective roles on the club. Each player on the team has a well-defined role and the star players are willing to sacrifice both ice time and their personal scoring stats to play within the system in place. The players are also willing to broaden their horizons on the ice. While it might be surprising on some teams to see the top scorer back-check behind their own goal line like Marc Savard does on this club, it is the norm with this team. It is definitely team-first here and if you have to take on a 6’7” defender like skilled player Phil Kessel did when he got into it with Atlanta’s Boris Valabik , so be it. With all the positives mentioned, there are a few negatives that should be considered. The first one would be the schedule. The club has run off an impressive streak of wins, but lately the club has not played many top echelon teams. In fact it seems that in some cases – the Toronto game on December 18th comes to mind – the team has played down to the level of its opponent. The club will get tested by the end of the month as the team has games scheduled with New Jersey (a 2-0 win), Carolina and a home-and-home series with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Secondly, the injuries are starting to mount and the depth in Providence will be tested. The club has two top-four defenders in Aaron Ward and Andrew Ference sidelined and Marco Sturm , Patrice Bergeron and Petteri Nokelainen are missing up front. The club could lose another two players – one up front and one on the blueline – before the top prospects in Providence would be exhausted and the club would have to make a move to bring a player in from the outside. In this article, I have covered why I think the Bruins have improved so much. In the next article, I will get into specifics and discuss the players. Included in that report will be a close look at David Krejci , the best player in the NHL you have never heard of. Contact the author at tom.schettino@prohockeynews.com
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