More in Michael Ryder
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The Curious Case of Nathan Horton
When Boston sent Dennis Wideman and a pair of draft picks to Florida in exchange for Nathan Horton and grinder Gregory Campbell, they were hoping to get a power forward with a well’s worth of untapped potential. The thinking was that the move from a non-traditional hockey market to a contending hockey town would be all that was needed to bring consistency to Horton’s game.
For a while there, it looked like they were right as the 25-year old winger put up 6 goals and 5 assists in his first 10 games with the black and gold. However, in the subsequent 36 games, Horton posted just 6 goals and 10 assists.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
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Boston Bruins Midseason Report Card
By Mike Miccoli & Wayne Whittaker, Boston Bruins correspondents
At the time of publication, the Boston Bruins currently sit atop of the Northeast Division with a 23-12-7 record, good enough for 53 points and third overall in the Eastern Conference. Although there has been much criticism regarding the black and gold this season, the Bruins are actually having one of their best statistical seasons in years. They’re ranked first overall in goals against (93), ranked in the top 5 for goal differential (+30) and have five different players with 10 or more goals. Individually some of the Bruins have excelled better than others. Mike Miccoli and Wayne Whittaker hand out midseason grades for the Boston Bruins.
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The Twelve Days of Christmas – Boston Bruins style
A guest post by Amy Lavoie When I woke up and saw the first dustings of snow on the ground, I thought today is the perfect day to entertain myself,...
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Stafford Hat Trick Freezes Bruins, 3-2
Buffalo, N.Y. Drew Stafford, Tim Connolly and Rob Niedermayer returned to the Buffalo Sabres lineup to take on Tuukka Rask and the Boston Bruins Wednesday night at HSBC Arena in...
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The Morning After: Bruins dominate the Lightning in Savard’s return
By Mike Miccoli, Boston Bruins correspondent
What was that?
The Boston Bruins’ offense exploded for eight goals on Thursday night outplaying a discombobulated Tampa Bay team and picking up the 8-1 win in Marc Savard’s first game back with Boston this season. The Lightning looked disjointed coming out of the gate and were unable to bounce back from their poor goaltending and inability to contain the B’s in their own end. Mike Smith and Dan Ellis looked like huge liabilities in goal, Steven Stamkos was held to no points, three shots and a jarring -2 and somebody had to point out that Simon Gagne was actually on the ice (later confirmed by his -3).
Twelve different Bruins, including Tim Thomas, registered at least a point, with David Krejci (two goals and an assist) and Michael Ryder (goal and two assists) claiming three apiece. With Savard healthy and back in the lineup, this should be the set Bruins offense going forward. And if Thursday night’s game was any indication of just how potent the scorers could be, fans will be in for a treat this season.
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Are the Boston Bruins Overrated?
By Mike Miccoli, Boston Bruins correspondent
You’re probably familiar with this particular ad campaign for the NHL. You know the commercials: one has Ryan Miller working on his hand-eye coordination with a tennis ball while another has Alexander Ovechkin training extensively with ropes, just for example. In a voiceover, two mock NHL announcers talk about the respective teams’ strengths and weaknesses for the upcoming season before a climatic tagline of “Questions Will Become Answers” ends the clip abruptly.
For the past four or five Boston Bruins games, this is all I could think about.
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The Morning After: Bruins blank the Devils
By Mike Miccoli, Boston Bruins correspondent
What a difference a game makes.
Things got quiet real fast after the Bruins dropped three straight games at home, the most recent coming this past Saturday against the Ottawa Senators. On Monday night, the 17,565 sold-out crowd at the TD Garden were on their feet applauding a Bruins team that simply manhandled an already-weaken New Jersey squad. Led by another outstanding performance from Tim Thomas, the Boston Bruins shut out the Devils, 3-0.
Thomas becomes the first goaltender in the NHL to get to four shutouts, one shy of tying his career high of five set in the 2008-09 season. But the former Vezina winner wasn’t the only Bruin who played a big game. Here are some quick hits on The Morning After on what you may have missed from Monday night’s game.
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Suddenly Struggling Bruins May Need Shot In The Arm
Don’t look now, but it looks as though the Boston Bruins are in their first slump of 2010-2011.
With injuries abounding, the offensive punch that characterized the B’s hot start to the season has all but disappeared. Without the services of crafty centermen David Krejci (concussion) and Marc Savard (post-concussion syndrome), #2 defenseman Johnny Boychuk (broken arm), and last season’s leading scorer for the team Marco Sturm (torn ACL/MCL), the battered Bruins are struggling.
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Bad Luck for the Black and Gold
It’s hard to imagine that the Boston Bruins will experience a more frustrating game this season than Saturday’s match-up against the St. Louis Blues. In a hard fought contest between two of the hottest teams in the NHL to start the season, goals were sure to be hard to come by. But no one could have imagined just how impossible it would be for the Black and Gold to catch a break.
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Bruins’ Next Big Challenge: The Home Opener
By Mike Miccoli, Boston Bruins correspondent Remember last season? Of course, you do. The 2009-10 Boston Bruins were notorious for having two major flaws: scoring only 206 goals, good enough...
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Roster-Spot Battles Bring Out The Best of The Bruins
Coming off the heels of a dominant performance which saw the Boston Bruins defeat the struggling New Jersey Devils by a score of 4-1, it’s becoming quite clear that general manager Peter Chiarelli’s job isn’t getting any easier. With $7,063,172 currently off the books due to injuries to Marc Savard and Marco Sturm, the G.M. will have some very important decisions to make as those players inch closer to a return.
This situation is not lost upon the members of the B’s locker room, which has created some interesting roster-spot rivalries as players know that their jobs are truly at stake.
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Bruins’ Superlatives for Success
By Mike Miccoli, Boston Bruins correspondent
First things first. The Boston Bruins roster, as it stands now, can not be considered as a Stanley Cup contending team. This is perfectly normal. In fact, I can only think of maybe three teams in the entire league that are legitimate threats to win the 2010-11 Stanley Cup; two of which are in the Western Conference. Can the Bruins follow up on their late season success while trying to discard all memories of the four-game collapse against the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference semi-finals? That might be a trickier question to answer.