What does it mean when a team leads the NHL in penalty killing, yet scores
only 14 goals in an eight game stretch, going 1-5-2 against a fair sampling
of playoff and non-playoff contending opponents? It ain't the effort, Baby
- it's the talent. That is what leaves the Bruins on the edge of playoff
also-ran status. The best we can say about the team is that they aren't
losers. After 51 games, they have 51 points, and they are clinging to
eighth place in the East over Florida by virtue of two more wins and a
Pavel Bure injury.
So far in 1999, the Bruins have played almost flawlessly when killing
penalties, toothlessly when on the power play, and ineffectively at even
strength. The team is working as hard or harder as any regular season NHL
team does, meaning that there will be more lapses and let downs than there
will be revelations and dazzling performances. No team can, or should, try
to maintain playoff intensity over an 80+ game schedule (look what it has
done for Brian Sutter's teams). Still, when a team does as well as the
Bruins have done this year killing penalties, that reflects hard work,
because talent alone doesn't kill penalties.
Conversely, their lack of success at even strength and in power play
situations points to the fact that most teams can out-man them. The Bruins
have a very good first line - not the class of the league, but young and
strong. They have a great checking line, at least when all its members are
healthy - the line has gone 44 of 51 games with one or more members out due
to injury. But the second line and fourth line are strictly patchwork at
this time, and there has been little chemistry between the players, or any
identity to speak of established.
On an individual basis, Joe Thornton, the second-year swingman, has
centered three different lines this year. Joe is coming of age at a ripe
19, passing a statistical milestone last week against the Rangers by
scoring his tenth goal of the season, and a game winner at that. This
event, of course, sparked cries from the Boston media for coach Pat Burns
to stop coddling the kid, jack up his ice time, and spotlight him on the
power play. One Boston writer suggested bumping team-leading scorer Dmitri
Khristich off the first line and moving Joe to wing. Fortunately, Burns
seems to have both anticipated and pre-empted these bleatings, shifting
instead Sergei Samsonov to the second line, and elevating Steve Heinze,
however briefly, to starter status.
The problem for Burns is that multiple key forwards have been in a funk.
Jason Allison couldn't buy a goal, and then infected Samsonov with the same
virus. When they started to recover, Allison by scoring five goals in two
games, and Sammy by scoring three in two, they passed the no-goal-flu to
Dmitri, who keeps getting dinged in the legs by pucks that normally he'd be
deflecting into the net.
But the worst affliction belongs to Steve Heinze, who has scored only 13
goals this year in 50 games. Despite being fourth on the Bruins in
scoring, Steve hasn't scored a goal since the 8-1 rout over Nashville ten
games ago. Before that, Heinze had scored only one other goal in 1999,
back on January 5th in a 5-1 romp over Calgary. So Steve has been scoring
seldom and at the least influential times. The fact is that Heinze and
Thornton just don't click. Steve is a mucker, with occasional breakaway
moves, who is at his best drawing penalties through second effort plays
that expose defenders and force hooks and holds. His style and abilities
don't seem to mesh with those of Thornton, though some of the problem could
well be the lack of a steady partner on the other wing.
Anson Carter looked early on like he might be just the guy to knit this
line together, with a combination of speed, strength, and skill. But the
reality is that missing training camp to holdout for a better contract hurt
Carter as a player. In 24 games this season, he displayed a pair of brick
hands worthy of Ken Baumgartner, and his skating could best be described as
"trudging." And then he went out with an ankle injury, nary to be seen
again. Okay, maybe that is a little harsh, because the problem was not
lack of effort on game day. However, the accusation of a lack of
preparation is much harder to dispute. Clearly, the organization and the
fans had a much higher expectation of Anson. As he nears a return from
injury, perhaps on the current road trip through Western Canada, no one
could deny that a healthy Carter, playing to his potential, could make a
major difference to the Bruins as a team.
Without a doubt, though, the biggest negative impact on this team has been
the injury to Kyle McLaren. The team has been on a steady slope down since
Kyle suffered a shoulder separation. Like it or not, NHL defense is
quickly becoming a place where size matters. Kyle's backups, Dave Ellett
and Grant Ledyard, are experienced veterans, but they don't have the
quickness or vigor of a big-body 20-something like Kyle. Don Sweeney and
Darren Van Impe don't much tower over anybody either. And Hal Gill, bigger
than life, is more of an octopus than a head-banger, wrapping himself
around opposing forwards, rather than trying to deposit them in the $75
seats.
So the outcome is that the Bruin's defense has been smaller, slower, and a
bit leakier without Kyle. Not by a huge margin, mind you. But just enough
so that effort can't fully compensate for talent loss, and the result
equates to three or four places in the standings.
Harry Sinden's answer? Bring up a coupla kids from Providence, and send a
couple back down. Cameron Mann and Antti Laaksonen drove north, and Shawn
Bates and Chris Taylor drove south. The transplant was partially
successful, in that Laaksonen golfed the puck ahead to Thornton past a
surprised Ranger defense, and Big Joe swept in alone on Mike Richter, deked
him down, and backhanded the game winner to break the Bruins 8-game winless
streak.
But frankly, that could have easily been Bates or Taylor swinging the
9-iron on that play. The call-ups played pretty ordinary most of the
night. In fact, the biggest impact of the personnel moves was that Thornton
ended up shadowing Wayne Gretzky for the first time in his career, because
checking line center Tim Taylor took a puck in the chops, and brother Chris
wasn't around to fill in. Burns, who knows how to inspire a player, simply
said to Joe "You've got 99," and sent Joe out there. Joe stepped up to the
challenge, and then scored the winner. However, Joe stepping up doesn't
guarantee either a Stanley Cup or even a playoff berth. More is needed.
The truth is, it's déjà vu all over again on Causeway Street. Being a
Bruins fan is like being a Greek tragedy buff. Lots of pride, tradition,
and hope in the beginning, but in the end its heartbreak and humility. It
doesn't matter if the protagonist is Oedipus or Ray Bourque, you know how
the curtain will fall. Once again, the Bruins have a brave and hard
working bunch, and a worthy and deserving coach, as they have had many
times before (like 26 of the last 27 years). But they are always and
everywhere a few players short of the full boat. The Olympian gods (Jeremy
Jupiter, Hephaestus Harry, and Minion Mike) don't want to spend their
drachmas on mere mortals to win a silver bowl, as long as they can fill the
Acropolis with behinds and sell a lot of moussaka.
The two favorite arguments are that good trades are hard to find, and that
the Bruins don't want to give away their good young talent for high-priced
has-been losers. These are valid, but only to a point. After all, Jeremy
Jacobs and Harry Sinden aren't paying Mike O'Connell to graze at the buffet
table and run the elevator. Mike should be working the phones as hard as
Ray Bourque is working on the ice, don't you think? Deals were made all
summer, and deals were made during the season, often to great advantage, by
other clubs - some of them the same clubs that are threatening to bypass
the Bruins.
Toronto got Curtis Joseph during the off-season, and Florida's deal for
Pavel Bure during the season, are obvious, but not the only winners. After
all, Toronto got Bryan Berard from the Isles for Felix Potvin, and look at
how well that deal has worked out for New York. At that rate, the Bruins
could get Wayne Gretzky for Jim Carey (just kidding).
The Bruins need to make two deals. They need to make one deal now to stay
in the hunt. They need one quality NHL-proven winger with a scoring touch
to legitimize the second line. This may cost them draft picks or young
talent, or maybe they can find a team that can't put together a healthy
goalie who will take Jim Carey and cash. Such a team might be Calgary, who
have six goalies on the books, and though one or two can still skate, none
are imposing. So package Theo Fleury (who is on the trading block) and an
injured Andrei Trefilov (so the Bruins have a leftover veteran to expose to
expansion) for Jim Carey, a wad of Delaware North dollars (always tempting
to a small market Canadian team) and a Providence teenager or two. The
addition of Fleury would jump the Bruins four slots in the standings by the
end of the season, barring injury.
The second trade is for a proven sniper, in March before the deadline, with
one of the goners - teams without a playoff prayer. This should be a "pull
out the stops" trade that announces to the league that the Bruins are
serious for once. If the Bruins could pry, for example, Tony Amonte from
Chicago (promise them anything, with the payoff next year - future
considerations, they call it), they would be an instant contender. Maybe
not strong enough to beat Dallas in a final, but anyone else would have
their hands full.
Chicago is hurting worse than Boston was two years ago, even if they
haven't fallen into last place quite yet - they need to bite the bullet and
rebuild young. Besides, the Bruins are cursed never to win the Stanley Cup
until they avenge themselves on Chicago owner Bill Wirtz for stealing Bobby
Orr (which was the Hawk's revenge for Boston stealing Tony Esposito), and
this trade would cancel out that day of infamy quite nicely. Or at least it
would shift the curse back west where it belongs.
So maybe Amonte is a pipe dream. There are half a dozen other teams that
will need a good excuse for existing in March. A trade with Boston to
rebuild their club, while getting rid of Peter Pricetag, whose salary was
the real reason that tickets went up and the team went down, would do the
trick for the local talk radio denizens. Vancouver, Washington, Tampa, the
Rangers, the Sharks and Kings - all are potential trading partners. Just
one caveat - take anybody except Mats Sundin - the guy has All-Star
credentials but he is the captain of Team Albatross - every team he plays
for bites, and then becomes a contender a year or so after he is traded
away. Sorry, Sharks, you are stuck with him.
Something to ponder: is Byron Dafoe the best goalie in the NHL with a
losing record (16-17-7)? And don't give me that Mike Vernon (13-15-8) or
Ollie Kolzig (17-20-1) malarky. Mike Richter (17-20-5)? Nah, though he
gets points for playing on the New York Underachievers in front of those
charming MSG fans. Though you have to consider the job Mike Dunham
(11-11-2) is doing for Nashville. He's not a losing goalie, you say? Wait
a while. Byron has a much better chance of getting to the positive side of
the ledger than Predator Mike has of staying there.
