Ryder/By S. Bradley
WILMINGTON, Mass. — If today’s practice lines at Ristuccia Arena are any indication of which way head coach Claude Julien is leaning for his playoff lineup, the battle to be the 12th forward might be a two-man battle.
Tyler Seguin and Michael Ryder today skated on the third line alongside Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley. Daniel Paille was ensconced on the third line with Gregory Campbell and the recovering Shawn Thornton.
Ryder has been skating on the fourth line since Thornton was cut above the eye and required around 40 stitches against Chicago last week.
Once Thornton gets back, someone will have to be a healthy scratch. Seguin skated just around eight minutes in the loss to the Rangers last night.
Published By mattk Tue. April 5, 2011 12:07 pm EDT
Paille needs to be on the 3rd line. The way he’s playing he deserves it. That would be a great “heart filled” 3rd line. Ryder goes the 4th line and Tyler sits. He doesn’t have the bulk yet. Bring Tyler back in to match the Hab’s speed and Ryder sits. You know Ryder likes to play against the Habs, and you gotta fire him up somehow. Julien’s gotta do a better coaching job. That Rangers game, all on him.
MCK – I’ll agree to disagree, but I want to point out a few things:
1) How on earth can anyone make the comparison of Ryder to a top offensive player in the league? We are talking about a 3rd line player! Somewhere in the vicinity of 40-50 pts in a season is fairly productive for someone on a 3rd line. And, not surprisngly in ’08 he had 53, ’09 33, and this year 40+. All in, he’s about where he should be on average.
That said, I think most people had envisioned a more productive player due to the size of his contract. He is not worth $4M/year and will not get that from the B’s or anyone else next year, period. So if anything, I blame management, not Ryder for setting the level of expectations.
2) I agree with your statement about the label of being a sharpshooter. Yeah he’s got a decent shot and like anyone else can score some goals, but for a guy who has never surpassed 30 goals in his career the sharpshooter label makes little sense to me.
3) Why do I support him? It’s fairly straightforward: he’s capable of being a decent 3rd line player and I’d rather bet my chips on that than a young player who needs more time to develop. For the same reasons I didn’t get down on Horton or Lucic when they hit their cold spells earlier in the season, I see no reason to kick Ryder in the nuts because he hit a soft patch. And for once I actually agree with something Julien did by making him sit in the corner and count to ten.
So the ball is in Ryder’s court now. One would hope that in a contract year, he has the motivation to come out and skate a full 60 minutes for the rest of the season and into the playoffs. If not, management has every reason in the world to drop him like a bad habit at the end of the season. If he does pull through, I would have no problem with him back on the team for a more realistic contract that in my view would be just north of half of his current salary.
Regardless, this is a good debate and it is easy to see both sides of the coin.
Tongue –
Look, he has been here for three years. The overwhelming body of work in those three years, including basically two whole seasons, shows that his performance in the playoffs one time last year is the exception and not the rule. I don’t expect him to play that way going forward. I saw enough of him in Montreal and now in Boston to know that he is lifeless, stupid and lazy. That is not who I want. This sharpshooter label he has received is garbage. He will fall short of 20 goals 2 out of the 3 years of his time here. He had 33 total points last season and will finish just north of 40 this season. His whole job is to play offense. The best offensive players in this league have almost as many points in one season as Ryder has had in the last 3 combined. Being 5th on this team in goals is also meaningless to me. His play has been below average for the majority of the 6 month season. I watch every single game. In very few of them am I willing to say that Ryder had a good game in toto, let alone a 60 minute, every shift effort.
I don’t know, but am willing to bet, that if they gave the same ice team and insanely long leash to Seguin all season, that he would have 18 goals. He has 11 and he spent most of the time playing with 2 offensively challenged (albeit terrific) players in Thornton and Campbell.
Agree to disagree, but it just seems inconceivable to me to support a player who seemingly tries when he feels like it. I would rather play youthful exuberance in the playoffs and bet on the unknown that is Seguin than put Ryder in there and get what I know I am going to get, which is sub-par
I hope to god almighty that I am wrong. It would be terrific if Ryder went off in the playoffs. I just don’t see it.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats.htm?fetchKey=20112BOSSASAll&sort=plusMinus&viewName=plusMinus
Ryder and Seguin are both “deserving” of a seat. here’s hoping they have to compete for that spot every day from here out. Ryder’s next team knows he won’t try at all until a week before the postseason and then he’ll suddenly remember how to hit and chase and scrap and skate. he and Julien need a divorce.
Between Ryder & Seguin? Depending who the opponent will be, Thornton could easily be in the stands once in a while. There are basically no fights anymore in the playoffs: Hawks won without a single one last year. Even if Shawn scored several impressive goals this year, if the Bruins are desperate for offense at some point in the playoffs, they’ll go with a lineup with as much offensive weapons as possible so with Ryder & Seguin.
MCK – Yes I have seen Ryder play quite a bit considering I’ve been a season ticket holder for years.
How did I ignore his play over the past 6 months? I acknowledged he has been in a slump.
Why don’t we turn the question around and ask you if you have seen him play and are you turning a blind eye to his play in the past 6 months and narrowly focusing on a specific part of the season?
Obviously you are unwilling to give any credit to the fact that he is 5th on the team in goals scored and tied for first on the team in terms of power-play goals.
And what I’m saying is that those stats combined with his playoff experience makes him a better candidate to be on the 3rd line than a young kid with worse stats and no playoff experience.
I’d also add that I too get very frustrated with his lack of enthusiasm sometimes. But when the guy plays (which is why I think Claude has been pushing buttons lately), he is at least a top 9 forward for this team.
And there is no need for anyone to bring up his bum contract. Clearly he’s not worth $4m/yr. The fact of the matter is that topic is compltely irrelevant from now until he is re-signed or released at the end of this season.
MCK. couldn’t agree more.typical bruins play not to loose instead playing to win..Claude sucks
Ryder gets the nod in the playoffs over Seguin due to experience and past production. That being said, IF he shows any sign of slacking off / indifferent play, then I would think Clod will insert Seguin. I really like Seguin LT, but dont this his compete and strength levels are ready for what is required in the playoffs.
TongueJones, Ryder played well in the first round each of the last two years but not the 2nd rounds and Carbonneau barely played Michael in 08′.
My point is Ryder in the last 22 games hasn’t done anything IMO to knock Seguin out of the lineup. So yes you and Julien will get your way for now Seguin will get his playoff experience next year when Claude is gone.
Paille needs to be in the lineup, he’s perfect for the fourth line. I don’t think Julien would sit Thornton because of his leadership and how well the 4th line forechecks together. To me it comes down to Seguin and Ryder. Sad to say Ryder is a better player than Seguin right now and has more experience, I’m really happy Seguin got some 3rd line time down the stretch but that doesn’t mean I think he’s playoff ready. Sometimes Ryder does nothing to contribute, but Seguin might not contribute and he’s prone to making bad decisions that I have not seen Ryder make. I’m a Seguin fanboy for sure but Ryder makes more sense to me for the playoffs……P.S. Claude please get some players like Bergy/Chara/Recchi/Thomas a rest these games mean nothing.
Have you ever watched Ryder play? You are going to ignore his play over the last 6 months and assume he is going to play as he did last April and May?
SanDog – so what you are saying is give Seguin experience this year even though you have better players available? I’d like to see someone like Recchi’s take on that because he of all people would conclude that statement makes absolutely no sense.
It’s amazing how people forget the long stretches of minimal output both Lucic and Horton provided earlier in the season. And in both cases, I don’t believe either saw play below the second line.
Last year Ryder played well in the playoffs. This year, despite his recent stretch of underproduction, he’s still 5th on the team in goals and 8th in terms of points.
Why anyone would want to bench him when his statistics would put him on par for a very strong third line player is beyond me. Especially in the context of a player with playoff experience against the alternative of a player with no playoff experience and worse statistics.
I would take anyone over Ryder. Julien doesn’t get it and he will probably have that same look on his face when he is fired
If Julien is trying to please fans, he’s in a tough situation. Seguin doesn’t have playoff expereince and really lacks the physicality necessary for him to do well. He has been good for the past 10 games (except for this past one) but he has not really been physically challenged, or if he has, he has lost. Not a knock on his effort, but that’s the truth. I do feel that Julien will use Seguin as a motivational ploy to his currently comfortable forwards to try and motivate them out of their Glyder mentality.
That said last night was disgraceful and should never have happened. Even if we don’t know what’s going on in the locker room, that can’t be acceptable on any team, whether or not we have our division locked up.
Hey bruin fans aren’t you sick of players like kelly pallie.You have seguin contiue to get the shit end of the stick no matter what.Big deal pallie has what 5 goals kelly one as a bruin.The rangers are a mirror image of the bruins,Hard working scrappers with a great goaltender.Problem is most bruin fans look at the team weak to weak.yah there great if they win 3 in a row they suck if they loose 3 in a row.Lets face it until they let players like seguin play there game (not claudes) They may have a chance.Maybe we can win every playoff game 1 nothing
I think there is no reason to believe we won’t see all these guys during the playoffs. No need to have the same healthy scratch unless you are winning every game. I think we will see the rotating door on forwards continue into the playoffs. Although I do believe Seguin will sit first unless the next few games go different for him.
Ryder scores twice in 22 games then gets rewarded that’s quite a message to send Julien. Best scenario that could happen this summer Sather lets Torts go, Chiarelli finally realizes Claude’s time is up which then means finally the Bruins are rid of Glyder. Tortorella would not put up with Micheal’s turn in on, turn it off play.
How does Seguin get the playoff experience he needs ? by playing. Tyler hasn’t done enough wrong things to warrant the benching. Julien acts like Seguin has cost the Bruins games to no avail though Claude likes his “Whitfield’s” of the hockey world.
segzy is the weak sister come playoff time. paille and thornton have too much heart and ryder too much upside.
This is a tough call. There is no question that Thornton gives you his full effort each and every time he steps on the ice and I’m certainly a fan. It will interesting to see how Claude handles this issue. Ryder is so hot and cold. At times he displays that “sniper” ability and at other times he looks uninspired and disinterested. I wonder how much pressure is coming from the front office to play Ryder as it hurts the purse to have 4 mil on the bench.
I bet moving Ryder to the 3rd line is something that will stick through the playoffs. As much as people want to criticize him, at this stage he is a better asset than Seguin, particularly come playoff time.
Putting Ryder together with Peverley and Kelly should create some opportunities.
That said, I kind of liked the way Ryder, Paille, and Campbell had been playing together.
Now the issue becomes what to do with Seguin – same problem they had with Ryder on line 4. It really comes down to Seguin or Thornton given how well Paille has been playing as of late.