Bruins’ ‘Lefty Line’ confident playing together will work out right
Marchand/By S. Bradley
BOSTON — Patrice Bergeron’s absence and the Bruins’ decision to fill his spot on their second line with Chris Kelly has created a somewhat unusual situation on the club’s second line.
Kelly and wingers Brad Marchand and Mark Recchi are all left-handed shots. Despite the similarity between all the parties involved, the players don’t think it’ll be a problem.
“I don’t think so. When I come down the ice on my forehand, it’s always easier to make plays,” said Marchand after practice today at the TD Garden. “But [Kelly’s] the same way so he’s going to be looking at the same corner with me. He’s a lefty, Rex is a lefty so I think we just have to support each other and we have to know that most of the time we’re going to be coming in on our forehands. If we can read off that, then somebody should be able to pop out in the high slot at the right time.”
The hard-nosed nature of all three players probably makes what side they shoot from less important.
“You look at the pretty players, they seem to know if a guy is a lefty or a righty,” said Kelly. “When you’re working in the corner, you normally just make that play and the guy picks it up on his backhand or forehand. So I don’t see it being much of an issue.”
Head coach Claude Julien’s realigned lines also create an all-righty line with Michael Ryder, Rich Peverley and Tyler Seguin. The bench boss, however, isn’t too concerned that will impact his team’s performance.
“I mean they’re all lefties but I don’t think it’s a big, big deal. It’s what we miss in Bergie is probably the faceoff part of it. And not so much the fact that he was a righty playing with two lefties,” said Julien earlier this week. “And we’re going to be fine. I think that’s not the main issue right now. The main issue too is making sure that guys that we’ve moved around are fitting into those spots.”
If these lines click, the Bruins won’t be left behind and everything will be right in their world.
I think Kelly is a good backchecker and seems to play hard-I think Kelly will fill in okay-he won’t be Bergeron though and I don’t expect him to be. he just needs to be good enough to get the team into the offensive zone and look for scoring opportunities and be able to shut down the other team (and I think he has a pretty good defensive game).
I think face offs and PK are where the Bergeron absence is going to make or break the team. I think the other team has scored on the PP every single time Bergeron has been in the box. Our guys on the PK are really going to have to step up their games, although the best way to avoid the PK is to avoid taking penalties.
In the playoffs, Marchand has exceeded even our post- 7th Player Award expectations. Yet he has had a few turnovers now and then (one very important one in G4 of Round 2 that could have cost Bs the game). So I hope to see him step up now that Bergeron is out. I suspect that will mean keeping his emotions in check in terms of making good decisions, even though he is obviously at his best when ‘riled-up’.
I also hope to see Kelly step up and prove that he can do even more than he has done thus far. He was limited in his offensive duties before coming to Boston, so I think he might be able to do even more now, as he gets comfortable in his new role, and he might just defy that “poor man’s Bergy” image that bloggers have been expounding. Kelly’s a good 2-way player but he can also be very aggressive offensively; he has no fear when it comes to crashing the net and I foresee more great things. He isn’t a Bergy replacement. The play is going to change as a result of his presence and it might change in very positive ways, given the TBL match-up, and given their 1-3-1 style of play.
The Rooskies in the 70′s were the first team I saw use off hand wingers. It makes sense that when you come into the slot you are on your forehand. Some guys are better at it then others.