Seidenberg/By S. Bradley
VANCOUVER – Even if the Bruins rally in this series to win the Stanley Cup, they should find a way to prevent the power-play performers from fully participating in the parade.
Maybe anyone on Boston’s “putrid play” has to ride a Duck Boat that doesn’t go in the water, or has to ride behind a Duck Boat in an air-conditioning-less jalopy.
The Bruins might deserve to beat Vancouver, but their power play just doesn’t belong anywhere near the Cup.
Practically every playoff victory the Bruins have recorded, including in the Stanley Cup Final, has been in spite of their inability to do anything 5-on-4. And tonight in Game 5 at Rogers Arena, they again lost a game that easily could’ve turned in their favor with just one goal or even a hint of pressure from their man-advantage.
“They came hard at us on the PK,” said winger Michael Ryder after Boston dropped the game 1-0 to fall behind, 3-2, in the series heading to Game 6 in Boston Monday. “And the ice is not the greatest, so when we don’t make a good pass, they jump us. It’s all about us bearing down and making sure we do make a good, hard crisp pass and move the puck well. We didn’t really do that and we’ve got to make sure we bounce back and regroup on that.”
A visiting team playing in such a pivotal team couldn’t have asked for a better gift than three power plays in the games first 14:13 and four in the first 24:18 before the home-standing Canucks received their first man-advantage. That is, a visiting team other than the Bruins, who now are clicking at just a 9.76 success rate on the power play.
It’s not just the lack of goals from Boston’s power play, it’s the lack of anything resembling an attack. The Bruins couldn’t even set up in the Canucks’ zone, where Boston was trying to establish a net-front presence by replacing Rich Peverley with Gregory Campbell on one of the units. One can argue that taking the hot hand of Peverley – two goals in Game 4 – off the man-advantage and inserting the fourth-liner Campbell is equivalent to sabotage. But it doesn’t really matter considering the inability of Boston’s point men – Zdeno Chara, Andrew Ference, Dennis Seidenberg and Tomas Kaberle – to get the puck anywhere near the front of the net. Even Phil Esposito himself couldn’t score from the slot without the puck being there.
Seidenberg was frustrated by his and his teammates’ play.
“If you want to take a shot, take it, if somebody’s in front,” said Seidenberg. “You want to move the puck first before you take a shot so you make them a little tired, so it’s a little harder for them to battle once there’s a battle created. So it’s all about moving the puck crisper.”
Not only were the Canucks not tired, they were energized by the penalty kills. Each one was rewarded with a giant standing ovation from the home crowd, and a couple were followed up by Vancouver scoring chances that Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas had to snuff out.
“We had some good chances. I had some good chances in front. I have to find a way,” said center Patrice Bergeron. “Maybe on their forecheck they were a little more aggressive. But it was more us tonight.”
So what to do now? That’s the question that’s been asked about the Bruins’ power play seemingly since the dawn of time, or at least since Marc Savard was lost for the season due to injury. There’s not one player on the Bruins that can say he’s played his best on the power play with any level of consistency. That goes not just for the much-criticized Kaberle, but also for Bergeron, Chara and David Krejci.
Maybe they should try taking a penalty after they draw one. I bet the Canucks are thinking they could take a few extra ones if need be because of Boston’s ineptitude.
The Bruins got this far without a power play. So it might not cost them over the next game, or possibly two. If they fail to finish this job, the power play will bear the brunt of the blame and be a focus on general manager Peter Chiarelli’s fine-tuning this summer.
Even if they win it all, the power play won’t be something to be proud of. Maybe they can drop it to the bottom of the Charles and start from scratching during the celebration.
recchi is already thining bout retiring and shuswap lake.hes done cant claude find some legs for the second line.if thats the best you got ….. just sayin
How about getting some goals from Bergeron or Recchi. Bergeron had six shots. One point blank that needed to be elevated 14 inches and it’s in. How many goals would Patrice have if it wasn’t for a sieve in TB? Of course a five million dollar checker doesn’t have to score he’s just got to win faceoffs.
Thanks for the correction. I probably had my head in my hands at that point.
The Bruins did use their time out in the game 5. It was after an icing towards the end of the game.
That said-I do think time out management is poor. I sometimes think Julien thinks they carry over to the next game.
Not having tried Seguin and Marchand on the power play is absolutely disgusting. All the other stiffs have had ample time to succeed, but Lord
clodd knows without a doubt that those two suck. The next time they loose a 1-nil game without using a t.o. I will puke. He has been out coached in both 1-nil games. I will venture to say that not playing Seguin will come back to kill the Bruins.
It isn’t so much that I want power plays for the B’s-but more that I want the interference as a defense to be stopped. The Canucks defense pretty much is interference-okay maybe not that bad, but when the Canucks have good D I can almost guarantee that the majority of it is going to involve interference.
As for the Bruin’s PP-it sucks-it has sucked for most of the year and honestly seems to get worse. The problem IMO is the coaching, but they seem to just keep plugging away with the same thing and same players.
I would love to see Seguin and Marchand on the PP-shoot I think the PP is the one place where Seguin’s skills would shine and he would be unlikely to make the current PP worse-not sure it can get worse.
But I also don’t think they are going to fix it for these play offs-it is broken and they need to find a different coach who can do a better job than Ward.
mg, get used to him. He’s going to have a very long extension regardless out the outcome of this series.
Seguin will eventually be on your first line, Kaberle will be playing in the KHL, Recchi will be retired.
Regardless of whether you are cup champs or not, Chiarelli can make some adjustments to your lineup.
If the Bruins had an average PP, the parade would already be planned and the cup would be in Boston. Campbell on the PP and Seguin on the bench is baffling. I won’t even touch Kaberle, he’s a lost soul. Go B’s!
But seriously, his pp sucks and the cup should have already been won.
Ok I disagree with some of Claudes decisions, especially when it comes to Seguin, but seriously. He has the Bruins 2 wins away from the Cup, lay off the guy.
This is a winning formula- Marchand pp time- 4 seconds. Even Ray Charles could vision Marchand on the pp.
No excuse, the Bs will win two
You sound like one of those people that thinks if the Bs got 4 PPs then Van “deserves” the next one. A penalty is a penalty is a penalty. I think the refs did a good job last night. I also think that Van runs a lot of interference and picks. I also think Van dives and fakes injuries. Guys who do that shouldn’t win the cup.
Get ready for another thumping on Monday
MCK, TCL,
R U guys really complaining about the ref’s… Ummm you had 4 straight powerplays… O h yeah you need us to put the puck in the net for you…
Come on Guys the refs had will and always do miss obvious penalty calls for BOTH teams..
Next excuse?
They commit an interference play on every shift. Literally every shift. Picks and all kinds of stuff. It is driving me nuts. When the Bs do the same thing the Van player falls down and get a PP.
We are taking the next two. Screw Van
Oh and the Vancouver defense runs interference all the time at the blue line. They never, ever get called on it.
How does Geoff “power-play specialist” Ward still have a job? Oh that’s right he’s Clods’ buddy! The lack of any movement, or Seguin, on the PP comes back to Clod. God I wish this was his last season.
The problem is that if you do not make the Canucks pay on any of those first 4 consecutive power plays, they then get away with mayhem out there – see Torres, Rafi. After 4 the Canucks were going to have to commit an aggregious infraction to get called for anything. As they had that safety net and the game was still scoreless, they skated and hit relentlessly.
before the series, i posted that Claude’s decisions would be the biggest threat to Bruins success. Last night proved it in spades. First he had his team play cozy defense, no outright attack; second , even on the first three PP he had Seguin stapled to the bench.
The Bruins had Vancity by the throat. The physical play was wearing their D down, hell it was even disrupting the whole team. & what does Julien do? Eases up???
WTF is wrong with this picture. You have a team by their balls & you let them off the hook with that PUTRID play on Friday night.
No intensity, no forecheck, no cockiness, no rough stuff!!!!!!!
You don’t win a road game by letting the home team dictate the play. What happened to “Do it for Horton” mentality.
Julien’s constant wavering on style is what may cost the Bruins, & I hope not.
If Seguin only plays 4-5 minutes through 2 1/2 periods because of his inability to please the coach, Why does he play 5 of the last 9 minutes with the no.1 line? Someone Please explain. He is under contract for 2- years $900,000.00 plus a bonus clause. Why would they waste the time on The Kid?
Gotta agree on the hits thing. Although looks like Vancouver found a formula that works.
Will say that Torres lays some really questionable hits-he is going to seriously injure somebody before too long-just hope it isn’t during this series, because that means another Bruins player goes down.
He rides a fine line, and eventually he is going to cross that line and become the next Cooke.
I agree with Digger. The pp doesn’t matter much when you get outhit 47-27. The B’s were lucky to only lose by one since they wore their skirts to a game again. Gotta fix that if they get to game 7.
Did you see Campbell give the puck up over and over when he had to do something other than shoot it down the ice. I’m sure that’s why he got all that p.p time. Their pp sucks and so does ours. It’s not over.
Yeah-I think our PP is broken and it isn’t gonna get fixed this year. I think the coach in charge of coaching it does need to hit the road, but he should have hit the road before the end of the regular season when there was still time to work on it.
I think they can rework the lines and set ups, but I just don’t think our PP is going to come to life. The good news is our PP is still doing better than the Vancouver one-so there is that.
Game 5 of the SCF and our 2nd PP unit is Campbell, Recchi, Ryder. Amazing.
I’ve never seen a team dump and chase on the PP as a strategy, it’s embarrassing and it doesn’t work.
Here we go again.claude has a problem with the kid.I know his decision to play thorton worked out.but to continue to play his 4th lineres like 2nd liners is just un forgivable.I understand he wants to play a tough hard hit game.But vancouver out hit us last night.If i’m tyler im asking for a trade after playoffs.THere is nothing thats gonna chnage for him next year he’s not a CLAUDE PLAYER.I would like to know what was offered for tyler at this years trade deadline.If there not gonna use him maybe there were players that could of helped us against vancouver.Soo sick of watching pallie,cambell helping us not loose every night
From a coach’s/team’s perspective, I guess Old Style Pecking order at PP works when you’re building a dressing room, getting to know your assets, building a team identity, finding your player’s role during the course of a season etc…
One may want to explore a little more when trying to win a Stanley Cup. I cannot explain sitting Seguin on PPs otherwise. There’s obviously no easy answer on that one. A few lucky bounces here and there does not fit the bill here.
The B’s have managed to get to the SCF without a PP so I don’t expect one to suddenly emerge now. The Bruins have proven they can win without one. Tonight was dissapointing not for lack of PP success but for the lack of the physical, win at all costs, hard working play of the last couple games. The B’s consistently took hits and played conservative as if they were hoping Vancouver would tire themselves out. The Bruins have to find a way to play Boston Garden hockey at the Rogers Arena or a win on Monday will for naught.
Putrid? Why, because it wasn’t 8-0? They lost 1-0 on the road in a tight game where both goalies were playing well.
On paper, the Bruins aren’t even supposed to be able to hold up Vancouver’s jock strap and instead they have played either even back and forth hockey with Vancouver or have blown them out.
I just can’t figure out why the play is so different from arena to arena…
I know its been said a millions times, but seriously, why is Seguin not on the PP? I realize he doesnt get a lot of minutes because he’s a liability on defense, but that’s not a factor on the PP. It just blows my mind.