Hunwick/By S. Bradley
WILMINGTON, Mass. – Probably the worst time in any sport to post a blatantly ugly stat is opening day.
Whether you go 0-for-5 at the plate or shoot 0-for-10 from the floor, you’re digging yourself a big hole right off the bat and attracting the fans’ eyes to your stat line right away.
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Hunwick/By S. Bradley
Except for only the most elite defensemen, the second NHL season for after a promising rookie campaign can often be filled with growing pains. After this year, Matt Hunwick might as well be an adopted member of the Seaver family.
There are a lot of different factors you could combine to come up with excuses for Hunwick’s decline. But the fact is, in a season when the Bruins need help from their back end for a weak offense, and suffered some key injuries to their blue-line corps over the course of the season, Hunwick skated in 76 games and didn’t step up to fill a void. (more…)
Hunwick needs to take a step forward/By S. Bradley
BOSTON – Life could be made so much easier for Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli if two defensemen that are already his property can develop into the type of two-way, puck-moving guys him and 29 other GMs are always shopping around for.
Mark Stuart and Matt Hunwick both emerged from the 2009-10 season after extremely different performances. If both can apply the lessons they learned this season in the near future, the Bruins could have two blueliners to build around for years to come. (more…)
Hunwick
WILMINGTON, Mass. – The turnaround of Dennis Wideman’s season has had such a car-accident-like effect on everyone’s attention, the coinciding improvement in his defense partner Matt Hunwick’s play has flown a bit under the radar.
And that’s just how the second-year blueliner likes it. (more…)
Hunwick
BOSTON — It was time to wish Matt Hunwick a Happy Anniversary today, but the Bruins’ defenseman didn’t even know it was an important occasion.
One year ago today, Hunwick was rushed from Ristuccia Arena in Wilmington, Mass., to the hospital to have his spleen removed. Hunwick had been feeling discomfort since Game 1 of the Bruins’ series with Montreal two days earlier and it finally became unbearable. The surgery was successful and Hunwick made a full recovery, although he didn’t return in time to rejoin the Bruins during their playoff run. (more…)
Hunwick
It’s back to life, back to reality for Boston Bruins defenseman Matt Hunwick.
Entering his second full NHL season, this will be Hunwick’s best shot to be a regular fixtured on the Bruins’ blue line. And, more importantly, the splenectomy he underwent last spring — which kept him out of action during the final three games of the Montreal series and the entire Carolina series — is as far in the rear-view mirror as possible. (more…)
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Defenseman Matt Hunwick has come a long way since his emergency splenectomy in the days after Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal playoff series with Montreal.
Health-wise, he’s 100 percent and “training just as hard if not harder than last summer.” And now, contract-wise, he’s a millionaire after signing a two-year deal worth $2.9 million as a restricted free agent yesterday. (more…)
Hunwick
And then there was just one — restricted free agent remaining for the Boston Bruins to re-sign, that is.
Today defenseman Matt Hunwick left winger Phil Kessel as the only player on the Bruins’ to-do list by signing a new two-year deal, which is worth a reported $2.9 million total. (more…)
Versteeg
Former Boston Bruins draft pick Kris Versteeg, who was a restricted free agent, signed a three-year, $9 million deal with the Chicago Blackhawks yesterday. Some are figuring Versteeg is a solid comparable to Bruins restricted free agent winger Phil Kessel. So let’s take a look at the career numbers for both.
Kris Versteeg
Year GP G-A-Pts. +/-
07-08 13 2-2-4 -1
08-09 78 22-31-53 +15
Phil Kessel
Year GP G-A-Pts. +/-
06-07 70 11-18-29 -12
07-08 82 19-18=37 -6
08-09 70 36-24-60 +23 (more…)
Hunwick
Boston Bruins defenseman Matt Hunwick was one of 20 NHL players to file for arbitration by tonight’s 5 p.m. deadline.
The second-year defenseman and the Bruins can still continue to hammer out a deal before the hearins, which is scheduled to take place sometime between July 20 and Aug. 4. Last season, defenseman Dennis Wideman took a similar tact and agreed to terms with the club before actually going to arbitration.
Heading into the 2008-09 season, Matt Hunwick seemed like the Boston Bruins prospect that was most likely to have an impact at the NHL level.
A salary-cap crunch and a logjam on the Bruins’ back end delayed that impact for a little while, but by the end of the season Hunwick had solidified himself among the Bruins’ top six and was even earning power-play minutes. His value to the team was magnified after he underwent an emergency splenectomy and was unavailable to the Bruins for the Carolina series, during which Boston missed his presence moving the puck out of its own zone and creating on the man-advantage. (more…)
BOSTON — Riding the stationary bike and some light weight work dominates Matt Hunwick‘s activity time these days.
But the Boston Bruins defenseman isn’t complaining. He’s just glad to be able to do anything a couple weeks after his April 18 emergency surgery to remove his spleen.
“Good,” Hunwick said about his spirits these days when stopped in the Bruins’ dressing room after the team’s optional morning skate at TD Banknorth Garden. “It’s always fun watching our team win and it’s even better to be around the team now, where those first three games that I missed I was in the hospital and then I was back home. It’s great that I’ll be around for the games and I’ll get to travel on the road. I don’t want to be a distraction, but at the same time I’ll be able to be in the building, watch things firsthand. It’s going to be nice.” (more…)
