I feel like giving some end-of-period, in game thoughts tonight, so you are the beneficiary of those.
After a period of play the Devils hold a 1-0 lead which, frankly, doesnt at all represent the way play went in that first 20 minutes. Outside of the last 60 seconds, it really felt like the Bruins took a lot of aggressive and smart play to the Devils, keeping the puck in the NJ end for most of the game so far. Unfortunately, a bad decision by Shawn Thornton who was covering for a step up by Andrew Ference led to a three on one and a goal for the Devils.
What was really encouraging was our fore check and puck control in the offensive zone both even strength and on the PP. The Devils play a collapsing form of defense and this places the oweness on the offense to have awareness of open areas and quickly move the puck there to capitalize on excess space left by collapsing defenders. If you can also join this with a physical puck control style, you're in good shape to counter the Devils style of play. Overall, we did a great job of this, but none of the bounces went our way.
Props to Byron Bitz who looked like a dervish out there. It's too bad he got stuck with a minus one as the fourth line gave up the goal, because he played as well as anyone on the ice, particularly on a couple of shifts with his own possession displays down low (tiring out the Devils defenders).
One last thought on the first: Our PP may be turning a corner. Granted, when you're 2 for 27 in an 8 game stretch, calling a turnaround in that trend is the same thing as predicting that a pitcher will throw a strike on a 3-0 count (it's bound to happen eventually). Now that you're past that, let's see if the B's carry over the differences that they seemed to apply in their first man-advantage tonight to the next. For weeks they've been stuck in a rut, not willing to move away from the wing to D pass on the high point and playing a far-too-predictable drawn up play with no movement away from the puck. Tonight, they moved away from the puck, and were willing to drop passes down low opening up the high slot alot more. Let's hope this is a sign that practice is helping (otherwise, i'm gonna start blaming the coaching staff).
After a period of play the Devils hold a 1-0 lead which, frankly, doesnt at all represent the way play went in that first 20 minutes. Outside of the last 60 seconds, it really felt like the Bruins took a lot of aggressive and smart play to the Devils, keeping the puck in the NJ end for most of the game so far. Unfortunately, a bad decision by Shawn Thornton who was covering for a step up by Andrew Ference led to a three on one and a goal for the Devils.
What was really encouraging was our fore check and puck control in the offensive zone both even strength and on the PP. The Devils play a collapsing form of defense and this places the oweness on the offense to have awareness of open areas and quickly move the puck there to capitalize on excess space left by collapsing defenders. If you can also join this with a physical puck control style, you're in good shape to counter the Devils style of play. Overall, we did a great job of this, but none of the bounces went our way.
Props to Byron Bitz who looked like a dervish out there. It's too bad he got stuck with a minus one as the fourth line gave up the goal, because he played as well as anyone on the ice, particularly on a couple of shifts with his own possession displays down low (tiring out the Devils defenders).
One last thought on the first: Our PP may be turning a corner. Granted, when you're 2 for 27 in an 8 game stretch, calling a turnaround in that trend is the same thing as predicting that a pitcher will throw a strike on a 3-0 count (it's bound to happen eventually). Now that you're past that, let's see if the B's carry over the differences that they seemed to apply in their first man-advantage tonight to the next. For weeks they've been stuck in a rut, not willing to move away from the wing to D pass on the high point and playing a far-too-predictable drawn up play with no movement away from the puck. Tonight, they moved away from the puck, and were willing to drop passes down low opening up the high slot alot more. Let's hope this is a sign that practice is helping (otherwise, i'm gonna start blaming the coaching staff).
End of Second Period: Tied at 1 a piece.
You can see I'm running a diary of "Devils Suck" photos tonight. It really soothes the soul. Another very good period of hockey. A bit more even, but ironically, the Bruins get a goal back following another decent powerplay with Bergeron scoring his fourth of the year. Thomas is looking very good tonight, and necessarily so, of course. It goes without saying that they need him to be on top of his game for the next 4-6 weeks until Savvy and Looch return.
The B's outshot the Devils 13-10 that period and its 25-23 overall now. For a game between these two teams, that is a helluva good dip, er, i mean a helluva lot of offense. Speaking of offense, the three Bruin forwards on the ice for the goal were Ryder, Bergeron and Sturm. I'm sure i'm not alone in saying i really like that line and would think that we could benefit from seeing them together alot more in even strength situations.
One other though, Bob Sweeney just made Kathryn Tappen look retarded, twice. The first time, he hadn't even spoken yet. I'm pretty sure she took that granny outfit off for him before the game.
After Game Thoughts: That guy up there really sucks. Yikes. Can you imagine what his kids look like?
Just a tough loss. I thought we outplayed NJ all night. Sometimes that's not enough. We just missed a number of opportunities, none closer than Chara's deflection that rang off the cross bar with about 40 seconds to play. Forget about the fact that the Linesman just blew a call like he was trying hard to get into an amatuer porn. I won't even begin to say that we'd have scored, but it's a kick when you're down, nonetheless.
This is a team coming together though. Remember, coming out of October last year we were 5-3-3 and then went on a tear. I don't think they're about to do the same, but there's signs of hope.
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