Every week, The Lineup will take a comprehensive, numerical and often uproarious look back at the previous week of Bruins action both on and off the ice.
We'll run through the highlights of the last seven days, exploring the main themes, the standout players and the odd occurrences that make hockey so great.
Without further ado, let's get this party started:
Let's start in goal, where much of the talk about the Bruins over the last week has centered. Is it possible that a rookie netminder is supplanting the reigning Vezina Trophy winner between the pipes?
It's possible, yes. But is it so viable in the longer term that Tuukka Rask will take over permanently and Tim Thomas will be traded? In two words, nuh and uh.
Yes, the 22-year-old Rask has been hot as of late, starting the last four games for the Bruins and taking points from each of them (he and the team are 2-0-2 going into Thursday's tilt in Tampa). Despite his so-so 12-7-4 record on the season, Rask is second in the NHL with a 2.01 GAA and is tied for first among all goaltenders with a .931 save percentage. Solid stuff.
But does that mean the Boston brass should give up completely on Thomas? No.
Though many have seen him as the likely backup to Buffalo's Ryan Miller on the U.S. Olympic team, few saw Thomas as the second-stringer on his own team — certainly not entering the season. Coming off his Vezina-winning and first-team All-Star campaign in 2008-09 in which he led the NHL in goals-against average and save percentage, Thomas has been relegated to backup duties of late.
B's coach Claude Julien seems to believe, though, that this situation is less a case of Rask overtaking Thomas and more a case of his team simply riding the hot goaltender until his luck runs out. Of course everyone in New England is hoping that Rask's streak continues for as long as possible — even Thomas, in all likelihood, because it means that the team is winning games.
But Rask's success this season will eventually taper off (if not end completely) and Thomas will be there to pick up the slack. As NESN.com's James Murphy suggested on Wednesday night's SportsDesk, having two capable goaltenders down the stretch should prove to be a win-win situation for the Bruins.
Next, it's time to delve into the Bruins' defensive ranks.
With all of the talk about last season's Vezina winner not playing like one this season, few have made the same argument about last year's Norris Trophy winner, Zdeno Chara. But the 6-foot-9 Slovak Olympian-to-be has struggled at times this year and — perhaps due to his broken pinkie finger — has disappeared for long stretches from the B's offense.
The good news is that he's gotten far more involved in recent days. In fact, he's even spending more time in front of net, trying to shield the goaltender and use his physical advantage to benefit the team, especially on the power play.
"We want our D's to support, we want our D's in there," Julien said recently of Chara's prowess down low. "I guess it's about picking the right time. … We [haven't seen] any outnumbered situations, so it's guys really trying to create as much offense as they can."
Creating more offense is key, and Chara is doing it. Entering Thursday's play, Chara was in the midst of a three-game point streak, a feat that may seem like small potatoes with players like Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby lighting it up on a nightly basis. But getting Big Z on the score sheet is significant for the B's: The team is 16-6-4 this season in games in which Chara records a point.
After getting called out by his coach last month, many wondered if Dennis Wideman would step up his game. He seemed to understand that he was underachieving and knew that only he could do something about it.
"I know what I need to do," he said at the time, "and I just need to go out there and do it. That's all I can really say."
Though Wideman has assists in two of his last five games, it's safe to say that we're all still waiting for him to turn things around. Since Jan. 1, Wideman has just one goal and three assists in 18 games and is playing at a -15 clip. On the season, he's -16, the 14th worst rate in the entire league.
Let's now consider some left-wingers. Milan Lucic, for example, was the toast of the town following his oh-so-solid sophomore season in Boston. He lit the lamp 17 times, added 25 assists and simultaneously excited fans and frightened opponents with his 136 penalty minutes and his propensity for punching. He even signed a three-year extension on Oct. 6 worth a reported $12.25 million over three years.
But 2009-10 has been a different story. Lucic has missed a total of 32 games already with a high ankle sprain and a fractured finger. On the positive side, Lucic has played in the last 16 games without injury — knock on wood. But his production has remained down, posting just three points in that stretch of games.
On the other hand, if the Bruins knew Daniel Paille would play so well against his old team, maybe they should have scheduled more games in wintry Buffalo this season. With his two goals in Tuesday night's shootout win over the Sabres, Paille snapped a seven-game scoreless stretch
Moving right along to the center position, Marc Savard has upped the ante over the last several weeks. He has a very respectable goal and 14 assists in his last 16 games. And like Chara, as Savvy goes, so goes the Bruins offense: The team is 13-4-3 this season when he records a point.
And we here in Boston have seen signs of Savard breaking out, but when he's on, he's truly one of the league's finest centermen. In fact, Savard ranks fourth in the entire NHL in assists over the last five seasons.
Another vital cog in the B's "O"? David Krejci, who will head to Vancouver this weekend as a member of the Czech Republic Olympic squad, has also shown signs of heating up, but he's still not up to last year's snuff. In 2008-09, Krejci led the NHL in plus/minus at +37. So far this year, he's -4.
Finally, we arrive at the right wings, where Blake Wheeler and Michael Ryder have both been bandied about as possible trade pawns in Boston deadline deals.
But they both seem to be stepping up their play of late. Wheeler, for example, earned his first NHL fighting major on Sunday in Montreal as he took on Ryan O'Byrne — getting in a few punches, before realizing he was seriously overmatched, and falling gently to the ice. It was a move reminiscent of the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: "OK, we'll call it a draw."
Ryder, too, despite being snake-bitten with just 13 goals and nine assists so far this year, hasn't stopped trying. He's taken 21 shots in his last five games. And as the great Wayne Gretzky once said, "You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take."
