Now the Bruins have just three games left in the regular season to get back on track and sort out any lingering issues before the postseason begins. And I’ve got just one more regular-season mailbag left to sort through all your questions before the playoffs.
As always, I’ve done my best to answer as many of your questions as possible in this week’s edition of the Bruins Mailbag. I’d like to thank all the readers who sent in questions and apologize in advance if I wasn’t able to get to yours. Please keep submitting your questions and I’ll get to as many of them as I can as we head into the playoffs.
1. After seeing what happened [Monday] night, my question is: What steps has the team taken over the last year to address their propensity to choke under pressure? Because of all the teams to choke in front of, Montreal is the worst and I have to admit, I’m a little worried now.
— Reggie
Monday’s collapse against the Rangers is certainly a cause for concern. For most teams, a loss this late in the year with nothing really at stake after clinching the division title wouldn’t mean a whole lot, even with the horrendous fashion the club fell apart in the third period. But with the Bruins’ history from last year’s playoff collapse, it does raise some questions. Claude Julien after the game and the players after Tuesday’s practice talked about learning from it and how it was better to get that lesson now than in the playoffs. But it’s hard not to wonder why another such lesson would even be necessary after how last year ended. I wouldn’t overreact to one game and the Bruins still have three matchups left to clean up their game and build some momentum for the postseason, but that kind of a loss is certainly not what Boston needed given the backdrop of last year’s ending and the fact that they are going to be constantly reminded of that Philadelphia debacle once the playoffs arrive.
2. Did the Bruins give up too quick on Mark Stuart? Watching him play Saturday made me say “why don’t we get players like that?”
— Sheazo
I don’t think the Bruins gave up on Stuart at all. They weren’t looking to dump him. It was a situation where they needed to clear cap space to make room for Tomas Kaberle and someone on the back end had to go. With Stuart a free agent after the season and Adam McQuaid emerging as a younger, cheaper alternative in that same mode of a physical, stay-at-home defender, Stuart was both expendable to the Bruins and attractive to a team like Atlanta that lacked that element on their blue line. It also didn’t hurt that Thrashers coach Craig Ramsay was very familiar with Stuart from his time as a Bruins assistant, which no doubt increased Atlanta’s interest in the defenseman.
3. Will the Bruins try putting Chris Kelly on the fourth line with [Greg] Campbell and [Shawn] Thornton so that the third line could be [Tyler] Seguin-[Rich] Peverly-[Michael] Ryder? That third line just isn’t producing right now.
— SHO
I’ve written numerous times that I thought moving Kelly down to the fourth line would be an alignment I’d like to see at least tried, but I honestly don’t see it happening at this point. Julien really likes Kelly and Peverley together and they do seem to be finally developing some chemistry, while Daniel Paille has really improved his play of late and no longer is an obvious candidate to be scratched. With Thornton about to return, Ryder was back up with the third line in practice on Tuesday and I think it’s quite possible that Seguin will be the odd man out in the postseason. His talent is tantalizing, but he really hasn’t done enough to warrant a lineup spot at this point in his career. That bottom six will likely see plenty of moving parts as Julien tinkers with the combinations, so it’s possible the lines you’re looking for will eventually get a look, but likely not until a few other combinations get a shot first.
4. What the hell is the league going to do regarding the shootout? I really hope they decide to implement a second, 3-on-3 overtime if they plan on keeping this shootout crap around. I liked the idea of a sure winner in each game originally, but it has become unbearable to watch. I’m sure they did not intend every friggin’ game to end in a shootout when they were drawing it up. It’s such a shame too, because I personally would much rather see a game end on a hockey play, not some gimmicky skills competition. The shootout drains the team aspect from the most team-oriented game on the planet. I just don’t see the use for it anymore. The league really needs to change it up for next season. 4-on-4, 3-on-3, then a shootout. I guarantee this will have fans more interested and leave more of us satisfied after a game.
Also, is there any potential for a change to the icing rule? I think that if a puck is iced but goes through the ‘trapezoid’ area it should not be ruled icing. There is no reason a goalie can’t step out to get the puck since it is so close to them. They should be forced to play the puck in these instances and it will likely lead to more scoring chances on both sides of the ice.
— Chris B.
I usually edit down some of the longer questions, but that was a rant worth sharing. I agree with just about everything you say about the shootout except that I never liked the idea, even when it was first introduced. Unfortunately, I don’t see the shootout going away anytime soon. I do like the fact that the league has tried to reduce the impact of the shootout, as shootout victories no longer count toward a team’s win total in the first tiebreaker to determine playoff seeding. Whether it’s because of that change or purely coincidental, shootouts are actually down quite a bit this year. There have been just 146 shootouts this season through Monday, down from last year’s high of 184 and on pace for the lowest total since the 145 in the first year of the shootout in 2005-06.
As for your icing idea, that’s where you and I will have to agree to disagree. I don’t like the trapezoid and think goalies should again be allowed to play the puck outside of that area, though I also believe players should be allowed to hit goalies legally when they are outside of the crease. But waving off icings for pucks that go through that trapezoid seems to me like it would just be inviting defenders to dump the puck the length of the ice all game long like you see when teams are shorthanded, and that would greatly reduce offensive chances.
5. With Tyler Seguin obviously not ready to make an impact this year in the playoffs, do you think Bruins management regrets not matching Phil Kessel’s contract offer from the Leafs? With his excellent play of late after a horrible start, he is one of only seven current NHLers to have now scored three consecutive 30-goal years at the young age of 23, and has been a much [more] all-around player since the all-star break while also adding a playmaking element to his game. In my opinion, when you add Kessel to [Nathan] Horton, [Patrice] Bergeron, [Milan] Lucic, and [David] Krejci, Boston would have been the team to beat in the Eastern Conference this year.
— Kessel
No, I don’t think Peter Chiarelli, Cam Neely, Claude Julien or anyone else involved in the Bruins’ brain trust has lost a single wink of sleep over not keeping Kessel. Not a one. He wasn’t a good fit here and didn’t want to stay here. The fact that the Bruins were able to land such a return for him just makes his departure more of a positive for Boston. Kessel gets his numbers, and I’ll admit he has turned his season around after the All-Star draft humiliation, but I’m not seeing this great all-around performer you talk about. He’s still a minus player (minus-21 for the season, minus-2 since the All-Star break). He still is not at all physical (10 hits all season). He’s one-dimensional. He’s very gifted in that one dimension, but he’s still a one-dimensional scorer all the same.
While I have been critical of Seguin’s play at times this year, I’ve also never doubted his talent. I am still confident that he will develop into at least as good a pro as Kessel, and has the potential to be significantly better. Add in Jared Knight, who is already among the Bruins’ top forward prospects, and another first-round pick that should be around No. 10 in this year’s draft, and the Bruins have no complaints about the return for Kessel.
And the final part of your argument is seriously flawed. If the Bruins had matched the offer and kept Kessel, they would not have been able to keep or add all the other players you have listed. They likely wouldn’t have traded for Horton, and despite his cold streak in the middle of the season, I’d much prefer having Horton, who brings more size, physical play and is a better fit in the locker room while scoring just five less goals than Kessel this year. The Bruins also would have been hard-pressed to sign both Lucic and Bergeron to their extensions with Kessel’s hit on their cap, and there’s no doubt the club is much happier keeping both of them around long-term.
6. Doug, with playoffs looming, and the need for the defense to get involved offensively, do you think that [Zdeno] Chara should be put with Steven Kampfer like he was earlier in the season? They worked very well together and, as much as I enjoy Chara and [Johnny] Boychuk being together, I’m worried about how they’ll work in the playoffs with Chara’s average passing.
— Bruinsfan33, Melrose
I don’t think Kampfer is going to see a lot of ice time in the postseason unless another defenseman is injured. After his strong start after being brought up in December (4-4-8 totals, plus-7 in his first 20 games), Kampfer’s play has really tailed off (1-1-2, plus-2 in his last 18 games). That’s not surprising for a kid who not only is a rookie, but a first-year pro just out of the college ranks. Kampfer’s future remains bright, but he’s hit a bit of a rookie wall, and I’m not sure the Bruins can count on him as a top-pairing guy in the playoffs at this stage of his career. Boychuk, meanwhile, has improved a lot of late after a pretty rough first half of the season. He’s already shown he can log big minutes in the postseason as he was very effective last year alongside Chara after Dennis Seidenberg went down just before the playoffs. I think the pairs we’ve seen of late — Chara-Boychuk, Kaberle-Seidenberg, Andrew Ference-McQuaid — are the pairs we’ll see to start the playoffs and that’s probably the strongest top six the Bruins have right now.
7. I’ve been noticing Chara bringing the puck into the zone a lot more over the last few games — sometimes taking it right to the goalie. While it hasn’t directly turned into goals, it’s generating chances. It seems like good things are happening when Chara decides to bring the puck in and show us some of his surprising stick-handling abilities. Is this by design or just a flukey series of games? Will we be seeing more of this? There’s something really exciting about the biggest guy in the sport barreling down the ice towards the goalie!
— Mike, Cambridge
I don’t think it’s an accident that Chara has gotten more involved offensively and he’s been pretty effective at it. I think because of his size his stick-handling ability is often overlooked, but he has some skill there. The best example was a couple weeks ago against the Devils when Chara weaved his way around a few defenders, drawing four players to him on a play that eventually led to a Lucic goal. As powerful as Chara’s slap shot is, he’s often even more dangerous on the power play when seeking in down low for back-door cuts. It’s not something he can do all the time, but Chara is smart enough to know when to pick his spots to jump up in the play and I do think we’ll be seeing more of that.
8. Hey Doug, what do you think about after the B’s win the Cup this season, the progression of the Cup being passed from Chara to [Mark] Recchi to [Patrice] Bergeron to [Tim] Thomas to start? Isn’t that such a great image to put in all of our puckhead minds?
— dave8576
Had to close on this one. Love the optimism Dave, especially with the black cloud Monday’s loss put over the team. I do think that Bruins fans should focus on just getting through at least a round or two of the playoffs before worrying about organizing the Cup passing. And I also think if the Bruins ever do get to that point after 39 years and counting, no one in Boston is really going to care who gets to lift it first, second or 23rd.
To submit a question to Douglas Flynn for future mailbags, click here. You also can ask Douglas a question via Twitter at @douglasflynn.
