Bruins' Disappointing Season Endures

NHL

By: Aaron Torres

Posted: 3/30/07

Early last week I decided to call the Boston Bruins' front office in hopes of getting a quote from a player for a story I was working on. Who the player was and who exactly I spoke with unimportant. What's important however was the response the front-office worker gave me.

When I asked why I couldn't speak with the player I had requested, his answer was simple: "Mr. _____ will not give personal interviews right now. Our organization is fighting for a playoff berth, and he feels it would be best not to put himself before the team."

My jaw hit the floor. I was speechless. Not because of the tone of voice on the other end of the phone - the man was very courteous - but because this guy actually thought Boston was in the playoff race.

Did I miss something? I mean seriously, does he think this is 1973 with Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito skating in the old Boston Garden? Has he actually watched this team? I'm pretty sure Team Iceland from "D2: The Mighty Ducks" could beat them.

Since the Bruins are the only team whose games are televised locally, I watch them quite often. And for those of you who missed the point earlier let me be blunt: they're bad. Very bad.

Not only is Boston virtually impossible to watch (I've never wanted to switch to a women's basketball game as badly as I did during a Bruins loss to the Rangers earlier this year), but statistically one of the worst teams in the East. They are currently third to last in the entire conference in goals scored, while sharing the dubious distinction of allowing the third most goals. During a five game losing streak that finally ended Tuesday night, the Bruins went a staggering 0-for-24 on the power-play, and are currently 3-6-1 in their last 10 games.

If that's not enough, in that five-game losing streak, they were shutout three times, gave up five unanswered goals to the Montreal Canadiens in 22 minutes, and gave up six goals in one period to the New York Rangers. To me this doesn't exactly sound like a team that is "fighting for a playoff birth."

Offensively, the team does little to get even the most adamant fan's blood flowing. Marc Savard is clearly one of the best passers in the game (70 assists good for third in the league), but doesn't have the talent around him that other great playmakers like Sidney Crosby and Joe Thornton do. Patrice Burgeron has come along nicely, but at 21 can't carry as much of a scoring load as he's being asked to this season.

Even though they can't score goals, Bruins goalies rarely give them a chance to win anyway. Tim Thomas, just like his namesake in the NBA is a journeyman who simply isn't talented enough to be a starter. Although he's done a commendable job, going 30-26-4, his 3.09 goals against average is hardly sparkling. Hannu Toivonen backed Thomas up for most the year and while he was supposed to be the goalie of the future - starting this year - wasn't able to put up the numbers he did last year. After a stellar 2005-2006, in which he went 9-5-0, was only 3-7-1 this season, while his GAA nearly doubled from 2.63 to 4.42. Toivonen is now with Boston's minor league affiliate, the Providence Bruins.

In Boston's defense injuries have plagued this team, with Glen Murray missing 16 games, which can of course be expected from a 34-year-old playing in his 14th NHL season. What was never expected, however, was the loss of Phil Kessel for a dozen games when he was suddenly and shockingly diagnosed with testicular cancer. Fortunately for the 19-year-old, he fully recovered and returned to the ice in early January.

Despite all this, there is a light at the end of the tunnel for Boston. Savard, at 29, is just reaching his prime and as Burgeron and Kessel mature, should have two premier scorers on his side. Zdeno Chara is still the most intimidating man in hockey, not to mention the most freakish thing to hit professional sports since Bill Cowher's chin - if I can loosely quote Jerry Seinfeld from the famous "Bizarro World" - episode of "Seinfeld", "I don't know whether to shake his hand or chain him to my refrigerator and sell tickets." And if Toivonen can ever get his head on straight, he could be a solid goalie in this league for a long time.

As for the present, there isn't much to cheer about in Boston. Although they haven't been formally eliminated from the playoffs, expect the Bruins to unceremoniously end their season as five of their last six games are against teams headed for one of the top five seeds in the playoffs. It was a long winter, and a summer of re-tooling might do this organization some good, although they're not in as bad a shape as many think. To all Bruins fans out there, keep your heads up, and remember no matter how bad things get, its only another five months until the second season of NESN's hit reality show, "Be A Bruin".

Aaron Torres' NHL column runs every Friday. He can be reached at aaron.s.torres@uconn.edu