Coming out of a weekend when the team was espousing that they would take four points and then could get three points and ended up with only two points, it is not a surprise that the team has been put on notice that their current production and location in the Eastern Conference standings is unacceptable.
The team talked big before taking on the Ottawa Senators, a team in their division that is below them in the standings. As has happened all too frequently this season, the team allowed the Senators to score the first goal—thus once again playing catch-up hockey. The Bruins were able to get the go-ahead goal only to be tied at the end of the third which resulted in the game going to overtime; although it was hardly much of an overtime. Just 44 seconds into the extra frame the Senators were celebrating and the Boston Bruins were again taking a single point out of a game.
After the game, the team was under the microscope of the media wondering what was going wrong. Were they getting complacent in getting a point out of each game?
“Definitely not happy. Definitely not satisfied, I don’t think,” assistant captain Patrice Bergeron said. “I think that’s the last thing that we are right now and we’ve said that a lot before.”
Unfortunately though saying it before, the fact remains that the team has not come out strong in any of their recent games with the exception of the win over the Detroit Red Wings; a win that was missing both Milan Lucic and Bergeron. It was the first game in a long while in which it could honestly be said that the team played a hard, full sixty minutes.
Saturday morning before taking on the Senators in a matinee, defenseman Torey Krug was emphatic that getting four points on the weekend required getting two on Saturday. When that didn’t happen, it was hoped that they could rally and get the two points the following afternoon when they played on the road against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Adam McQuaid (Photo: Rhonda R. McClure)
“Obviously we got the one point which is better than not getting any, but at this stage we need two points in games and we need to consistently be getting two points to give ourselves a chance to move up,” newly returned d-man Adam McQuaid told The Pink Puck. “We have to get ready for Carolina [Sunday]. This will sting for a little bit here but again it’s a quick turnaround so we have a chance to rebound [Sunday] and we’ll have to do that.”
Unfortunately it was more of the same. Just 34 seconds before the end of the first period the Hurricanes were on the board with the first goal. The Hurricanes are in last place in the standings in the Eastern Conference and are not even at .500 in wins and losses. And somehow this team was able to score first, keep the Bruins off the scoreboard until 14:35 of the second period, and ultimately take the extra point when they won the shootout.
While there have been some positives in the Bruins game of late, there is still a lot of work to be done. Their inconsistency is not just a result of a lack of lucky bounces.
“There’s areas that we need to clean up,” McQuaid explained to The Pink Puck. “Just making simple plays; try not to turn over pucks as much in the neutral zone. I mean, really in all three zones we made some unnecessary turnovers, which normally we’re not a team that’s known to do so.”
Turnovers are becoming costly, as are the defensive breakdowns in front of their netminder. And while there have been games where Tuukka Rask has kept the team at just one goal down, there have been some breakdowns in his netminding that have allowed some soft goals. His response to such is to admit it was soft, but the lack of apparent concern—which could just be his way of not letting it get into his head—is a bit disturbing to those who are concerned about the downward trajectory of the team.
Charlie Jacobs
On Tuesday, it was announced that Delaware North had named Charlie Jacobs the CEO of the company’s Boston holdings which includes the Boston Bruins, TD Garden, strategic real estate interests and the company’s ownership share in New England Sports Network (NESN).
“Since 2001 I have called Boston and the TD Garden home, and I am humbled by the opportunity to lead Delaware North’s Boston Holdings,” said Jacobs. “The opportunity to lead three of New England’s most iconic brands – the Boston Bruins, TD Garden and NESN – along with our new development project is a significant one I do not take lightly.”
Nor does he take the current situation of the Bruins casually.
“I’d say without question this has been a very disappointing year,” Jacobs said during a press conference after his new position was announced. “It’s unacceptable the way this team has performed given the amount of time, money and effort that’s been spent on this team, to see it deliver the way it has is unacceptable.”
The most puzzling aspect of the Bruins current state of affairs is that the team is comprised of many ofthe same players who were present when the team took it all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in 2011 to bring the chalice back to Boston. This is the same team that in 2013 fought to a Game 6 in the Stanley Cup finals that, after losing, revealed some serious injuries to key players.
Last season they earned the President’s Trophy, given to the team that is first in the NHL at the end of regulation. Unfortunately they fell in the second round of the playoffs to the Montreal Canadiens. Some players could not be brought back, but the “core,” as the leadership group is often referred, was intact. So what is wrong with the team?
Jacobs alluded to the fact that things are fluid right now in regard to decisions and that he does not have a ready answer. It is clear that he expects this team to perform. And given their leadership both on and off the ice it should be doing much better than it has.
The team recalled their first round pick from the 2014 NHL Draft, David Pastrnak, from Providence on Tuesday morning. He spent his time during the holidays representing the Czech Republic in the IIHF World Junior Championship. The Czechs fell to the Slovakians during the Quarterfinals and Pastrnak found himself back playing with the Providence Bruins this past weekend.
Pastrnak has skill, there is no question of this. However he is young at the age of 18 and a bit light in the weight department. His 6’ frame is only carrying 167 pounds at present, making him easy prey when out on the ice.
During Tuesday’s practice he was put on the line with Lucic, David Krejci and Seth Griffith. His skill certainly would serve well on this line, but Lucic is going to have to up his hit quotient to protect Pastrnak if that is the line where the teen plays, if he plays, on Wednesday when the Bruins visit Pennsylvania to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It is clear that something must change for the Bruins. The question right now is will they change it themselves or will players or other personnel be moved to force changes.
Tuesday morning David Nonis, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs announced that they had relieved head coach Randy Carlyle of his duties. At present assistant coaches Peter Horachek and Steve Spott will handle the coaching of the team while the Club seeks a new head coach. The team is scheduled to take on the Washington Capitals on Wednesday.
Randy Carlyle (Photo: Arnold C., Wikimedia Commons)
At the time of this decision the Maple Leafs sit in fourth place in the Atlantic Division with 45 points, just one point ahead of the Boston Bruins—another struggling team, in the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Leafs have played 40 games (21-16-3) but have been struggling of late to maintain a lead in a game.
“I want to thank Randy for all of his hard work and dedication,” said Nonis. “It’s never an easy decision to make when changing your leadership but out team was not trending in the right direction and we felt an immediate change was necessary.”
This comes on the heels of discussion among NHL media that while the team was certainly having its issues, that they did not see any drastic action coming in the near future.
Carlyle was hired by the Maple Leafs on March 2, 2012. In his time behind the Leafs’ bench for 188 games he amassed a 91-78-19 record. However, the 58-year-old has coached 704 games to date between the Anaheim Ducks and the Toronto Maple Leafs and has a 364-260-80 overall record.
The Leafs have lost four of their last five games. In their win against the Boston Bruins they actually started up two goals and ended up going to a shootout. It will be interesting to see how the team performs against the Capitals, who sit in third place in the Metropolitan division just two points ahead of the Leafs. A win over the Washington Capitals could move them into the first spot of the Wild Card, provided the New York Rangers, who are playing the Ducks later on Wednesday evening, were to lose.
The game of hockey has changed in almost every aspect over the decades: from rules and equipment to techniques and strategies. Not only has the game evolved, but the fandom has transformed as well. Today, many fans may not even think about what the early fans’ customs and traditions were, but in this article we will take a look at the early hockey fans and compare them to today’s fans.
Today, hockey attracts many more fans than it did when things were first getting started. However, when the game was first getting started, a larger majority of the fans’ reason for attending was because they had high interest in the game and actually understood most of its concepts. Today, in a world where marketing has seemed to take over our world, the teams offer special prices and add various gimmicks to attract even more fans. With this in mind, there is now a higher percentage of fans who attend the game simply for the experience.
A larger percentage of the fans today come for reasons such as simply being able to say they attended a hockey game, because there was a special promotion, because their work or some other organization gave them tickets, or just because they needed some fun activity for a family outing. This causes the hockey organizations to employ other entertainment devices throughout the game for fans who don’t really know what is going on. They play comical videos on the big screen, offer the fans noisemakers and other toys with the team logos, and give them a variety of snacks to munch on.
Fans have even found other ways to entertain themselves while the game goes on. They try to start a wave, make funny posters, wait for cameras to make funny faces or show off dance moves, or they try to join the fans who know what’s going on and criticize the calls and copy what others are yelling. Some knowledgeable fans may find these activities annoying as they just want to watch the game. I used to sit near a guy who used to yell, “There’s no wave in hockey!” It’s definitely difficult to watch the game when someone keeps standing up in front of you.
I have personally been on both sides. I started going to games when I was eight and used to love all the gimmicks and barely ever paid attention to the game. After a few years passed and I learned more about the game though, I cared less and less about the gimmicks and just wanted to get back to the game. Nevertheless, all types of fans continue to come to games today and although some of today’s fans’ traditions may get annoying, they still adds to the teams’ support groups and help lead our favorite teams to victory. After all, the fans really are the teams’ 7th man and are responsible for energizing the team and keeping their hopes up. Early hockey may have had a larger majority of true fans, but it’s always nice to see growing interest in the game, even if some may not fully understand what is going on.
Not only has the fans’ behavior changed, but their attire has altered over the years as well. In the early days of professional hockey, the players dressed up less and the fans dressed up more. While the players weren’t wearing helmets, fancy padding, and uniforms professionals have today, the fans were dressing in nice hats, and their Sunday best. Nowadays, the fashion has reversed. The players now wear top of the line equipment, while the fans typically dress in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Today’s trend seems to be dressing as colorful and crazy as possible by painting your face, wearing wigs or crazy outfits and often sporting the same color as your team.
In the earlier days of hockey, going to a game was an event where you dressed in your best, and acted with more class than today’s fans. In these days it was common to wear a nice hat like a fedora. Around the 1950’s, fans even began participating in the tradition of the hat trick. If a player scored three goals during one game, fans gave up their hat to honor the player by tossing it onto the ice. You can imagine the difference of seeing a bunch of fedoras and fancier hats on the ice rather than tons of baseball caps. You can also imagine that the fans yelled a lot less and when they did they did not use as much foul language.
Hockey fans have changed a lot over the years in many ways, ranging from attendance, to behavior, to fashion. However, there is one aspect that has always been the same: fans come to enjoy a great game of hockey, spend time with good friends and support their favorite team. The fans may all have different stories and come from different walks of life, but during the game they are bonded by a single goal: to cheer the team on to victory . . . well . . . unless they’re rooting for the other team.
This past weekend the Northeastern University Huskies hosted the St. Lawrence University Saints in back-to-back games at Matthews Arena. These were the first two games for the Huskies who were just coming back from their holiday break, and it showed a little in their play on Friday night.
After the first game, Huskies Head Coach Jim Madigan admitted that he was pleased with his team’s efforts in the third period, but felt that they had made some serious mistakes earlier.
“I had to share with our guys; I don’t think we should be satisfied. That ugly area of our game in the second period of being undisciplined,” Madigan told reporters. “We’ve talked about it all year. We’ve gotten better over the last four or five games.”
Madigan was talking about how many penalties his team took. By the end of the second period they were down three goals—all three of which the Saints had converted on the power play.
“We’ve got to be smarter,” Madigan continued. “The enemy sometimes is us and it certainly was the case there with going down 3-0 and all three power play goals.”
Trevor Owens and Adam Reid (Photo: Rhonda R. McClure)
Co-captain Adam Reid admitted that their choices on the ice had a lot to do with the how the scoring started on Friday.
“We really don’t make it easy on ourselves, as you can tell. Most it has to do with discipline,” Reid said. “That second period we just played a lot of special teams and it’s hard to get our game flow going.”
However, it wasn’t all special teams that first night. During Friday night’s game Trevor Owens of the Huskies experienced the joy of getting his first collegiate goal.
“It’s huge. Getting that first one is… it’s always nice to get that monkey off your back,” Owens told reporters after Friday’s game. “You start playing with a little bit more confidence, and it’s not in the back of your mind as much. Getting that first one definitely felt great.”
There were a lot of penalties called on both teams in both games. Fourteen penalties were called between the two teams in Friday’s game—eight on the Saints and six on the Huskies. Eleven were called during Saturday’s game –six on the Saints and five on the Huskies (one of which was a bench minor for too many men on the ice).
The need to use special teams affects any team at any level. The players of the special teams may end up with unusually high minutes on the ice as part of a specialty unit.
“It’s significant. We’re playing six forwards. We’re playing four to five defensemen,” Madigan told The Pink Puck. “At times we had a defenseman in the box so sometimes it’s four defensemen.”
And it wasn’t just the Huskies who were struggling with the number of penalties. The Saints are a team that much prefer to roll all four of their lines, and when the special teams are out there so often that just isn’t possible.
“At least half the game seemed to be special teams,” Saints’ Head Coach Greg Carvel told The Pink Puck. “We like to play all four lines and get energy and be fresh out there. It affected the flow of the game for sure.”
During the first game it appeared that the Huskies spent some time chasing the puck, perhaps not as fast on their skates as they would have liked.
“I guess you can attribute it to rust from the break,” Reid responded to The Pink Puck. “I think we were kind of tentative, but as I said, we shook it off toward the end there and were able to get it going.”
Coach Madigan seemed to feel the rust wasn’t so much in their legs as elsewhere.
“I don’t think the rust showed in our legs, in our willingness to compete,” he explained to The Pink Puck. “Our rust showed in our brains. We were rusty mentally. So we’ll get some WD40 and spray them tonight and tomorrow so they’ll be a little bit sharper.”
And while the number of penalties in Saturday’s game was almost as high, the Huskies definitely brought a stronger game, limiting the Saints to just two goals, while scoring four themselves—the first two on power plays in a twist of the hockey fates from the night before. It wasn’t until 18:31 of the third period though that the Huskies would get the go ahead goal from Michael Szmatula, after having been tied since the end of the second.
When the snow settled on the ice at the end of the two nights, it appeared that Madigan’s use of WD40 on his Huskies had them able to get back into game mode a little quicker than the Saints, who have now gone 0-5-1 in their last six games. However, the Huskies have little time to rest, as they will be hosting the Yale Bulldogs on Tuesday night at Matthews and will then take on the Boston College Eagles this coming weekend in home and home play.
In what became the collision of the weekend, when Washington Capitals Alex Ovechkin ran into Roberto Luongo of the Florida Panthers may not have left Luongo as healthy as he alluded after the game. Today Dale Tallon, General Manager and Executive Vice President of the Florida Panthers announced the recall of goalie Sam Brittain from their ECHL affiliate, the Cincinnati Cyclones.
Sam Brittain
Brittain, a native of Calgary, Alberta, and now 22 was selected by Florida in the fourth round (92nd overallI) in the 2010 NHL Draft. The 6’3”, 229 pound netminder, signed an entry level contract with Florida on July 2, 2014.
Since joining the Cyclones this season, he has played twelve games, posting a 6-5-1 record. He earned his first professional shutout during the December 6, 2014 game against the Kalamazoo Wings, where he stopped a career-high 36 saves. During the week of December 22, 2014, he was named the CCM ECHL Goaltender of the Week earning a 1-0-0 mark, a 0.97 GAA and a .970 save percentage.
The Florida Panthers are on a six-game road trip, of which their visit to the Verizon Center to take on the Washington Capitals was the second. The collision between Luongo and Ovechkin took place during the first period. Despite laying on the ice for a few minutes, Luongo remained in the game through the second period. Back up goaltender Al Montoya was put in for the third.
Replays of the collision, on which there was no penalty called, clearly show that Ovechkin accidentally caught Luongo’s head. The incident was a result of Luongo coming far out of his crease—in fact he was between the hash marks of the face off circle to his right. He was trying to move the puck, Ovechkin was trying to get the puck and the interaction was unavoidable.
There has been some question as to why the concussion protocol was not initiated after the hit, but given how quickly everything happened it is possible that no one noticed that Luongo had taken the hit to the head.
All eyes will be on the Panthers as they take on the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday, January 6, to see who starts in net and who is sitting as back up. Given that this was Luongo’s former team, it is likely that he was looking forward to playing against them. Regardless, it is hoped that if Luongo is hurt that it is nothing major and that he will return to his post between the pipes quickly.
The Ontario Reign ended 2014 and started the new year in the best way possible with four consecutive wins to add to their record. After a few inconsistencies and losses throughout December, they made a total 360 degree comeback to set the tone on how they want the rest of their season to be. At this rate, there’s no doubt that they’ll end on a good note by the time spring comes around but they have to keep the ball rolling at this momentum.
Dec. 30 win vs. Thunder
The Reign defeated the Stockton Thunder 3-1 in the first of the back-to-back games. Things were looking shaky already in the first period when Stockton’s Peter Sivak opened up the scoreboard. His goal was the only score for the period but Ontario bounced back during the second with two goals from Judd Blackwater. Blackwater scored on a power-play at 5:53 then slotted one in past Thunder goaltender Kent Simpson at 13:58.
Both teams went back and forth during the third period and when it looked like things weren’t going anywhere, Stockton pulled Simpson for an extra attacker to try to get that one last chance. Reign’s Derek Couture took advantage of the empty net and scored the game winner at 19:06. Jussi Olkinuora came through for his team with 24 saves for the night.
Dec. 31 win vs. Thunder
There’s no better way to celebrate New Year’s Eve than with another “W” added to the list. The game was close but Ontario brought down the Thunder 4-3 in regulation. Stockton came back ready to fight and it showed with two goals in the first period coming from John Ryder and Sivak at 5:58 and 6:58. Couture got the Reign back on track late in the period with a power-play shot at 16:39.
The Thunder kept their lead going when Ryan Hayes snapped a shot in at 7:35 of the second period. Things were going back and forth once again as the Reign started trailing much closer behind thanks to a shot and score from Geoff Walker at 11:53.
Joe Cannata kept Stockton out for the entire third period just in time to have his team wake up and pull ahead. Blackwater, who has been on fire lately, added another goal to the score sheet with assists from Tyler Scofield and Matt White. Rocco Carzo won the game for Ontario at 9:55 with the final goal of the night.
Jan. 3 win vs. Condors
Ontario kept their California victories strong after making a quick visit to the Bakersfield Condors. They added another win under their belts with a final score of 4-3 and sent the Condors back to their trees. Things looked bad for the Reign when Bakersfield ended the first period with three goals from Nick MacNeil, Brendan Brooks and Sebastien Sylvestre. Couture, being the hero he is once again, got his team going with a late goal during the first at 18:01. At that rate, it seemed like they would never be able to comeback from the score already at 3-1.
Olkinuora stepped up his game for the second period and it proved to be the best move as Bakersfield scored no other goals for the rest of the night. Walker and White both scored to even up the game at 12:48 and 19:41 but Ontario wasn’t done yet. Scofield took the game winner of the night at 19:55 of the third period when things were leaning towards the game going into extra time.
Jan. 4 win vs. Thunder
The fourth and final game of the new year week turned out as great at the last three but things were too close for comfort. The Reign kept their throne against the Thunder after a score of 3-2. Ontario completely dominated the first period with an early goal from Walker and one just 26 seconds after from Gasper Kopitar at 4:40. Walker wasn’t through with Stockton and scored his second goal of the night at 12:56.
The second period went scoreless for both teams and the third was Stockton’s last chance to even get up on the scoreboard. They accepted the challenge and Hayes scored their first power-play goal of the night at 1:29 of the third period. James Henry was right behind him with a power-play goal of his own at 7:56 but Cannata made sure to not let them have that last goal to tie up the game. Cannata took the win with 28 saves and his team took their fourth win in a row.
2015 resolutions
The Ontario Reign did better than expected by ending December like this. It’ll still take lots of hard work to keep that kind of speed going but time is grinding down and it’s time for them to get a big streak going. They have a two-day break and will be back playing against the Condors on Jan. 7.
After winning 2-1 in the first post-holiday game against the Calgary Flames and losing the following game 5-2 against Edmonton, the New York Islanders are currently tied for first place in the Metropolitan Division with 53 points and 26 wins. This is the farthest into an NHL season that the Islanders have held or at least tied for first place in almost 25 years. Looking back at this team last season, the level of play that fans have seen thus far is an unexpected, but welcome treat.
The team has become a serious contender and has sharpened their play in many aspects of the game. The work of underrated players such as Matt Martin, who is one of the NHL leaders in hits this season, has often been the target of criticism for his lack of production on offense. However, the constant pressure that the team has put on opponents is largely in part to Martin stepping up his game. This new and improved Islanders team is now also one of the quickest in the NHL, quite often ending up just a stride ahead of other players, and being able to get to the puck first. While as of late, captain John Tavares hasn’t been having the best offensive performance compared to what he has done in previous seasons, many other players have been helping to fill the spot. Anders Lee has been a huge on-ice presence lately and has a +/- rating of +5.
There is one player missing from the roster. Michael Grabner is now healthy, however, there is no room for him on the roster.Grabner is one of the fastest players in the NHL and fits very well into the Islanders style of play. Hopefully Coach Capuano will make some adjustments to get Grabner back into play, especially after Sunday night’s ugly loss to the Oilers. Lastly, the biggest improvement for the team comes in the form of goaltender, Jaroslav Halak. Goaltending is something that the New York Islanders have struggled with for years, but it appears that the team has finally joined forces with someone who can handle the task. Halak is currently the third highest ranked goaltender in the league with 21 wins and a save percentage of .916. The team continues their road trip tonight in Vancouver.
Girgensons amassed an impressive 1,574,896 votes throughout the six-week internet campaign. In 39 games this season, he has 11 goals and nine assists and is ranked 134th in the league in points with 20.
“It’s a little bit embarrassing and funny at the same time,” Girgensons recently told The Associated Press. “It came out of nowhere. I know people know me back home, but I didn’t think it was going to go that far. That’s like crazy far.”
But, he leaves quite an impression on those he encounters.
“He’s magnetic,” University of Denver coach Jim Montgomery, Girgensons’ former coach from USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints, told The Toronto Globe and Mail. “People are drawn to him, and drawn to him for good reasons. It doesn’t matter what group he’s in, he leads in the right direction.
“He’s pulling people toward healthy outcomes. I follow him on Twitter and we still communicate quite often. And I see on Twitter, the starting quarterback for the Bills is wearing a Zemgus Girgensons Sabres jersey and he’s wearing the quarterback’s jersey when he goes to Bills games. He immerses himself in the culture he’s in and he embraces it, and I think people really embrace him because he’s genuine.”
Girgensons, from Latvia, may also have contributed to an increase in fan votes from outside North America. More than one-fourth of voters were outside of the NHL’s predominant fan-base, up 7,000 percent from the last All-Star game.
Kane took in 1,232,201 votes, for his fourth All Star invite. He leads the Blackhawks now with 18 goals (sixth in the league) and 23 assists for 41 points (seventh in the league).
“I think he’s the first winger I’ve played with that plays more like a centerman,” teammate and NHL veteran Brad Richards told ESPNChicago.com. “He’ll want the puck and distribute the puck. He can also score. A lot of the time, getting [the puck] into his hands is a good idea.”
Toews, the Blackhawks’ captain, will have his third visit. He was selected with 1,217,210 votes. Toews is a plus-12 so far this year, second among Blackhawks forwards, and has won 56.3 percent of faceoffs. He has 13 goals and 19 assists in 38 games played–ranking 23rd in points in the league.
Keith led defensemen with 1,198,173 votes to guarantee his third appearance. He has a plus-13 rating (23rd in the league) and 24 points in 37 games this season.
Seabrook has 21 points and is a plus-four in 38 games this year. His seven goals are two short of a career best. This will be his first All-Star appearance, thanks to 1,016,992 fan votes.
Regarding the fan vote, Seabrook told Chicago media, “It’s probably the only way I’d get in with the amount of talent and All-Stars on this team.”
The Keith-Seabrook duo lead the Blackhawks in ice time exceeding 22 minutes per game and are instrumental in the team’s league-leading 89.9 percent penalty kill and league’s fewest allowed 2.10 goals per game.
Crawford will also be making his All-Star debut, after leading goalies with 1,099,504 votes. He’s missed time with an off-ice injury, but in 23 games, Crawford has a .921 save percentage (ninth in the league) and a 2.13 goals-against average (ranked fifth). He’s 14-7-2.
Only these six spots come from fan votes–the league fills the rest of the roster and spots will be announced Jan. 10.
Last year’s All-Star weekend was canceled for the Winter Olympics, and the previous due to the lockout. Fan voting rose 52 percent from the 2012 campaign.
Columbus is hosting the event for the first time, with the Honda skills competition at 7 p.m. ET Saturday, Jan. 24 and the game at 5 p.m. ET Sunday, Jan. 25.
Blue Jackets executive vice president of business operations, Larry Hoepfner, said festivities begin with an All-Star Winter Park across from Nationwide Arena Jan. 16-25.
Beyond the game and skills competition are public skating and private events at the Winter Park, a 34-foot high and 85-foot wide snow slide stretching 175 feet along Nationwide Boulevard for use Jan. 22-25, and a “Hockey House,” with family-friendly activities, food, drinks, and live music.
“After all, we’ve got a beautiful arena here with the proximity to hotels and a convention center, things most cities don’t have and, of course, the wonderful Arena District which is very unique to Columbus,” he said of the vast bar and restaurant area around Nationwide Arena. “We want to take advantage of that and showcase Columbus to the entire world.”
The All-Star skills competition and game will be televised on NBCSN, CBC, and TVASports.
As the announcements went out that the Boston Bruins would not have Milan Lucic nor Patrice Bergeron on the bench for their game against the Detroit Red Wings on Monday, December 29th, there were many who believed that the Bruins would lose yet another game. The naysayers got worse as it was learned that the Edmonton Oilers had picked up Matt Fraser on waivers.
However, the Boston club that took to the ice that Monday showed the resilience and resolve that is usually associated with the Bruins. They came out hard, moving their feet and doing their best to frustrate the Red Wings.
Before the end of the first period the Bruins had scored three goals and they were executing their game. Battles along the boards were being won by the Bruins—something that hadn’t been seen in recent games. And when it came to the Red Wings getting shots on net, the Bruins were determined to keep them to the outside as much as possible. Even the Bruins’ power play was successful in the third period, during the one and only penalty assessed to the Red Wings.
Seth Griffith (Photo: Krista Patronick)
Seth Griffith, who had been a recent scratch the last few games, got the power play goal. He’d shown hard work throughout the game. It was clear that he wanted to prove that he deserved to be back on the bench. But what goes through a player’s mind in such a situation?
“It was definitely a little nerve wracking, obviously these being two huge crucial games, but you just try and handle it the best you can,” Griffith told The Pink Puck. “I think our line did a good job of that. We kept it simple and didn’t give them a whole lot.
When a team is struggling though, as the Bruins have been, it is usual for the leadership on the team to step up and perhaps motivate through speeches. Such was not the case though.
“Sometimes there are speeches and players meetings and coaches meetings but for the most part that wasn’t the case,” assistant captain Chris Kelly said after the game. “It was us realizing that we need to be better. We are a good hockey team when everyone plays well and plays the system and is focused and when it’s not there we are an average hockey team.”
And apparently all of the players dug into themselves and looked to what it takes individually to motivate them to produce at their highest level.
So what happened then on New Year’s Eve when the Bruins hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs? It was as though someone had forgotten to plug in the players to recharge after that fabulous display of two nights before. As the team showed in the third period, they are capable of bringing that extreme effort. During the second period they were able to get a power play goal and then tie the game up with two more goals, showing that their game was improving. However, it was the third period where it was clear that they had returned to the players of earlier in the week. During the third period and the five-minute overtime they kept the Leafs to just two shots on goal, while they managed to pepper the Leafs Jonathan Bernier with nine and four respectively.
In the end, the Bruins would have to settle for one point as the Leafs won the game in the shoot out.
So what kept the Bruins from bringing that effort for the full sixty minutes? And more importantly how do they regain that consistency they had become known for?
Patrice Bergeron
“I think sometimes it’s when we’re thinking too much and we’re not executing,” assistant captain Bergeron told The Pink Puck. “Obviously when you think out there it’s half a second you don’t have, and that’s when the other team takes advantage so I think it’s about doing that.”
Bergeron’s line mate Brad Marchand agreed this was an area that needs to be adjusted.
“In this league you have to move your feet, you have to move the puck quick and when you don’t teams collapse on you,” Marchand explained to The Pink Puck. “We do have to make quick decisions and the way you do that is trusting each other and know where each other is going to be. Just read off each other.”
The Bruins are set to take on the Ottawa Senators in their first game of 2015 in a matinee event before hopping on a plane and heading to North Carolina to take on the Carolina Hurricanes in the first back-to-back of the new year. Going into the remainder of the regular season games, the Bruins need to play each game like they played the one against Detroit.
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