However, with Milan Lucic’s hit (which was either intentional or unintentional depending on what city you are from) on Ryan Miller in Saturday night’s game at TD Garden, the two now seem to be sworn enemies for life.
The incident occurred as Lucic was chasing down a loose puck that got away from him on a potential breakaway. Miller thought he could beat Lucic to the puck, so he came out of the crease to clear it away. Lucic ended up crashing into Miller, with his arms up, knocking off Miller’s mask, practically decapitating him in the process.
As the 2010-11 regular season played out, most people believed that the Edmonton Oilers made the right decision in selecting Taylor Hall over Tyler Seguin with the first overall pick in the 2010 NHL draft.
While Seguin was spending half of his rookie season watching Bruins games from a press box, Hall was already developing into quite a hockey player. Although Seguin was fortunate enough to earn a Stanley Cup as a member of the Bruins in 2011, Hall was clearly the better player throughout the season.
If there was one theme in the month of October in the NHL, it was to expect the unexpected.
With that in mind, as hard as it may be to believe, the current NHL standings are in fact correct.
So, where to begin?
How about over in the Northeast Division, where the last team you would expect to be at the top would be the Toronto Maple Leafs (7-3-1). However, the only thing that might be more surprising within that division is that the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins are dead last (4-7-0)—not only in the division, but in the entire Eastern Conference.
Heading into Thursday night’s game against the surging Toronto Maple Leafs, the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins posted a somewhat disappointing 2-4 record, displaying some signs—as much as they wouldn’t like to admit it—of obvious Stanley Cup hangover.
Not to mention, the B’s were coming off an embarrassing 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, a game in which Boston’s early-season frustrations boiled over to the tune of 72 penalty minutes.
Needless to say, Thursday’s game with Toronto was an important one, and the Bruins finally appeared to be ready for the 2011-12 season. The Bruins got goals from six different players as they handed the Leafs their first regulation defeat of the season with a 6-2 win at TD Garden.
If the Boston Bruins had one weakness in their game during their memorable 2010-11 Stanley Cup run, it was their atrocious power play. In fact, their numbers with the extra man were so bad, it’s somewhat of a miracle that they were last team standing.
Last season during the playoffs, the Bruins went 0-for-21 against the Montreal Canadiens in the first round, 2-for-16 (12.5 percent) in the Eastern Conference semifinals with the Philadelphia Flyers, and 3-for-24 (12.5 percent) in the conference finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Boston’s best effort came against the Canucks in the Stanley Cup finals, but even then they only managed to score five times out of 27 chances (18.5 percent).
The Philadelphia Flyers were probably anxious to play their first game of the 2011-12 season. Not so much because they couldn’t wait to test the waters with their new-look team, but because they had to sit around for over 40 minutes in the dressing room after warmups while the Boston Bruins enjoyed a rather lengthy Stanley Cup ceremony.
Aside from the traditional raising of the Stanley Cup banner, there were also a few speeches, a video montage recapping the Bruins’ Cup run and even (and was this really necessary?) time for each player to skate around with the Cup.
It should come as a surprise to no one, but it is now official: Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby will miss the team’s season opener against the Vancouver Canucks next Thursday night.
“No. I wouldn’t expect it, no,” Crosby told reporters Saturday when asked if he’d would be ready for the Oct. 6 game at Rogers Arena. “I don’t think so.”
Again, not a shocker, especially considering Crosby, who has been skating with his teammates since training camp opened on Sept. 17, hasn’t even been cleared for contact drills yet.
The Boston Bruins were dealt a blow earlier this week when it was announced that Marc Savard won’t be playing for the Bruins in the upcoming 2011-12 season.
Savard suffered a concussion after he was hit along the boards by former teammate Matt Hunwick in a game back in January.
“Marc Savard won’t play this year,” said GM Peter Chiarelli via Boston.com. “Nothing has changed in our monitoring. He’ll be examined and he’ll be declared unfit to play.”
Like other hockey commentators have already done, Chiarelli went further to speculate that Savard’s career may be over.
If the biggest challenge for any defending Stanley Cup champion is trying to keep all the pieces together, then the Boston Bruins are still a Cup contender heading into the 2011-12 season.
Outside of Mark Recchi, who announced his retirement following the Bruins’ Cup win last summer, the only other players who won’t be in Boston next season when the B’s raise their championship banner will be Michael Ryder (signed with the Dallas Stars) and Tomas Kaberle (traded to the Carolina Hurricanes). However, with that being said, the future of center Marc Savard remains uncertain; he only played 25 games for the Bruins last season while recovering from a concussion.
Don’t worry, Michael Ryder, that’s only the oldest, most revered trophy in professional sports.
In fairness to Ryder, who was a member of the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins before being signing with the Dallas Stars this offseason, he wasn’t the one that set up that shoddy little table at the St. John’s Hotel in Bonavista, Newfoundland.
And apparently, it’s fitting that Ryder is now a member of the Stars. Joe Nieuwendyk, general manager of the Dallas Stars, can relate. He and his teammates put a three-inch ding in the cup back in 1999. The only difference is that the Stars never said how it got there.
