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Hot goaltenders contribute to B’s woes 02.02.10 at 11:29 pm ET
By Dan Rowinski

Boston has not seen its hockey team have a stretch this bad since the days when Vic Stasiuk used to lace up his skates at the old Garden in 1956 when the Bruins had a stretch where they went 0-8-0.

With an 0-6-2 record in its last eight games, this season’s Bruins have not seen a win since beating the Western Conference leaders from San Jose  on Jan. 14. It would have been odd to see the Bruins sandwich seven losses in a row with wins against both conference leaders, but it was not to be in a 3-1 loss to the Capitals on Tuesday.

Everybody knows what the problem is. There’s no hiding what ails these bears — they cannot score. Through the past eight contests, the Bruins have 12 goals, or 1.5 per game. After a stretch where the team simply did not play well, the Bruins have had decent efforts and good scoring chances in the past few contests and have run into some pretty good goaltending along the way. Why can’t the Bruins score? It is kind of a chicken or egg type of question.

Is the Bruins inability to find the back of the net a lack of talent or emotion. Or is it luck? Or does the problem have more to do with a string of opposing goaltenders playing great games against the Bruins?

“It is pretty par for the course,” Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas said of his opponent on Tuesday, Jose Theodore. “I’ve seen just about every other goalie in the league stand on their head. Other goalies are having their best nights against us.”

The Capitals goaltender saw 42 shots and stopped all but one, including a couple from point-blank range in what was essentially an empty net, when Theodore was caught out of position by Blake Wheeler and David Krejci in the second period.

“Yes, I made the save coming across,” Theodore said of the Wheeler save. “I kept sliding out of the net, it was going in, and I was able to save it on the goal line.”

The Capitals coach thought his goaltender was quite impressive.

“Jose was tremendous. Tremendous,” Bruce Boudreau said. “They had several more chances than we did. And what happens is you keep letting a team hang around and hang around that’s not going playing good … eventually in this league they’re going to do something in one period.”

But Boston did not score.

Have a look at the save totals from the opposing goaltenders in the last eight games (from newest to oldest): Theodore 41, Jonathan Quick (Los Angeles) 31, Ryan Miller (Buffalo) 30, Cam Ward (Carolina) 27, Brian Elliot (Ottawa) 32, Steve Mason (Columbus) 32, Elliot (Ottawa) 22, Quick (Los Angeles) 21.

Take note that five of the 12 goals the Bruins have scored during the losing streak have been courtesy of the Kings’ Quick (in two separate games), who is going to represent the United States in the Vancouver Olympics in a couple of weeks. Another two were against the Senators’ Elliot (also in two games). It is easy to see by those shot totals what games the Bruins did not compete well in, mainly the first Ottawa game and the Carolina game, which were both 5-1 losses. The first game of the losing streak was also the last time Boston scored more than two goals, a 4-3 shootout loss in Los Angeles in the last game of the Bruins recent California swing. Boston was competitive in that game, so the shot total is a misnomer in the overall equation.

The answer to the question of hot opposing goaltender vs. team on a string of bad luck with an undermanned roster lays somewhere in the middle. Yes, the Bruins have seen some quality net minders recently, especially the Millers, Quicks and Theodores of the world. At the same time, some key production that was present last year is missing this year. Michael Ryder, Wheeler, Dennis Wideman, Krejci all have been relatively healthy (as far as we know) and are coming nowhere near what was expected of them at the start of October. Bruins coach Claude Julien thinks it may only be a matter of time.

“I think a lot of those players that right now are not scoring have scored for us in the past,” Julien said. “I’ll use an example. I thought [Ryder] played a real good game tonight. He got nothing for it. He had some great chances and if those guys can start producing, I thought they were much better tonight.”

Krejci understands that it is not just the opposing goaltender that is causing the problems. Tuesday, the Bruins could not find the back of the net, but it was not (only) Theodore who was the culprit.

“I wouldn’t give him too much credit for as much as he did,” Krejci said. “We had 42 shots. I don’t think he was that good to stop us. We got him to make mistakes and we just couldn’t bury those chances. Those chances, we usually score those, but today we just couldn’t find the back of the net.”

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  • mike

    this team blows…why did chiarelli ever dismantle last years chemistry? Get these bums out of town, and lets get some guys that want to play hockey in this town. Hot goaltenders…?, How about Ryder cant score, and Thomas cant stop a puck!

  • mike

    maybe i spoke too soon…just saw on tsn RYDER is up for trade, hopefully no one has been watching him

  • Higgs

    I think this is a team that has faced an incredible string of bad luck. That being said there is no excuse for some of the things they are doing.

    I have never seen a team miss the net as much as these guys do. No other way to say it: hit the fucking net! Krecji missing the net on a penalty shot is ri-goddamn-diculous.

    Does Chara ever hit the net from the point? And how many sticks is he going to break before he changes brands? I know he has the hardest shot in the league and puts a lot of torque on the stick, but at some point he needs to find a brand he can rely on.

    As for Thomas, that, to me, is the one area where we can place the blame squarely on Ciarelli. Tim had a great year last season, but there are a couple of things about Thomas that cause scouts to lable him as nothing more than a very good back-up who had a really good year.

    Thomas makes some very acrobatic saves and occasionally steals a game. The problem with acrobatic goalies is they tend to overplay the first shot and end up taking themselves out of position for the rebound. This is the reason they have to be acrobatic in the first place: being out of position tends to make the second save look miraculous, when in reality it would often be a routine save for most number one goalies. The other problem with acrobatic goalies is they play less relaxed and more poised to flash to make a save. That is why Thomas often doesn’t handle the puck cleanly and gives up goals on shots that look like they should be routine saves, such as Kopitar’s goal the other night. When these types of goalies are in a slump like Thomas is now, they fight the puck, making even the most routine save look shaky and often giving up rebounds, and thus goals on second chances where none should exist. The Kopitar shot was a simple blocker save, but Timmy was flashing and overplayed this simple save and put it in his own net. His jumpiness often leaves his five hole vulnerable and why he ends up giving up a lot of goals through the legs.

    The final thing about Thomas is that he lacks the one true calling card of a top-notch, number one goalie: the ability to make the key save when the game is on the line. This is what seperates the good ones from the great ones. The great ones can look mediocre all game, but when the team needs the big save, with the game in the balance, the great ones make the save. This is what has made Martin Brodeur, and Patrick Roy, and Ken Dryden, etc., who they are. That is just not who Timmy is.

    I’m not even saying we should expect Thomas to be in that category, but to be a great goalie in this league you have to make that save consistently. Thomas doesn’t. The goal that he gave up to Scott Walker in game seven last year is a great example. It was a bad goal because Thomas didn’t handle the initial shot cleanly as he should have. Had he done so there would have been no rebound for Walker to bat out of the air. This is an ongoing problem with Thomas. He just doesn’t make that big save, with the game on the line, often enough, to be considered in the elite category of goalies. Just ask yourself how confident you are when the game goes to overtime or a shootout that the Bruins will win. Sometimes they do, but more often they don’t. While it is not all Thomas’ fault, he is the guy the team needs to lean on on these occasions and the numbers speak for themself.

    Tim Thomas is a really great story of a guy that overcame long odds to even get to the NHL, let alone win the Vezina, and get himself a great contract. It also seems like it couldn’t happen to nicer guy and it’s hard not to be happy for him. This is where Ciarelli comes into play.

    The contract Ciarelli gave Thomas is a terrible one. It’s nice to see the team reward good play with a good contract, and in many cases this past offseason Ciarelli did the right thing in getting Savard and Lucic and Recchi, among others, signed. But giving Thomas, almost 36 years old, a four year deal was ridiculous.

    I think we’ve seen what this team is going to be this year, and it doesn’t make any sense to give away any of the future for a Kovalchuk rental. The team made a big commitment to a guy that they have found can not carry them as a true number one goalie. They are understandably reluctant to throw Rask to the wolves so soon, and I think they are ok with letting Thomas take a nightly beating for a team going nowhere, but at some point (right now?) Thomas is going to be nothing more than a very expensive obstacle to Rask’s, and the team’s, development. With the contract Ciarelli gift wrapped for him, it’s going to be very hard for the B’s to find a taker for a very expensive, 36-37 year old back up goalie who is standing in the way of progress.

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