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Game #69 and #70 – Hawks vs. Bruins Spotlight: The Alleged

By Sam Fels March 10, 2018 1749 0

Twice in his career, Rick Nash has been the most sought after trade piece in a given market. This year it was at the deadline. When he was moved from Columbus to Broadway, it was over the summer. The Rangers were left to wonder if they really got all that much in his six years in blue. The Bruins may wonder the same come the spring.

Maybe it’ll be different for Nash on Causeway instead of Broadway, because the Bruins aren’t asking him to be a top line winger. And thank god for that, because that’s now what you get with Nash in the playoffs. And the Bruins got Nash or the playoffs, which seems a bit like getting cherry bombs to fix the clog in your drains. It will work, there’s just probably better utensils to go about it.

There’s really no getting around that Nash was a playoff bust as a Ranger. 73 games, 14 goals. You could say he was unlucky, as the 3.3 shots per game he averaged in the playoffs isn’t much different than the 3.6 he’s averaged over his career. But over five different playoff campaigns and almost a regular season’s worth of games?

Looking deeper into Nash’s playoff performances, his metrics do dip a tad. But that is to be expected given the higher competition. His Corsi went from 51.7 in the regular season to 50.4 in the playoffs. xGF% from 50.1 to 49.8. His individual expected goals per game dips from 0.99 to 0.79. Again, you’re not seeing the amount of bums in the playoffs and teams were almost certainly throwing their best pair out against Nash every shift. But…14 goals in 77 games. There’s no getting around it. At some point, when you’re Rick Nash, you have to put the fucking thing in the fucking thing.

He won’t have the excuse of teammates this year. While his Ranger days never included a true #1 center, no matter how hard they tried to sell us on Derek Stepan or Derrick Brassard or Mika Zibanejad, Nash will take the ice in Boston with either the best two-way center in the game in Bergeron or a center who has led the playoffs in scoring twice in David Krejci. Quite simply, Nash can’t ask for more. If he’s paired with Krejci, as he has been since arriving, he won’t even have to face the hardest pairings and checking lines as they will be sent out against Bergeron and Marchand.

And yet you’ll still probably feel something wonting with Nash. Nash has only scored 40 goals or more in a season three times in 15 seasons. Given his size, speed, and hands, that almost feels criminal. When he was a Blue Jacket, Hawks fans would see shifts where he was simply unplayable. And then you’d see four or five shifts where you didn’t even know he was out there. If he had Ovechkin’s drive he’d have Ovechkin’s numbers. Nash will get to 500 goals in a few seasons or so, and some will tell you that rubber stamps his Hall of Fame case. It’ll be one of the most underwhelming 500-goal collections in recent memory.

If you don’t believe us, remember what Nash looked like when playing with Jonathan Toews on Team Canada. He single-handedly caused the entire Russian team to piss down their leg in Vancouver. There was a true beast in there. There was Eric Lindros in there. There was a multi-MVP in there. He never bothered to find it.

And should he once again prefer the periphery in the playoffs, there will be no hiding. The Boston media isn’t going to go light on him, and he can tuck his tail (tee hee) and head back to a rebuilding Rangers team to serve out the rest of his career in the anonymity that he seemingly has always sought. This was a guy who could sneeze 30 goals per season. Whatever he finishes with, it’s going to feel like something of a waste.

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Game #69 and #70 – Hawks vs. Bruins Q&A: One Of The Extras From The Town

By Sam Fels March 10, 2018 1720 0

@DOYMarshall is part of a true collection of rabble at DaysOfYorr.com. But no, he’s not the one who got to make out with Blake Lively.

Let’s start with Patrice Bergeron. Before he got hurt, he was around a point-per-game, which he hadn’t been since 2007. What’s been the difference? Just the addition of Pastrnak? A loosening of his assignments? Something else?

Not to take anything away from the man himself, but a huge factor in Patrice Bergeron’s offensive resurgence of late has been a fundamental shift in the way this team plays hockey. When you have the world’s best defensive forward, of course you expect him to lock down your side of the ice at all times, particularly when the guys behind him couldn’t stop a heroin addict from stealing all the sugar packets from a Revere Dunkin’ Donuts. Bergeron’s deployment this year, however, is almost unrecognizable. Thanks in no small part to the dependability of the 3rd line of Riley Nash, Danton Heinen, and David Backes, Bergeron, a player with a career offensive zone start percentage of 47.6%, has started nearly 60% of his shifts this season in enemy territory. The decision to ease the defensive burden and recognize that a trio of Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak should turn the inside of most defensemen’s underwear brown has paid off handsomely. Somehow, on the cusp of turning 33, not only is Bergeron shooting more, he’s also posting a career-best shooting percentage of 13.6. Most first-line forwards start to see their production drop off a cliff around age 28, but a revamped role has more than delayed that death spiral for the Bruins’ future captain.

Is Charlie McAvoy really so good that he’s been able to exhume the corpse of Zdeno Chara?

The list of defensemen that have failed to lighten Zdeno Chara’s load since his Norris Trophy season nearly a decade ago reads longer than a Tolkien novel. Each year as a Matt Hunwick or Joe Morrow or Ohmygodwhyisadammcquaidstillonthisteam faltered the preseason promise of cutting down Big Z’s minutes would fall by the wayside. With the notable exception of one massive fuck-up on the part of management, the problem has been with talent. That problem is gone with the addition of Charlie McAvoy. In his first season, he’s already in the upper echelon of puck possession (currently 5th in Corsi% among defensemen >1000 minutes played). He’s also tops in the league for goals for percentage at 5v5. He’s still early in his development and doesn’t see the kind of penalty kill time you want from a #1 defenseman but he has the potential to be for the Bruins what Duncan Keith has been for you guys.

There are other kids on this team like Jake DeBrusk and Danton Heinen. What should we watch for with them?

As a Bruins’ fan, it’s been amazing this year seeing a coach that understands that young players learn from *gasp* playing hockey instead of watching the likes of Gregory Campbell from the press box. Jake Debrusk and Danton Heinen have given the Bruins some depth scoring that they haven’t seen in a few years. They, along with Pastrnak, McAvoy and guys like Anders Bjork and Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson make up a young, homegrown core similar to the wave we saw ten years ago. As well-positioned as the Bruins are for a run right now, they have finally started planning for the future under Don Sweeney. That kind of foresight was sorely lacking under the Chiarelli-Julien regime.

We’ve had this debate for years in the lab. Is Brad Marchand really that good or is he a product of playing every single shift of his career (until recently) with Bergeron?

Brad Marchand is currently the best player on this team. Full stop. It’s undeniable that playing beside Patrice Bergeron molded him in his early career, but he has emerged out of that shadow over the last 3 seasons. He will lead the Bruins in scoring for the second straight season while continuing to be arguably the second best defensive forward in the league. Yes, he is garbage and we accept this. However, for the first time since the lockout-shortened season, he’s actually drawing more penalties than he’s committing. He’s riding an unbelievably hot streak right now, and with a strong end of season push he could be looking at a 40/50/90 season in just 69 nice games. Bottom line, Brad is elite as fuck.

Did you like the Rick Nash pick up?

Ok, so Rick Nash comes with a ton of baggage with “I don’t give a fuck” embroidered on it. Having said that, I like the trade for a number of reasons. First, he gives David Krejci the best pure scorer he’s had on his wing since Nathan Horton, giving the Bruins a legitimate 2nd line for the first time in years. It’s a signal from management that they believe in this team’s ability to make a deep run right now. Most importantly, Sweeney didn’t mortgage the future for a rental. Had he moved any of the aforementioned young players like Debrusk, who was rumored as a bargaining chip, I’d be a lot more sour on the move.

Is this team Cup-worthy?

Of course the caveat to the optimism surrounding Nash is that this team is still playing for a silver medal in the East. I think the deadline moves made the Bruins a better team, but I don’t know if they pushed them to the front of the race. Barring a major injury to Tampa’s murderers’ row, the Bolts should dance straight to the Cup Finals. On the other hand, there is a special feeling surrounding this Bruins team. Maybe it’s just the fact that they’re actually fun to watch again, but the Garden is buzzing. The tragedy of the current playoff format is that if Boston and Tampa meet up, it won’t be in the Eastern Conference Finals. Should the Bruins survive a matchup with Yzerman’s death squad, though, I would bet my children on the Bruins lifting the Cup.

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Game #69 and #70 – Hawks vs. Bruins Douchebag Du Jour: Hey Marchand Is Something Of A Dog, Too

By Sam Fels March 10, 2018 1429 0

In a minute, you’ll see that we highly question Boston’s acquisition of Rick Nash for their playoff run. Because Rick Nash has been a playoff dog his entire career. Well you know something? Brad Marchand is kind of one as well.

Since his rookie year, where he was dynamite to help the Bruins win their lone Cup in this era, Marchand has played in 47 playoff games. He has six goals in those and 24 points. You may remember he did exactly jack and shit in the Final against the Hawks in ’13, nary registering a point and pretty much being a ghost once Patrice Bergeron’s organs all broke. He didn’t manage a goal in 12 games the following season when the Bruins went back to their usual role of coughing up sputum whenever they see the Canadiens in the playoffs and fucking up a truly powerful regular season. He had one goal in their first-round capitulation to the simply-awful Senators last year.

We’re giving up on our theory that Marchand would suck if he didn’t play with Bergeron every single shift of his career (and he pretty much has). It certainly helped his cause, but his level hasn’t dropped much since Bergeron got hurt. But if the Bruins are going to make good on this surprising campaign and at least throw a scare into the Lightning in the second round, they’ll need their rat-faced shitgibbon to actually show up in the postseason. Which he hasn’t in seven years now. And if he does show, it’ll probably be for low-bridging someone away from the puck or trying to taunt Vancouver fans again.

Boy, him and Nash together. The Boston media is going to feast.

Game #69 and #70 Preview