Adam McQuaid Comes Back Strong: A Weekly ReCap (Feb. 14-20)

Photo Courtesy of newenglandgamer.com

My “biggest thoughts” are for games that I am actually able to watch. For games that I do watch I take notes on every individual period and record everything I happen to blurt out. For games I can’t watch, I’ll be recapping on what I see from replays and the box score.

I’ll also be referring to the Bruins as “we” in most cases.

Let’s get to it.

Jan. 17 - 23
​
Jan. 24 - 30

Jan. 31 - Feb. 6

Feb. 7 - 13

                                             Detroit Red Wings, 02/14/2016, @Detroit

The Bruins are coming off the win over the Minnesota Wild and the firing of Mike Yeo (Boston Bruins: Putting Nails in Coffins). It wasn’t a perfect game and it ultimately came down to a goal by Krejci that almost wasn’t even a goal. Hopefully things were addressed and the B’s can come out stronger.

Thoughts on first period:

“Colin Miller Returns”

• Miller is back on the roster for this game, him and Morrow are continuing to trade games. I’m really starting to wonder where Claude is going to go with the 2 D-men.

“Clear the crease, please”

• When opposing teams settle in our zone and take up zone-time, our defense collapses into the front of the net and basically are protecting from the crease to the hash marks. Right play in most cases, yet no one picks up the open guys. Players go by unnoticed and they can pick up the loose puck whenever they want.
• This was basically the extent of the first period.

Thoughts on second period:

“Rask chased again”

• The goals weren’t all Rask’s fault, yet when a team posts up a handful of goals on your goalie there needs to be a change. In comes Goose.

“Back and forth battle.”

• Both teams defenses were shutting down. Forwards were coming in on both ends and setting up. Complete offensive game for the entire period.

Thoughts on the third period:

“KEMPY”

• I FULLY believe that Joonas Kemppainen is a good hockey player. He’s not great, but he’s solid defensively more often than not and brings a fast, physical element and a safe offensive mind. When he’s on the ice he makes a difference. His goal wasn’t pretty but it was a goal, and that’s what matters.

“Hitting game”

• The hit count was high and in our favor. We might not win every game, but we (sometimes) fight for every game.

“Guys are literally skating into each other”

• The Bruins defense isn’t perfect, guys. Everyone gets that. But it’s come to a point where players - LITERALLY - skate into each other. This seems like a problem.

“Henrik Zetterberg – Pavel Datsyuk - Justin Abdelkader”

• Two goals each in this game. These guys are unbelievable.

“Kevan Miller goes out at the wrong times”

• Three minutes left in the game when down by a goal against the Detroit Red Wings. Claude decides to throw out Kevan Miller to go out there, and he’s out there for a good chunk of that three minutes. I get you need players to rest before you throw them out there, but the Wings weren’t allowing the Bruins to get changes in on the fly, so there’s no positive chance of the best players to go out there to push for a goal.

      So why the heck is Kevan Miller out on the ice?

“Keven Miller didn’t work with three minutes left”

• Point.

 
Overall Thoughts: 6 – 5 L

​- This was a battle for a very large portion of the game. Bruins showed a lot of fight and bite in this game, and I like that. Smarter decisions need to be made offensively and defensively. The top line wasn’t out there at the end until there were merely seconds left on the clock, so line changes need to be talked about.

Damn this was pretty. Ericsson’s goal puts Bruins up 3-1 pic.twitter.com/OynG2USR6p

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) February 14, 2016

Kemppainen ties it and Mrazek….woof. pic.twitter.com/CgzHfuYf0t

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) February 14, 2016

                                       Columbus Blue Jackets, 02/16/2016, @Columbus

Big tilt coming out of a loss in Detroit. Adam McQuaid is back after going down with an upper body injury awhile back so there’s a lot of excitement about that coming into this game.

Thoughts on first period:

“Too many passes on the power play”

• Forwards were getting way, way too nice when there were chances to shoot. Extra passes were made at the worst times and a turnover (followed by a scoring chance) happened every time. One timers, one timers, one timers. One timers work almost every time when Krejci, Spooner, Krug, Marchand (etc.) are set up at the top of the circles. Don’t change what works. Less passes.

“HEY QUIADER”

• Scrum in front of the net, late poke at Rask, Darth Quaider got mad. McQuaid brings a bully-type style of defense and I adore it. Our defense has been missing his presence on the back end. Welcome back, indeed.

“Ref is a plug”

• Two very questionable hits on Ray Ferraro during this game. One in the back, forcing his head into the boards, the other a high hit when he went down on one knee in front of the net. Jack Edwards mentioned it when it happened both times. The refs weren’t watching.

Thoughts on second period:

“Rask with two big ones”

• Rask had two gigantic saves when we were on a power play. We had no shots on said power play, but the Blue Jackets did. That doesn’t seem like a good thing.

“Nothing clean”

• Our passing decisions have been very, very questionable. The defensemen can’t break out. Everything is back to normal.

Thoughts on third period:

“NO LANES”

• Passing didn’t get better.

“…. MILLER…...”

• You’ll see. Keep in mind that what he did wasn’t necessarily needed (kind of the right idea though).

 
Thoughts on overtime:

“DOPE”

​(See below)

​Overall Thoughts: 2 – 1 L
Wasn’t a pretty game at all. Line changes still proving to be an issue. But at this point, 2 points are two points. Rematch coming next week. 

Great open-ice tackle by Kevan Miller pic.twitter.com/Fh8Qgo8uhX

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) February 17, 2016

Needles pic.twitter.com/Hycyz9c75a

— Jacob Lace (@jakelaceball) February 17, 2016

                                            Nashville Predators, 02/18/2016, @Nashville

I wasn’t able to watch this game. But all you really need to know about it came from Claude Julien in a post-game presser:

"Wasn't good enough. The first period wasn't very good. Theirs was extremely good. They came at us hard and we kept turning pucks over in our own end, and they got a couple of goals there. In the second period, it was much better than the first. They didn't get much, but at the same time we didn't think we battled or worked hard enough to get on the inside, and for the longest time we seemed to be playing on the outside and making it easier for their goaltender to make those saves. In the third period we seemed a little more desperate, but in the end we couldn't catch a break there to at least get that first goal."
 
Overall thoughts:  2 – 0 L
​
ZERO FOR FOUR on the power play. We kept Nashville out of the net on their two power plays, so special teams weren’t terrible, but regardless: what the hell is going on with the power play?
 

​Basically:

Not great, Brett Connolly... pic.twitter.com/O5tJ6mMHSY

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) February 19, 2016

                                                    Dallas Stars, 02/20/2016, @Dallas

I wasn’t able to watch this game at all and I’m very upset about that. Both teams coming off of a loss, last game on the road trip, Tyler Seguin. Tilt.

Overall Thoughts: 7 – 3 W
​

• Tyler Seguin was apparently invisible in this game. Beautiful.

 

• Patrice notched his 600th point. 600. Six Hundred. What injury?

 

• Krejci suited up for his 600th game. Kinda sucks because he should have been at this point already, but injuries happen. Here’s to staying healthy (please J)

 

• Brad “Pest” Marchand notched his 29th and 30th of the season. Career high. Plenty of games left in the season. Let’s get it. 

Great effort from Marchand on his career-high 29th goal pic.twitter.com/PGGdXP8YnC

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) February 21, 2016

Adam McQuaid giving the ones and twos to Antoine Roussel pic.twitter.com/LHoNRFlFcw

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) February 21, 2016

.@DallasStars hahaha pic.twitter.com/vrMwN0gxKp

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) February 21, 2016

Jacob Lace
@jakelaceball