Pitchers and catchers report today! The Red Sox season is on the horizon. Aren’t we all excited? Well, I’ll tell you that for me, baseball season does not start until the ice melts at the TD Garden. Hopefully, that doesn’t happen until June. Yeah, you’re right. Wishing for a Stanley Cup championship from the Bruins may be a stretch but it never hurts right?
So the Boston Bruins. They have played 60 games so far this season and are currently on a two week break due to the Olympics. Two weeks ago we would have all loved to have seen the break coming sooner as the Bruins went on a horrible 10-game losing streak that had even their most diehard fans (myself included) questioning where in the heck this team was going. They were going down and going down fast. But that is in the past so no more thinking about that and don’t worry I will never give up on the Bruins.
The Bruins finished the pre-Olympic schedule with a 4-game winning streak and looked to be back in form just in time for two weeks off. Will it hurt them? I’ll let you know in two weeks. After this break, the team is going to be healthy, something we haven’t seen a lot of this season. Well, let’s hope they are healthy. We don’t want to see any of our 6 Olympians come back hurt.
One issue that is going to bother me, is what is going to happen when all 7 (or 8 if you include Adam McQuaid) defensemen are healthy? Zdeno Chara is obviously going to stay on the blue line no question there. Dennis Wideman had a tough go of it during that losing streak but he has picked up his game since then and is back to his form as the number 2 defenseman. After that, it gets a little murky for me. Who has proven that they belong on this team? Johnny Boychuk and Mark Stuart. Stuart will most likely be back on the blue line once he returns from injury. I don’t know if the same can be said for Boychuk. Hands down, Boychuk should be one of the six defensemen. I would take Johnny over Derek Morris and Andrew Ference right now. Neither one of those makes me turn my head during a game. Morris has become the new Wideman and Ference is just boring, well they both are boring. I want to see the Ference of last year who would throw huge open ice hits on Steve Ott and fight with Sean Avery. Actually, I wish the whole team would act like they did during the brawl game against the Dallas Stars last season.
My blue line for after the Olympic break would be Chara, Wideman, Stuart, Boychuk, Hunwick, and McQuaid. McQuaid?? Yes McQuaid! How can you not love this guy? McQuaid was a surprise to many when he started playing for the Bruins because he came up from Providence willing to drop the gloves. This was no surprise to me. I had seem him drop the gloves and opponents many times in Providence. (The Providence Bruins are to the Boston Bruins what the Pawtucket Red Sox are to the Boston Red Sox.) McQuaid has proven that he can hang with the big league but unfortunately, I don’t see him making the trip back to Boston after the break until someone else gets hurt. I never wish injury on anyone but I can’t wait to see McQuaid back up in Boston causing havoc on the blue line with Boychuk.
Kristin Carbone
Pierce Arrow Blogger
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