Nylander makes them more whole at center

It isn't coincidence that Page 488 of the 2004 NHL Official Guide & Record book lists two pretty good centers, Michael Nylander and Adam Oates, one after the other. That's right. Even the Neanderthals who love hockey (see byline above) adhere to the cultural acceptance of alphabetical order. It just so happens, in this case, that placing "Ny" ahead of "Oa" also puts two guys on the same page, one after the other, who have worn the Bruins Black-and-Gold sweater.

Oates, perhaps the sweetest passer/setup guy ever to play in the Hub of Hockey, departed Causeway Street a little less than four months after the Bruins drafted franchise pivot Joe Thornton in June 1997. Imagine how that 1-2 combination might have worked. Now Nylander's here, some seven years later, finally filling the void as the best supporting center Jumbo Joe's ever had -- and the No. 1 reason to be optimistic that the Bruins can do a little damage when the postseason begins.

The 31-year-old pivot, picked up from Washington at the recent NHL trade deadline, collected a goal and two assists yesterday in a 5-4 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. For a guy only eight games back after breaking his leg, as well as only 2 1/2 weeks with his new club, Nylander has been everything and more the Bruins could have hoped for.

Just as he was in theory, he's turned out to be in reality. Don't you just love it when that happens, you know, about once every millennium?

"He hasn't surprised me, because that's the player he is," said Bruins general manager Mike O'Connell, whose acquisitions of Sergei Gonchar and Nylander dropped a giant glob of spackle over the need for a top-flight blue liner and a second-line pivot. "He's seen it all, in the NHL and internationally -- played in all the big games. Like I say, that's his game."

Bald, blue-eyed, and unassuming, Nylander out of uniform could pass for a backroom accountant in the Delaware North empire. Yeah, he could be that bean-counter who yells, "Drop the draft beers to 11.5 ounces -- foam included!" But drop that sweater over his shoulders, and he turns into a heady, unpredictable, deceptive, and delightful playmaker whose special knack seems to be making effortless and pinpoint relays for his fellow forwards.

Oates did that, but he made longer, smoother passes, and didn't have Nylander's penchant for forechecking. Craig Janney had a pair of velvet hands, and delivered passes as if he had a laser eye, but his three-zone game was nowhere near Nylander's.

Last Saturday, also on FleetStreet, it was Nylander's clever cross-slot feed that set up Mike Knuble for the OT winner against the Sabres. And yesterday, he popped a clever backhander to the front of the crease on the man-advantage that Thornton snapped home, giving Thornton only his second power-play strike in 62 games. Hmm, someone else feeding Thornton on the power play?

Yes, we checked, it's legal.

"You never have an idea of where he's going with it," said O'Connell.

"I know I haven't played with a guy like that -- maybe ever," said Travis Green, who lines up on Nylander's right wing, with Sergei Samsonov on the opposite side. "He's a great playmaker. He hit Joe with that backhander -- there's not many who can find you on the backhand like that."

Mr. Unassuming, as you might expect, sounds underwhelmed by it all. Some of that is probably cultural, because Swedish players, in general, are raised without exclamation points in their vocabulary. If they had won the Olympics in 1980, there would have been no Michael Eruzionsson beckoning his brothers to join him on the medal stand. More likely, they would have milled around the podium, with pleasant smiles and nods, until the least reluctant of the bunch finally dipped his head to accept the dangling gold medal.

"Yes, he's unassuming out there," said fellow unassuming Swede P.J. Axelsson. "And he'll be better when he gets his legs. Back home, he's maybe not as big a deal as [Toronto's] Mats Sundin or [Colorado's] Peter Forsberg. But he's played in two Olympics and the World Championships, and people know that. He's a pretty big name."

Nylander broke a leg in training camp in September, and hadn't played a game this season when the Bruins sent a second-round pick Washington's way. He keeps emphasizing that he'll be more effective as he gets in more games, and his aerobic conditioning improves, along with his timing and game sense. That's when we should see the full force of the Samsonov-Nylander-Green trio.

"It's getting more comfortable for me," said Nylander. "I'm finding more open spots to shoot, and to make passes, and we're reading better off of each other, both on the forecheck and backcheck. But hardest of all has been getting back in game shape. I was out for a long time -- the whole season."

What that second line does above all, of course, is draft attention away from the No. 1 line of Thornton, Glen Murray, and Knuble. Come the drop of the postseason puck, opponents can't talk about shutting down the Bruins by wrapping up the Seven Hundred Pounders. Now when the 589-pound likes of the No. 2 line rolls out -- as it did yesterday for a combined 2-2--4 -- the opposition is going to need more tricks.

"You see the scoresheet from this game," pondered Knuble, "and that's what you want, the scoring spread out, balanced across the roster. Everyone contributing. Before it's been, `Focus on Joe's line' for other teams. Now, hey, that's going to be a great line for us a lot of nights."

Great lines lead to great things. Almost as sure as B follows A.