Bruins in need of fixing -- now
Unless the National Hockey League reaches back for an old favorite and reinstitutes the lockout -- something a few Bruins fans, and even some of their favorite players, may consider an act of mercy right now -- the schedule shows 63 games remain on Boston's regular-season schedule.
There are indeed enough dates on the calendar not to label the club in full crisis mode. At least not at the moment. There is still time to get it together, one of the very few positives coach Mike Sullivan and crew can currently point to. Fresh off back-to-back embarrassing losses, to Ottawa and the New York Islanders, they limped home from Uniondale early yesterday morning and took yesterday as a day of rest -- for many of them an extension of the snooze they began around 7 p.m. Saturday inside Nassau Coliseum.
No telling how things will begin to unfold this morning when the club reconvenes for practice in Wilmington. Chances are, it will be practice as usual, with a reaffirmation on everyone's part to go out, give it hell, and deliver a ''W" when the Leafs come to town Thursday night. If that sounds predictable, stale, to the point of old beyond words, then you've got a grasp of where this club stands about a quarter of the way through the regular season.
In the days when he ran the club as general manager, Harry Sinden would have been at the rink today by about 8 a.m., nostrils flaring, both trigger fingers wrapped firmly around the closest stick. Mike O'Connell's style is far more subdued, patient, controlled, and not likely to raise so much as an eyebrow from the many multimillionaires he pays for a performance that too often this season has been just short of -- oh, let's be kind here -- putrid.
Likewise, Sullivan's style is subdued and intelligent. For the right team, that will work. But it's not working with this team, and whether that's the coach's fault, or simply a consequence of one man's style not interfacing with 20 mixed personalities, he will have to find a fix in very short order. If not, he will be the latest ex-Bruins coach in a very long line of ex-Bruins coaches. If so, he could be walking that plank alongside O'Connell.
Back in Jeremy Jacobs's headquarters in Buffalo, where every penny and nickel are counted twice, just as a first audit, there can't be any comfort in seeing his Bruins, his nearly-salary-cap-maxed-out Bruins, chugging along at the unengaging, shapeless pace that is .500 (7-7-5).
It's not just one-quarter of one season that is under the Delaware North microscope here. The Bruins have won but two playoff rounds since the spring of '92, and while the Jacobs clan has been whistling a happy and public tune of late, it wants and demands the product to be much better. A longtime standing joke on Causeway Street is that the senior Jacobs yells a lot, and applies heat liberally, but he rarely, if ever, fires anyone. Could be that old joke comes to a close soon.
Bruins hockey has become a challenged sell in this town, something it had not been for decades until it moved into the new building on Causeway Street and the winning tradition of the old Garden somehow didn't make the 9-inch commute to the new place. Now it's 10 years later, fresh off yet another lockout, and many of the old guard Bruins fans went into 2005-06 with a wait-and-see attitude.
Well, they're wating, and thus far they're not seeing much.
The biggest of the team's ills right now is behind the blue line. There are two great blue liners in camp, one of them (Ray Bourque) is strictly on consultant duty, the other (Brian Leetch) is strictly on crutches (wrenched knee). The rest of the lot, night to night, operates on a wing and a prayer. Nick Boynton, the most talented of those who remain, has struggled badly after missing all of training camp and a week of the regular season because of contract woes. Hal Gill, who can be valuable in spots, has been vastly overplayed and, as a consequence, prone to penalties. Veteran Jiri Slegr brings sporadic pop, but often gets in trouble. And from there, it's trick or treat with a bunch of newbies, including Kevin Dallman, Andrew Alberts, and Milan Jurcina. Meanwhile, Mark Stuart, who could be an answer, remains a Providence Wanna-B.
All in all, the last two games it often looked like an AHL defense trying to play up to NHL standards. If there was ever a need to remind one and all that the NHL is the best league in the world, Boston's defense proved it.
Amid the blue line meltdown, no one up front has seized the day. Asked about that following the 5-2 loss on the Island, with no single name thrown his way, Sullivan went out of his way to throw props at team captain Joe Thornton.
''Playing his heart out," noted Sullivan.
That, folks, is Sullivan's way, and it is protectionism at its finest. Thornton is getting his points, no doubt, and he is logging plenty of ice time, even shooting a little more than usual. But no one, be he protectionist or dyed-in-the-wool Jumbo Joe booster, can say Thornton has been a dominant force for more than even a handful of shifts thus far.
Thornton usually can be found, with the puck, in one of two places -- either behind the net, or over on the right half-board. He's a center, his positioning is fine, and he's been very successful with some artful passes. It would be insane to quibble with the numbers on his stat sheet. He could finish with a career-best 120 points or more this season remaining right where he is, in his comfort zone, orchestrating play but by no means dictating it.
In this case, there is a vast difference between points and presence. This is a team crying out right now for Thornton, the $6.67 million-a-year captain, to be its emotional, physical, and yes, production leader. By those standards, what we are seeing here is Thornton Light, a long bottle that looks good, tastes fine, but in the end just doesn't deliver all the goods necessary. Not a lot of players across the league do, of course, but Thornton has the profile, the game, and the paycheck to be expected to be everyone's Some Kinda Wonderful in times like these. Thus far, not even close.
Meanwhile, Sullivan lauds Thornton, because he must be convinced it eventually will summon the beast within the body. Sounds like a plan. Looks like something else.
Could be a career killer for the affable Sullivan.
There are other candidates among the forwards, of course. Counting Tom Fitzgerald, whom Sullivan gave the night off Saturday, there are a dozen others who would be more than welcome to take a game by the throat and give it a shake.
Glen Murray could be expected to do it, but he hasn't delivered.
Dave Scatchard has a set of broad shoulders and toughness, and maybe one day it will come from him. But not yet.
The rest of the forward bunch, of varying skills and ages and health, doesn't have the frames or the games to be what this team needs -- someone to step up, night after night, and set the tone, be a leader, put some identity back into that Spoked-B Black-and-Gold sweater that once was synonymous with courage and effort and knowing at least when to attempt to do the right thing and being accountable.
Over the years, true, the W's weren't always there, and that's the same now. What we've seen thus far in 2005-06 is that it isn't always just about the end result, but how a team gets there. There is losing, and there is losing. For a team trying desperately to reestablish its relevance in this town, these losses are damning.
