To say that the Bruins looked better in the second game would be an understatement of the obvious. The hit the ice with more intensity and energy with Krejci, Ryder and Chara all just missing some early goals. The first power play showed some great movement and tons of shots even though only 4 were credited as being on goal it seemed like the team put 10 or more into the area. But then the giveaway reared it’s ugly head and Boychuk lets Korpikovsky loose on a shorthanded breakaway. Thomas took over where Rask left off stopping it and keeping the Coyotes off the board. This would be the theme for the game, Thomas doing everything he can to keep the turnover’s and poor defense from turning into Coyote points.
The bright spot for the Bruins was that their work in the offensive zone was much more consistent. The Krejci line still was a force and Phoenix had a hard time throughout the game keeping them in check. The rest of the team really needs to work hard to keep up with their intensity throughout the game. Other offensive standouts were Wheeler working with Caron and Recchi working with Seguin. The power play was solid even though they didn’t get any points off of it, I can see that if they work this hard on it all year long they will improve on last years numbers. Having Seguin with Recchi on the second power play line will help as well. Two of the three goals were scored by the first line, in fact 4 of the 5 Bruins goals are from the first line which is disturbing. The goal everyone is talking about, and rightly so, is Seguin’s breakaway which was started by an even more impressive pass from Ryder. I noticed that Seidenberg started to get involved in the offensive end in the third period as well and hustled back at one point to stop a 4 on 3.
The biggest issue in the game was that the Bruins defense was too soft and the team turned the puck over too much and gave up too many breakaways. I counted at least 3 in the first period alone and neither goalie will be able to stop them all, just look at Rask the night before. Thomas was lucky that the Coyotes missed an empty net twice in the third period. The Bruins were not very physical in their own end either, The defense likes to follow the puck and try to poke check instead of knocking the player off of the puck. At one point in the Second period Seguin was battling for the puck in the Phoenix end and when Yandle was able to get the puck on a pass and walk it through to Thomas with three Bruins watching him and not hitting him. Earlier in the period Marchand, Chara, and Campbell all watched as Stempniak skated the puck into the Bruins zone and was able to get a shot off about 1o feet from Thomas. It just seems like they are afraid to get a penalty called on them or would rather trust that the goalie will stop the puck if they don’t block his view.
The Bruins announcers gave the team a perfect 10 but there were way too many easy chance for the Coyotes to give the team more than a 7 out of 10 rating. The team was credited with 42 hits which is actually more than Phoenix but I would say they need to get more physical and it goes with out saying that the odd man rush turnovers need to stop or else this will be a long season. The first line has 9 points, rest of the team 6, not a good ratio to start the season. But there is definitely a ton of positives to take out of this game as well as the first and the season is young and if the turn around after the second period of the first game is an indication they will only get better an fix the problems.
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