FELGER’S OPENING STATEMENT
First of all, let me make one thing clear to you, Joey: This is an exercise where I detail how the Bruins COULD lose in the first round, not how they WILL. Big difference, obviously. So you and your hairy forearms can just settle down. I am not predicting their opening series demise….yet. If the postseason started today, the B’s would draw the Hurricanes, and (again, presuming Game 1 was tonight) I would make the B’s a slight favorite in that one. I say “slight” only because the Bruins are playing poorly right now. My expectation is that matters will improve over the next three weeks and they’ll be playing closer to the level they were in November and December by the playoffs. And in that eventuality, then I would strongly favor the B’s against the `Canes or any other Eastern Conference opponent not named the Devils or Capitals.
But if things remain status quo, the Bruins not only COULD lose to anybody, they most certainly WILL. And then you'll be back to covering JV volleyball or whatever it is you do for the Woburn Bugle.
So, to begin, the thing that concerns me the most about this team is the large number of players who have seen their games fall off a cliff over the last two months.
The most important guy to me has been center David Krejci. He was the team’s best forward through January, in my opinion, and one of the big reasons I started to take the B’s seriously again in the first place. He gave them two legit scoring lines and great two-way versatility as a penalty-killer and a defensive centerman. He reminded me of Adam Oates. Did everything well. A budding star. The kind of guy that plays for teams that go deep in the playoffs.
But something happened to him along the way. After being a point-a-game guy in November (4-9-13 totals), a force in December (6-15-21) and a steady producer in January (5-8-13), he dipped in February (2-5-7 in 13 games) and has been nearly invisible in March (1-1-2 in six games). The playmaking Czech has just two assists in his last 11 games. Yikes. You can’t win a Stanley Cup with one line. Unless Krejci picks it up (or Patrice Bergeron re-emerges into a second-line guy), the B’s are toast.
But Krejci is far from alone, Joey. After a hot start (25 goals through his first 39 games), Phil Kessel has found his way back on the milk carton. It seems to me he’s got one move (a charge down the right wing followed by a drag and curl in the high slot), and it doesn’t work anymore. I rarely see him in front of the net. He still has incredible speed, but what good does it do him? Heading into Thursday's gimmie against Ottawa (when he potted two goals), Kessel had scored just four goals since New Year’s Day. And don’t give me the Mono thing. Kessel has a history of disappearing, even when healthy, and so he has again. Time to put out another APB for the former Badger (yes, I can take down one of my own).
Meanwhile, Blake Wheeler hasn’t scored a goal in ten games. Milan Lucic, while starting to throw his body around again, is scoreless in his last 12 games. And even though defenseman Dennis Wideman is currently tied for the league-league in plus/minus with Krejci and New Jersey’s Travis Zajac (+33), his play has dropped off badly of late. Over his last 17 games Wideman is just +1.
As I’ve said before, there’s two ways to look at this. If you’re being positive, you look at the ages of Krejci (22), Kessel (21), Wheeler (22), Lucic (20), and Wideman (25) and say it’s simply a matter of young guys experiencing some very natural highs and lows. They’ll be back. But if you’re being fatalistic, the conclusion is more ominous: These guys just aren’t as good as we thought they were. Obviously, if it’s the latter this team isn’t going anywhere.
I have two more concerns that will send the ball-washers in the Bruins media (that means you, Joey) reaching for the tissues: the goalie and the coach. That’s right. Tim Thomas and Claude Julien. I’m not sold on either. They’ve got to prove it first, don’t they?
Yes, they’ve both been very
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