Round 2: Columbus Blue Jackets

joe dokes

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I love Chara and look forward to 33 being in the rafters some day, but Carlo needs to be out there with either Charlie or Gryz in the final minute. Z has been a liability in getting clears and is completely exposed with the extra skater out there.
Carlo has been shadowing panarin, so I think having him getting the closing minute is right around the corner.
Didn't get to the game until mid3rd period radio last night, right as Beers was saying something like "I know all that but 42 is 42."
 

The Gray Eagle

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Fluto in the Athletic with a good story on Chara's struggles, how the BJs are attacking him, and how the forwards could help.

"In some ways, Chara is built for opponents like Columbus. In Game 2, Chara obliterated Riley Nash, hitting him hard enough that the lasting effects most likely contributed to the ex-Bruin’s unavailability for Games 4 and 5. Even at 42 years old, the strongman can overpower roughnecks like Nick Foligno, Boone Jenner and Josh Anderson when they rumble down low.

The Blue Jackets, however, have adapted. They now believe they are better served getting to their rush game instead of grinding in half-court offense.

Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo and Matt Grzelcyk are suited to play this style. Lively legs and fleet feet allow them to close quickly before rushes blow up into Grade-A chances.

Chara is not as well-equipped to defend in this manner. As a result, the Blue Jackets have not been shy about going straight at Chara — and enjoying favorable outcomes...

When Chara is playing well, he uses his stick like a Jersey barrier. By stretching out a sturdy and precise stick, Chara can blunt rushes by steering opponents into dead-water detours. Chara can also negate attacks when he gaps up and discourages puck carriers from accelerating.

But a wobbly stick and slack gaps have, at times, placed Chara on an island: backtracking against onrushing attackers instead of killing their rushes stoutly and aggressively. Big men like Foligno, Jenner and Anderson are far more dangerous when they can use the length of the ice as a runway to gather speed with the puck.

“At the start of the series, they were playing behind us a lot,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Then all of a sudden, now they’re more attack-oriented one-on-one. They’re willing to challenge our (defensemen) one-on-one. We just have to understand where we want to put them. If your gap is good, or even with the forward, usually you can dictate where you want them to go with a good stick and keep them to the outside. They’ve gotten inside on us a few times for some really good chances. Boone Jenner, in particular, has done a real good job of that.”

This has not all been on Chara. Forwards, especially the third man high, are critical in helping Chara keep tight gaps. If they reload better in Game 6, Chara will not be as isolated when Columbus completes jailbreaks.

“Our forwards can help with back pressure on those as well,” Cassidy said. “If they tighten the gap on how much room they have to get inside with good back pressure, then they won’t be able to make those moves. They’ll have to be outside — chips and shots from outside the dots. Part of it goes on the forwards as well to make sure you reclaim your ice when you’re working back.”
 

FL4WL3SS

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I honestly didn't think Chara was great in the Toronto series either, so I'm not sure I buy the argument that it's opponent driven. There's a real possibility that he's just gassed and I'd love to see Cassidy make some adjustments, especially with how well the rest of the defense is playing.

They've been to several overtimes and took the last series to game 7, I don't expect him to improve much as the playoffs progress.
 

BaseballJones

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Very tough series. Four shots by CBJ off the pipes today. Very lucky for Boston. But Tuukka was incredible and they did what they had to do. Now take a couple of days to heal and rest up and get after the bunch of jerks on Thursday.
 

lexrageorge

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Very tough series. Four shots by CBJ off the pipes today. Very lucky for Boston. But Tuukka was incredible and they did what they had to do. Now take a couple of days to heal and rest up and get after the bunch of jerks on Thursday.
The pipe shots make up for Game 3 where Boston could have had a couple of goals.

Bruins beat a highly skilled and fast skating team in Toronto, and a hard-hitting tough team in Columbus. B's are 4-2 on the road these playoffs. Now they get a well earned break before the next meat grinder.
 

BaseballJones

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The pipe shots make up for Game 3 where Boston could have had a couple of goals.

Bruins beat a highly skilled and fast skating team in Toronto, and a hard-hitting tough team in Columbus. B's are 4-2 on the road these playoffs. Now they get a well earned break before the next meat grinder.
Well it doesn't really work that way, as you know, but yeah, I'm very happy with how they're playing. Firing pretty much on all cylinders now. I like their chances.
 

Jordu

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Tweet from The Athletic’s Blue Jackets beat reporter: “Tortorella said he thought Game 6 was CBJ’s best of the series. Said team had opportunities but Rask ‘took off.’”
 

veritas

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April 11:
I've been a Kuraly-stan for a while. He's a rare 4th liner who actually impacts games and doesn't just look like he's trying hard and hitting people. I also think Nordstrom has been very effective in these playoffs, with the exception of a couple boneheaded plays. Teams like to call their 4th liners "role players" then give them garbage minutes vs other teams' 4th lines. The Bruins' 4th line actually plays a role, and it lets the top 3 lines get better matchups and better zone starts than any other team.
 

Maximus

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Kuraly has made a remarkable difference for them. He makes so so many positive plays and very few negative.
He's terrific and such a difference maker in this series. We missed him vs. the Leafs.
 

veritas

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?
I'm now a Raskafarian.
According to urban dictionary, a Stan is "A crazed and or obsessed fan. The term comes from the song Stan by eminem. The term Stan is used to describe a fan who goes to great lengths to obsess over a celebrity."

I also thought it was a portmanteau of stalker and fan, but UD doesn't agree.
 

joe dokes

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Very tough series. Four shots by CBJ off the pipes today. Very lucky for Boston. But Tuukka was incredible and they did what they had to do. Now take a couple of days to heal and rest up and get after the bunch of jerks on Thursday.
Somebody in the locker room scrum asked Rask about the pipes. Without missing a beat, and with a little grin, he said, "good angles."
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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Tweet from The Athletic’s Blue Jackets beat reporter: “Tortorella said he thought Game 6 was CBJ’s best of the series. Said team had opportunities but Rask ‘took off.’”
Torts sure changed his tune from the other night when he said they "dented" Tuukka.

Can't say enough about Rask last night. My goodness.
 

cshea

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Series wrap up and thoughts:

- The Bruins were the better 5x5 team, outscoring Columbus 13-7. There were some helter skelter moments, but for the most part the Bruins controlled the games and played at their pace. 54% attempts, 53% shots, 53% scoring chances. High danger chances were 48-48 so the Jackets did a good job keeping the Bruins to the outside and also generating more high danger looks out of less possession.

- Rask was the difference. Bobrovsky was tremendous, but Rask was other worldly good.

- Panarin, Bobrovsky and Seth Jones were Columbus’ best players. Panarin got his (3g 3a) but they needed more from the supporting cast. Atkinson didn’t score in 6 games. Anderson had 1 assist. Bjorkstrand had 1 assist. Dubois had 1g 1a. The Bruins got more out of their supporting cast, especially when the top line struggled a bit early in the series.

- Curious to see where CBJ goes from here. They shoved a lot of chips in. The reward was the franchise’s best moment in the Tampa sweep, but ultimately they fell pretty short of the Cup. Did they do enough to convince some of the UFA’s to stay? Seems most still believe Panarin and Bob are gone. Maybe they convince Duchene to stay, but that also means losing their 2020 1st round pick. They have no draft capital, 3rd and 7th are all they have left for 2019 draft, and in 2020 they have already traded their 2nd and 3rd with the 1st in limbo pending Duchene’s decision. It’s tough to see them improving next year without Bob and Panarin, so if those 2 still don’t sign, was it worth it?
 

NYCSox

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Series wrap up and thoughts:

- The Bruins were the better 5x5 team, outscoring Columbus 13-7. There were some helter skelter moments, but for the most part the Bruins controlled the games and played at their pace. 54% attempts, 53% shots, 53% scoring chances. High danger chances were 48-48 so the Jackets did a good job keeping the Bruins to the outside and also generating more high danger looks out of less possession.

- Rask was the difference. Bobrovsky was tremendous, but Rask was other worldly good.

- Panarin, Bobrovsky and Seth Jones were Columbus’ best players. Panarin got his (3g 3a) but they needed more from the supporting cast. Atkinson didn’t score in 6 games. Anderson had 1 assist. Bjorkstrand had 1 assist. Dubois had 1g 1a. The Bruins got more out of their supporting cast, especially when the top line struggled a bit early in the series.

- Curious to see where CBJ goes from here. They shoved a lot of chips in. The reward was the franchise’s best moment in the Tampa sweep, but ultimately they fell pretty short of the Cup. Did they do enough to convince some of the UFA’s to stay? Seems most still believe Panarin and Bob are gone. Maybe they convince Duchene to stay, but that also means losing their 2020 1st round pick. They have no draft capital, 3rd and 7th are all they have left for 2019 draft, and in 2020 they have already traded their 2nd and 3rd with the 1st in limbo pending Duchene’s decision. It’s tough to see them improving next year without Bob and Panarin, so if those 2 still don’t sign, was it worth it?
There is something to be said for having the balls to go for it the way Jarmo did. If they had gotten by the Bruins they may have been a slight favorite to win it all.
 

The Napkin

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right here

lexrageorge

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I mistakenly clicked on 93.7 and 98.5 a couple of times today, and the faux outrage over Marchand's interview was over the top. For whatever reason, the so-called sports journalists were seriously offended by it.
 

kenneycb

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MiracleOfO2704

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So, there's a guy up in Toronto named Steve Dangle. His entire career has basically been making over-the-top postgame reaction videos to every Leafs game since just after the lockout. He's gone from a kid with a job at the Toronto Zoo posting videos in his bedroom at his parents' place to a host of Sportsnet's streaming version of On The Fly called Ice Surfing, a podcast with a couple of his buddies, and an autobiography that's selling well.

Also, as evidenced in this video, the Bruins in general, and Brad Marchand in particular, live totally rent-free deep in his brain.


You only need to watch about 20 minutes after where I set the video to start, but the point is that this is exactly the caricature we'd make up of Leafs fans: nothing more than Habs fans that live in Ontario, speak English, and think it's actually their team that embodies Pure Hockey and those damned Bruins are savages from south of the border, hellbent on ruining the sport. Forget that the refs called the McAvoy penalty the way it's written in the book (something most of us pointed out is pretty stupid), this is the proof that the Bruins are a gang of on-ice thugs with nothing but dirty players (really? McAvoy's a dirty player? Since when?), and the league is complicit. You have to listen through it, because it is just so cringe.
 

InstaFace

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kenneycb

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"his antics take away from the great player he is on the ice".

I mean, as a general statement, does anyone here disagree? Christ, it's hard to root for him sometimes.
Maybe they do. This example is not a case of one of his antics. It's no different than a run of the mill Wednesday press conference in Foxboro.
 

lexrageorge

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"his antics take away from the great player he is on the ice".

I mean, as a general statement, does anyone here disagree? Christ, it's hard to root for him sometimes.
Why should anyone care what he doesn't say in a post-game interview? That has absolutely nothing to do with the reasons I root for him.
 

kenneycb

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It's media navel gazing. He's making their job harder to do (while providing them ample levels of content) so the media mavens are going to try to get the general public to turn on him because this behavior cannot be tolerated.
 

TheoShmeo

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It's media navel gazing. He's making their job harder to do (while providing them ample levels of content) so the media mavens are going to try to get the general public to turn on him because this behavior cannot be tolerated.
Yup. Reminds me of the annual media crying columns about Belichick’s demeanor.
 

reggiecleveland

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InstaFace

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Maybe they do. This example is not a case of one of his antics. It's no different than a run of the mill Wednesday press conference in Foxboro.
That much I agree with, sure. I didn't mean to suggest I had a problem with his press conference (just the on-ice antics), but that's how it reads.
 

lexrageorge

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That much I agree with, sure. I didn't mean to suggest I had a problem with his press conference (just the on-ice antics), but that's how it reads.
With the exception of one game, Marchand has toned down the on-ice antics quite a bit. And what happened in that one game was hardly outside the norm of what regularly happens in the NHL playoffs.
 

NYCSox

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We're talking about the Toronto media here. The same assholes who are bitter that Connor McDavid isn't a Leaf, that Phil Kessel has won two Cups and that their wonderboys keep getting slapped around by the Bruins.
 

kenneycb

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To the greater point, his antics also probably make him as good a player as he is. It's just how he's wired. He needs to be mucking up in the shit for him to be at his best for one reason or another. Sometimes that mucking crosses the line and, at this point, is probably something you just have to accept at this point given his age and status as one of the top forwards in the league.
 

RIFan

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Back when Marchand was with the PBruins, my son won a raffle to pick a player that would take him to lunch. He picked Marchand. Marchand was warm, personable and really engaged with a shy 9 year old. I'm sure it wasn't how he wanted to spend an off afternoon, but not for one minute did it appear that he was just doing his duty for the org. If you didn't know better you would think he volunteered. He was simply great. I did get to ask him why he was such an instigator. He had a simple answer. He had to play that way to get on the ice. He wasn't the biggest, fastest or best player so he had to find ways to make himself valuable. That was especially true when he was coming through juniors when not a lot of coaches would give a 5'5"-5'6" kid much of a look. It's been ingrained in him from early age.
 

LogansDad

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Thanks RIFan, that actually meshes with a lot of what I have heard of him as well. My sister met him a few years back (and Bergy, *swoon*), and she said he was awesome.

As for the media stuff, I largely think the non-stat driven media types are try hards who have a way larger sense of self-importance than how important they really are, so i think it's hilarious. He didn't do anything malicious at all, and he's clearly been pissed off since he got asked the stupid question about Atkinson's stick (Atkinson was tooling it up a bit in that scrum, too, though I admit the skate incident was probably a bit too far... but I'm sure Atkinson was trying to get under his skin and got what he wanted).

As for the cross check, he had just played the puck and had an opposing player bearing down on him and his hands and stick came up. It sucks, but it's a part of hockey sometimes, and if were anyone on the Bruins other than Marchand we aren't even talking about it. There haven't been any "on-ice antics" other than those this post season. And if those are making it hard for you to root for one of the best forwards in the game, then you are probably watching the wrong sport.
 

In my lifetime

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Asking Torts not to shoot his mouth off is like asking the tide not to come in. It's futile and makes both parties look foolish.
Some might find it interesting that off the ice, John is an extremely laid back and a very good guy. He was my assistant baseball coach when he was with the Rangers. Every time the ump would make a horrendous call, I would look over at John and ask him if it was worth saying anything. His response every time "let it go." Of course, he had a great perspective coaching when calls mean someone's job as opposed to coaching young players. So we spent the entire season with the quietest bench in the league and it was a real pleasure. It seems unlikely that John, who isn't shy about getting in the refs ears (of course when it matters), taaught me a very valuable lesson that I carried on as a high school football coach. I never raise my voice to any referee. As a result, my assistant coaches, my players and their parents are for the most part extremely courteous to the refs. In the end, it makes the entire season much more enjoyable for all.