The bruins have 3 points through their first 3 games. A shootout win vs the devils. An overtime loss to the devils and yesterday a loss in regulation to the islanders. However that is not the bad part. The bruins have now gone 3 full games with out a 5-5 goal. That is not good. But wait, I'm having dejavu because I swear that's been said before...ohhh wait it has! Every year. the bulk of the people who were upset over losing Krug and Chara seem to have forgot the fact that both of them were primarily special teams guys. Our special teams seems not to have skipped a beat as the bruins have 2 Powerplay goals and one short handed goal so far. But zero 5-5. Pastrnak is coming back in February but if you think that is gonna be an immediate fix, well then we have more to discuss. The bruins are about to enter a home stretch with 4 games against Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. They are going to need more then special teams goals if they are going to be successful against those teams. On the other hand, Tuukka and Jaro have been very good so far. Tuukka getting the second start. Both look good and are controlling the pace of play very well. The brightest spot I've seen so far through 3 game is Kevan Miller. He looks fantastic. If he can keep this up he may prove wrong all the nay sayers who said he wouldn't be able to anchor the D this season. The bruins are going to need strong play on the back end if they are gonna be snake bitten 5-5. I heard an interesting factoid during the first broadcast. In game 1 of the season David Krejci for the first time in 4 years started a season with the same line mates that he had at the end of the previous season. Wanna guess what happened in game 2? YUP, Cassidy and company changed his line paring. Now yes Kase was hurt and they needed to find someone obviously. My fear is that when Kase comes back he will not be put with Krejci and therefore it will mess up his line once again. They moved Jack Studnika back to the Krejci line and moved up Jake DeBrusk. I think this was a better choice then giving the unproven rookie first crack at top line while Pastrnak is out. DeBrusk brings a fire and toughness that is matched by Marchand and Bergeron fills in perfectly. When the season started I said I didn't like that Trent Frederic was on the roster and not a healthy scratch. I'm happy to say i was only a little wrong. He does have that fire and poise of a kid who knows this could be his one shot this season. That being said he is making bad plays and is out of position more often then not because hes trying to run around and be "that guy" I think if he just stays solid and plays his position he should be fine. Hes got a great shot and his puck awareness is right there with the best of them. He just needs to calm down a bit and play hockey.
All in all id say I'm right around 40% happy with how the bruins have started out. They are doing the right things in terms of toughness, Defense and solid goal tending. Now they just need to score some 5-5 goals.
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