Zach Hamill: BUST?

I've gotten a few questions from friends about Zach Hamill.  I'm pretty low on him and rather quick to lay on the verbal assault.  Can I really call him a BUST at the age of 23?  Seems a little harsh.  I'm a complete disaster of a bust if you base my career from college to 23.  But luckily I'm not judging myself...

In 2006 we drafted Kessel 5th overall and then we were drafting Hamill 8th overall the following year.  He had over 90 points during the 2006-2007 in juniors, so it seemed like a good pick at the time.  For a team that was struggling to score, I was pretty pumped.  I didn't think Hamill was going to make the club immediately, but had high hopes that a year or so working out and developing in Providence would work wonders.  WRONG!

I looked at all the forwards that were drafted in the 1st round of 2007, paying even closer attention to the ones drafted in the top 10.  Does anyone else see that ugly duckling?! 

Yeah I know hindsight is 20/20 but COME ON MAN!  Don't tell me that there are others in the first round that haven't done anything either. I'd tell you I consider them busts as well.  You need to look at where Hamill was drafted.  Number 8 overall and he's only appeared in 4 games in 4 seasons!!  That's it. 

He's had opportunities too.  Bergeron went down for almost an entire year with a concussion from 2007-2008 and then Savard was out the end of the 2009-2010 season and most of last season.  If the brass felt like Hamill was good enough, they would've slated him in for a few games.

I say he's a bust.  What do you guys think?

Roster Breakdown 2

Seven more players have been assigned to Providence.  As I mentioned in the update to the first roster breakdown, Zach Hamill needs to clear waivers in order to be assigned to Providence.  Trent Whitfield is also in the same boat.

F Zach Hamill (2007 1st Round Pick, 8th overall)
F Trent Whitfield (1996 4th Round)
F Jamie Arniel (2008 4th Round)

D Colby Cohen (2007 2nd Round by COL - part of Hunwick trade)
D Zach McKelvie (undrafted signed in 2009 but not released from the Army until recently)
D David Warsofsky (2008 4th Round by STL - part of Sobotka trade)

G Michael Hutchinson (2008 3rd Round)


Who's left?  Glad you asked!  We're coming down the home stretch and almost all the spots are already locked up as this team looks very similar to the one that just raised the Cup.  There's still some good competition going on.

Forwards:
LOCKS - Patrice Bergeron, Gregory Campbell, Nathan Horton, Chris Kelly, David Krejci, Milan Lucic, Brad "the Gnat" Marchand, Rich Peverley, Tyler Seguin, Shawn Thornton

FIGHTING - Jordan Caron, Chris Clark, Benoit Pouliot, Lane MacDermid, Daniel Paille, Max Sauve

PREDICTION - Paille and Pouliot with Clark being the healthy scratch to start the season.  I don't like it, but Claude hates change and loves veterans.  Personally I'd like to see Paille/Pouliot the healthy scratches, Clark on the fourth line, and Caron on the third, but I just don't feel thats the way Claude's going to draw it up.

Defensemen:
LOCKS - Johnny Boychuk, Zdeno Chara, Joe Corvo, Andrew Ference, Adam "the Dude" McQuaid, Dennis Seidenberg

FIGHTING - Matt Bartkowski, Steve Kampfer

PREDICTION - I give the edge to Kampfer since he's played with the team before, but basically a coin flip at this point.

Goalies: Anton Khudobin is still in camp and has been playing well.  He only gets any time if an injury occurs to either Thomas or Rask.

Cup Engravings / New Banner

The 2010-2011 Bruins are finally etched in history.  A picture has surfaced as what the engravings on the holy grail look like.  I saw this over at the Days of Y'Orr Bruins Blog. 

I'm happy to see that the league allowed Savvy's name to appear on the cup, classy move.  It's also nice to see Cam Neely's name on the cup.  Even though it wasn't as a player, he obviously played an enormous role in bringing the Cup back to the Hub.

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I also meant to post this up awhile ago.  The B's have taken down their old championship banners and replaced them with new ones.  The new ones bear (get it!) the logo that was used at the time of the championship.  Check those out here.  I like 'em.  Can't wait for number 6!!!

Roster Breakdown

UPDATE (3:50pm): Since Zach Hamill has played three full season for the Baby B's, he has to clear waivers to return to Providence.  He has been placed on waivers, so if he's not claimed he'll be added to the list of Providence Bruins.  Is it mean if I hope he's claimed?



With a hair over a week before the banner gets raise, there have already been a series of cuts.  Before the first preseason game against Ottawa, five players were sent to Providence and one back to his juniors team.  After the Islanders game, an addition ten were sent to Providence and four sent back to their juniors team.  As expected, Dougie Hamilton will be returning to his juniors team.  I will be following his season down there throughout the year and do a periodic update on our prospects.

Providence Bruins:
Tyler Randell (2009 6th Round)
Stefan Chaput (2006 5th Round by CAR)
Calle Ridderwall (undrafted - signed in 2011)
Kyle MacKinnon (undrafted - signed in 2011)
Yannick Riendeau (undrafted - signed in 2009)

Craig Cunningham (2010 4th Round)
Ryan Button (2009 3rd Round)
Andrew Bodnarchuk (2006 5th Round)
Josh Hennessy (2003 2nd Round by SJS)
Nathan McIver (2003 8th Round by VAN)
Jamie Tardif (2003 4th Round by CGY)
Marc Cantin (undrafted - signed in 2011)
Carter Camper (undrafted - signed in 2011)
Kirk MacDonald (undrafted - signed 2009)
Kevan Miller (undrafted - signed 2011)


Junior Teams:
Anthony Camara (2011 3rd Round) - Saginaw

Dougie Hamilton (2011 1st Round) - Niagara
Alexander Khokhlachev (2011 2nd Round) - Windsor
Ryan Spooner (2010 2nd Round) - Kingston
Jared Knight (2010 2nd Round) - London

Preseason Sweep

Preseason Game 4: Good Guys 2 - Bad Guys 1 (Bell Centre)
When the Patriots can't beat the Bills and the Red Sox just don't know how to play baseball, I'll take even more enjoyment in a Bruins victory over the Habs.  So what if it's a preseason game, the B's have beaten the Habs on back-to-back nights. 

Tuukka got his second start of the preseason tonight for and didn't disappoint us, collected 31 saves in the victory.  Another positive sign was the power play scored again, this time from Seguin.  Man I want to see him on the first unit pretty damn badly.  When was the last time the power play scored in 3 straight games, 2003!?

We got some serious competition going on between some forwards and dmen.  Both Caron and Clark (1 G) had solid games on the forward front.  My question is why do we assume it has to be one of these two?  If they are playing better than Paille and/or Pouliot, why can't they go?  We'll keep an eye here.

Another one that continues to develop is for the 7th defenseman between Kampfer and Bartkowski.  Both had solid games again last night.  If they both prove they should be in the bigs, do one of them get traded?  Or does one of the big boys (Boychuk) get traded?  The plot thickens...

Preseason Games Part 1

I'll run through the preseason games that happened so far.  Now this all my opinion on what I've read, so an opinion of an opinion.

Preseason Game 1:    Ottawa 2 - Boston 1 (OT)
There isn't much to talk about in this game.  Even though it went to overtime, from what I read the Senators controlled the entire game.  The reason the Bruins were able to keep it close was because Rask played a great game (34 saves).  Lane MacDermid, playing on a line with Chris Kelly and Shawn Thornton, scored the only goal for the Bruins.  As the first preseason game, I'll just be happy Rask played well and we'll move on...


Preseason Game 2:    Boston 6 - Islanders 3 (TD Garden)
Is there some man-crush going on with the Islanders??  Rookie games, this preseason game and another one this weekend.  Sheesh.  Well, this game didn't start out well for the B's, with Thomas letting in 2 of the first 5 shots he faced.  They turned that around as you can see by the final score.  It also looks like my prediction of Jordan Caron stepping into Recchi's spot on the second line is not looking too good.  Not because Caron is playing poorly, but because the line of Marchand (1 G, 1 A, +2), Bergeron (1 G, 2 A, +2), and Peverley (1 G, 2 A, +3) absolutely dominated this game.  It's also good to see Lucic (2 A) and Krejci (1 G) show up on the stat sheet.

Remember that awful power play last year?  Yeah, I don't want to either, but that will definitely be under the microscope all preseason and season until they can prove us they've turned it around.  They took a step in the right direction going 2-5 on the man advantage.


Preseason Game 3:    Boston 7 - Habs 3 (Halifax)
Even in preseason, it's always awesome to beat the Canadiens.  Again the Bruins scored 2 power play goals (Corvo and Marchand) and even 2 shorties (Chara and Paille).  Best part of this game?  Horton playing.  We've seen what concussions have done to Savard and Crosby, so it's nice to see Horton has been able to bounce back like Bergeron.

From what I'm reading, both Matt Bartkowski and Steven Kampfer are having good preseasons.  I'd give the edge to Kampfer since he's had some big league experience already.  Camp invitee Chris Clark (veteran who had his best seasons with the Capitals), is also having a good early preseason.  He could put a wrinkle in Jordan Caron making the team.  Caron doesn't have to clear waivers to be sent down to Providence, but Clark does.  Clark also has that "veteran experience" that Claude drools over.

Goaltenders

Tuukka Rask (11-14-2   GAA: 2.67   SV%: 0.918  $1.25M):  After a coming out party in 2009-2010, Rask was slow out of the gate this past season, not picking up his first win until Nov 18th (his 5th try!).  I didn't think he played as poorly as his win-loss record indicated, but he definitely struggled.  There seemed to be a few bad breaks go against him along with the team not playing as well in front of him. 

There was a stretch in late February to early March where Timmy wasn't playing well. He looked a little slow and flat out tired.  Julien leaned on Tuukka to take a heavier work load for a bit and he responded by playing well during that stretch.  That allowed Timmy to get some rest and finish off the year strong. Although Tuukka would love to the be starter, he began to grasp the backup role.

From what you see on TV after the games, Tuukka seemed to have a great attitude about being the back-up to Thomas.  The two seemed to have a solid relationship and Tuukka was always there to greet him with a smile.  Tuukka is the future goaltender of this team, he just has one of the hottest goaltenders in the league playing in front of him right now.  Give it another year or two and we'll be able to break out our Tuukka Toga's!

We need Tuukka to get off to a better start this year.  Thomas isn't getting any younger and he'll need his rest during the season.  Tuukka needs to be able to step in and provide solid relief in games to show us he's ready to take over.  Look for Chiarelli to lock Tuukka up for a couple more years as he's a restricted free agent after the season.


Tim Thomas (35-11-9   GAA: 2.00   SV%: 0.938  $5.0M):   Thomas had a pretty disappointing season.  It looked like he was going to be the back up after Tuukka took over the starting spot in 2009-2010.  Let's talk straight here, he was an awful back up.  The back up is suppose to periodically spell the starter, not completely take over.  How many back ups in the league break the record for save percentage in a season?  None.  How many back ups win the Vezina Trophy (best goaltender during the regular season) and Conn Smythe (MVP of the playoffs)?  None.

Alright, enough goofing.  At the age of 36 (at the beginning of the year), people thought Thomas was done after the season he had in 2009-2010.  Apparently he just needed a little hip surgery and BOOM, even better than new.  The season he had was downright filthy.  Then when you thought it couldn't get any better, it did.  After the first two playoff games, Thomas was a brick wall.  Without Thomas, the B's probably don't even win the division let alone the Stanley Cup.  Can't you just hear Jack now, "AAAHH SUPERMAN!", every time he made save?!

A lot of people point to the save against the Lightning as the save of the year.  I can be swayed, but I answer your save with another.  While that save was absolutely amazing, and one hell of a Reebok commercial, the save of the year to me literally saved their season.  Game 5 versus the Canadiens in 2OT. No, losing this game doesn't end their season, but Montreal is a very very tough place to play.  If that goes in, the season is likely over and Horton stops smiling...yeah, that's pretty sad.

Now it's nearly impossible for T-squared to have a better season.  He'd have to break his own record, save a baby from a burning building, beat Chara in an thumb war and win all those shiny trophies again.  Although it's possible, I'd say it's highly unlikely.  I mean, Chara's thumbs are HUGE.  Give me 90% of what you did last year and I'll be happy.

Thomas is another guy that won't get complacent just because they won the Cup.  He's always had the "me against the world" mentality and I don't expect anything different.  You just have to wonder when will his age start to catch up to him.  Luckily if it does, we do have one of the best young goalies as a back up.

Top Line

Nathan Horton (26-27-53 +29  $4.0M):  One of the trickle down effects of the Kessel trade was that it allowed us to shop our own first round draft pick in the 2010 draft.  That led to trading that pick (15th overall), my least favorite player (Wideman), and a 3rd round pick for Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell.  Would you do that trade again?  HELL YEAH!  He's like Bergeron, been in the league for 7 years but only 26 years old!!  All together now: "THANK ...YOU ... KESSEL!!"

I don't think Horton has stopped smiling since he put on the black and gold sweater.  It's got to be a good feeling going from an obismal team in the Panthers to one of the most historic franchises in all of sports.  He started the season out strong, scoring 5 goals in the first 6 games.  This looked like it was going to be highway robbery, but in the middle of the season he hit a bit of a drought.  He could go a week or so without showing up on the score sheet.  "Not even a helper, Dome?"  Yeah, not even a helper. 

I can forget all of that because he came on towards the end of the season and had a monster postseason, scoring 8 playoff goals.  Not to mention two of those being Game 7 game winners (Habs in OT and the epic tilt against the Lightning).  It's obvious how well he's liked on this team, as Rome's hit seemed to be the spark and rallying point the Bruins needed to crush those 'Nucks.  What a feeling that has to be to have the greatest player ever, Bobby Orr, waiving your number at the next game! Now that's what's up!

Then Game 7 squirting some Boston Garden water onto the Vancouver ice.  Watching that footage still gets me fired up!  WOOOOO!!!!  Sorry I got a little excited.

With a whole year under his belt, concussion free, and hopefully confidence sky high, I want to see 30+ goals out of him.  We brought him in to score goals and he has one of the craftiest centerman in the league setting him up.  Put the biscuit in the basket, Horton, and you'll hear plenty of WOOOO's!

David Krejci (13-49-62 +23 $3.75M):  Two years ago, Krejci had a coming out party during the Olympics.  Then once Savvy went down with the first concussion, he filled in nicely on the top line.  Not the only reason, but one of the main reasons we couldn't get passed the Flyers that year was because he got hurt (and we end our discussion about that).

This year I had high hopes for him.  It's hard to say that a player that led the team in assists and points during the regular season and then goals and points in the postseason was a disappointment, but I really wanted to see him break 70 points during the season like he did in 2008-2009. 

Like the rest of the team, he stepped up big in the playoffs, scoring almost as many goals in the playoffs as he did the whole season (12-11-23 +8).  It's not a bad thing that he takes his game to a new level come crunch time, but I would like to see him keep that high level of play throughout the regular season as well.

Krejci's play makes it much easier to swallow the loss of Savard.  The top line is still a force to be reckon with and at 25 years old, I don't think we're close to seeing what he can do.  He's a restricted free agent at the end of this season, so I would love to see Mr. Chiarelli approach him early in the season and get a deal done.  I'm confident that will happen, since they didn't spend any money this offseason with an eye to the future.


Milan Lucic (30-32-62 +28 $4.083m):  Mr. Lucic had the best regular season of his career with career highs in goals, assists and points.  When he's on top of his game, he's a lot of fun to watch.  What Bruin's fan doesn't like a mean power forward?  Crushing defensemen, scoring goals, and just pummelling people he doesn't like.

My favorite play of his, besides when he's playing Mr. Potato-head with someones face, is when he A frame's and glides out from behind the net looking for the backdoor cut.  There aren't too many people in the league that can push him off the puck.

Looch is a very emotional player, which most people will take any day.  He just needs to make sure he doesn't do anything too stupid.  We saw a few times this season that he'll just pop a guy in the face because he's angry (not when they're actually squared up to fight).  If he keeps doing that he might find himself getting suspended, so hopefully he can channel his emotion into a positive manner.

It pains me to say that Lucic had an AWFUL playoffs.  Believe me I was doing everything I could.  I wore my Lucic jersey t-shirt under my Lucic 3rd jersey.  I lit candles on my Lucic shrine and when that didn't work I tried incents.  Nothing worked.  Was he injured?  Maybe, but who isn't at that time of year.  I'm just going to chalk it up to a slump and hope it doesn't bleed into this year.


If we keep these guys, we could have a very good top line for a very long time.  Horton is 26, Krejci is 25, and Lucic is 23.  Look for these guys to have another solid year together.

Rookie Games

In a preview of the 2020 Eastern Conference Finals, the B's just finished up 2 rookie games against the Islanders (what are the odds they'll still be the Islanders in 2020?).  The B's won the first game 8-5, but received a whooping yesterday 7-2.  What should you take out of these games?  Eh, nothing really.  I like to read about them to see if a prospects name continuously pops up, see if anyone could be a sleeper for the big club.  It's also just to start seeing their names, throughout the season there's always an injury and someone on the Baby B's get's called up.  We have a lot of contracts up at the end of this coming season: Campbell, Paille, Peverly, Kelly, Thornton, Pouliot, Boychuk, Corvo are all UFA.  Who out of these young bucks are going to fill the spots??  We can't resign all of those players, plus sign RFA Krejci and Rask.  We need to develop these young lads.

Ryan Spooner, who had solid rookie games last year, scored two goals in the first game.  He's a name that I keep reading.  Him and Suave had a solid showing last year, he'll be one of the guys I keep an eye on this year.  Not to make the club necessarily, but I just want to see improvements.

Jared Knight also had two goals that first game.  He is one piece of the Kessel trade (Kessel for Seguin, Knight and Hamilton). Seguin seems to be a star in the making, Hamilton has a lot of promise, but Knight is the bit of the unknown in this deal.  Any time I see his name I pay special attention because if he pans out, this trade was highway robbery.  It's already looking like it, but even more so if all three of the draftees contribute.

Marchy Re-signs for 2 years $5M

I'm reading some great news over at ESPN.com/Boston.  It's reported that the Gnat has signed a 2-year $5M dollar deal.  I'm absolutely stoked about this deal.  Only a $2.5M cap hit!?  I really thought the B's were going to overpay him for that playoff performance. 

This is a good deal for both sides.  The Gnat is obviously a cocky son of a gun, so there is no way he thinks his play is going to drop off.  If he's right, in two years he'll hit the market and get his money. 

The Bruins were smart in not offering too many years or too much money.  This was Marchy's first year in the league, which is no where near enough data to offer a large contract extension.

Boston Puckheads should be very excited about this, he's back and he's not missing any training camp.  Think he's celebrating tonight??

Top Defenseman

Dennis Seidenberg (7-25-32 +3 $3.25M):    Seidenberg had a solid year, but most importantly he absolutely dominated down the stretch and throughout the playoffs.  The man is just a beast.  He throws bone crushing hits and is just an ox on defense.  He's not too flashy offensively, but as I've said before I look at the assists more than goals for most defenseman.  He did catch Dan Smith sleeping and fired a shot on net from half ice.

Although his +/- is lower than what I would've expected, he still average 23 minutes of ice time per game (second only to Chara).  Once he was paired with Chara for the playoffs, that average jumped to over 27 minutes per game and his +/- for the playoffs was a +12.  Hopefully he can keep his high level of play from the playoffs going into the this upcoming regular season.

This highlight is for my Penguins fans reading.

I don't think we'll see these two paired with each other a whole lot.  Maybe at the end of close games or important games, but throughout the season you didn't see these two matched up too often; spread the defensive wealth a bit over two lines.

Zdeno Chara (14-30-44 +33 $6.50M):   Big Z.  He shut up a lot of critics this season.  He again had a great regular season, which was never the problem for him.  He won the Norris trophy three seasons ago and was a finalist this past year.  This year he erased the "never performs in the playoffs" label and led this team to a championship, getting rewarded by raising the Cup higher than anyone has ever done before!

During the season Chara led the team with a +33 rating and again in the playoffs with a +16.  Looking at the +/- on a game by game basis can be misleading in my opinion.  Just because a player was a -3 for the game doesn't necessarily mean they had a horrible game...it could...but it's not a given.  But if you take a stretch of games, especially a whole season (law of large numbers math geeks out there?), it's a good indicator how well the team does defensively while that player is on the ice.  Now remember Chara isn't going against the Ott's, Avery's, or Moen's of the league.  Z is matched up against the Crosby's, Stamkos', and Kesler's, so to lead the ENTIRE NHL in +/- goes to show you how much of a shut down defender he is.

Not only does he match up against top players night in and night out, he's on the ice for over a third of the game.  He averaged over 25 minutes a game during the regular season and over 27 minutes per game in the playoffs!!!  How does he do it?  He's a freak of nature.  While Marchand is tackling 5 to 7 stages of a pub crawl in the offseason, Chara is tackling 5 to 7 stages of the Tour de France.  That's right, you read correctly.  FOR FUN Chara does some of the Tour de France stages.  His condition is immaculate, but I just wish he wasn't so soft.

Chara's got the contract to keep him a Bruin for the rest of his career, and just by what I read, I don't think the contract nor winning the Cup will make him complacent.  I expect yet another dominate season from the big fella.

Captain's Practice and Rookie Camp Begins

The past two days Chara has held a captain's practice for anyone who wants to start skating around with the team.  If these are anything like my high school soccer captain's practice, these will make or break these players.  Just kidding.  It's probably a nice way to ease back into the routine, get reacquainted with teammates, and get settled in before training camp starts.  Whens that you ask?  ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!!

Rookie Camp officially started today, with 22 of the Bruin's prospects (most noticeably our 1st round pick Dougie Hamilton) taking the ice today.  They will practice for the next few days and then have two rookie games against the Islanders on the 12th  and 13th (on the Island).  The Islanders have sucked the past few years, so you'd think they would have some good young talent in their organization.  The games last year were a lot of fun because you got to see who potentially could make an impact for the B's in the near future.  Seguin was the main attraction last year, who's going to stand out this year?  On the 16th, the big boys come to town for their physicals and training camp officially begins!

Normally there isn't too much to talk about when it comes to captain's practices, but there are three very noteworthy items to mention:

1.) Brad Marchand, even without a contract, is skating with the team.  That is an awesome sign.  He clearly wants to be with the Bruins and he's taking the right approach throughout these negotiations.  Maybe he just has a few bar tabs he needs to pay off...  Or buy a few shirts, he may have lost some earlier in the summer...  Who knows.

2.) Nathan Horton skated with the team today.  A few weeks ago he said he didn't have any post concussion symptoms and would be ready for camp, and this just reassures that.  What would we do without that smile?!

3.) Check out the sweet statue that is outside their practice arena!

2nd Line

Tyler Seguin (11-11-22  -4  $1.25M):  Man, would this kids life be a hell of a lot different if we decided to keep Kessel and Seguin was set to rot in Toronto!  There were a lot of people that got pretty low on Seguin during the year, which I thought was unwarranted.  

Did he have an amazing year?  Nope.  The kid is a 19 year old rookie playing with grown men.  Going from juniors to the NHL has to be like going from elementary school to high school.  What the hell happened to junior high?!  There were a few things going against Seguin this year.  As I just mentioned his age and experience.  At 19 years old I was about 140 lbs with my snowboarding gear on.  Give this guy a few offseasons and I'm sure he'll fill in nicely.  

Next, Claude's system.  We all have seen the glimpse of brilliance that Seguin can bring.  His speed and offensive skill are already top notch and that should only improve.  Claude hates offense and goals and would probably just watch two goalies go at it for 3 periods if he could.  It appeared they wanted Seguin to learn his defensive responsibilities in the system before they cut him loose.  Although that was frustrating, I do think that'll make him a better player in the long run.

I'd like to see the coaching staff take the choke collar off and let him fly a little bit.  When Tampa tried to play an open ice game, you saw how nasty Seguin can be.  With Bergeron feeding him the pucks and Marchy crashing the net, I'm excited as to the potential of Seguin in his second year.  It'll be a crime if he isn't on the top power play unit's sniper as well.


Brad Marchand (21-20-41 +25  $???) - I don't think there was anyone in hockey that could've predicted the season that Marchand had.  I originally thought he was going to be a very solid replacement to Begin on the fourth line.  Early on the season, he looked like the perfect 4th liner.  I even dubbed him the "Gnat" because he would just annoy the hell out of everyone.  Even as a 4th liner, he was still showing off some of his offensive skills.  Eventually, Marchy got promoted to the 2nd line and ends up potting 21 goals!?  Unreal.

It didn't stop there.  He caught on FIRE in the playoffs, scoring 11 goals and 8 helpers.  One of those goals is possibly one of the prettiest shorthanded goals I've ever seen.  Or it might just feel that way because it was on Luongo and made him look like a FOOL!

I know Marchand isn't signed yet, but I have faith he will be.  I'm assuming the B's offered something like 2-3 years $2.5M per and his agent is probably solely focusing on his playoff performance and pushing for more like $3.5M per year.  The Bruins will have to overpay slightly to keep him, but I think it'll remain in the $3M ballpark.

Patrice Bergeron (22-35-57 +20  $5.00M) - Can you believe Bergie is only 26 years old and he's already been on the Bruins for 7 years?!?!?  You forget he made the team as a 19 year old who could barely speak any English.  He's now a well spoken veteran, who I hope spends the rest of his career with the B's.  When Jumbo Joe got traded, I was actually hoping for Bergie to get the C.  Even now I'd prefer him with the C rather than the A.  Nothing against Z, Bergeron's just a solid leader.

This year was his most consistent year he's had in awhile.  Playing in 80 games, he's starting to play like he did pre- Randy Jones hit.  There were many that doubted he would be able to play at a high level again, but luckily he has proven them wrong.  For some reason he isn't getting any Selke Trophy recognition that he deserves as the leagues top defensive forward.  Not only is he one of the Bruins offensive threats, he's one of the top 10 face-off leaders in the league, plays the point on the power play and sees significant time on the penalty kill.  Even with missing the first two games of the Lightning series, Bergeron finished second on the team in playoff scoring. 

I expect to see his stat line close to what it was in his second and third season as a Bruin: 30-40-70.  With both Seguin and Marchy expected to improve, I can easily see him getting over the 40 assist mark.

3rd and 4th Defensemen (and Prediction)

Andrew Ference (3-12-15 +30   $2.25M):  I have done a complete 180 on my opinion of Ference.  Not a 360, Jason Kidd, a 180.  I was shocked when he signed his extension.  I thought that was way too much just for a "locker room" tree-hugger.  He initially also suffered some of the wrath that use to be solely directed towards Wideman.  He isn't that big... he's not that fast... and I didn't think he played particularly good defense.

The tides started to turn when he immediately came to the aid of Lucic during the Thrashers game and it started a wonderful brawl.  Notice the Dude and Horton... and close your eyes when Savard fights.  I would've joined in, but by the time I got there and somehow made my way to the ice the game would've been over.   I told him (since everyone can hear me when I talk/yell at the TV) that he got a 2 week vacation from me telling him that even my brother could play better defense than him, and my brother can't even skate, has a screw in his foot, and is petrified of lightning (you can imagine how awkward the Eastern Conference finals would've been).

Then about a month later, he stood up for Rask when a nobody from the Stars took a shot after the whistle.  He didn't just give him a noogy, he performed the most aggressive version of "got ya nose" I've ever seen.  Adam Burish didn't even return after that.  Alright Sir Ference...you get another 2 weeks and I'll walk to the grocery store instead of driving.

I started to realize, even while he was on his separate two week vacations, I didn't even want to yell at him.  He was actually starting to play good defense.  Maybe that's all he needed were a few rumbles to play with an edge.  Dare I say...  I was actually cheering for him?!?  I'm such a softie.

The icing on the cake came when he initiated one of my favorite brawls against the Canadiens by standing up to goon Moen.  After that I was planting trees, shopping at Whole Foods, and carpooling to work.  I was completely sold.  (This was my favorite fight by Campbell I mentioned in the Energy Line post.  I was going to save it, but screw it.  I'm just going to reuse it.)

Ference was also responsible for the gorgeous retro-Bruins jacket that the MVP of the game would wear.  Brilliant.  I hope I can continue liking Ference and not do another 180 in the wrong direction.  He's not the biggest guy on the ice, but I love how if he's on the ice when a cheap shot is thrown, he's the first one with his gloves off.  We share one thing in common too, we both may or may not have done this to Canadien fans before.  If Canada would stop brewing delicious beer it wouldn't happen as often.  I take no responsibility.

Joe Corvo (11-29-40 -14  $2.25M):  I don't know too much about Corvo.  Once the brass knew Kaberle wasn't coming back (tear...not), they made the trade with Carolina for a 4th rounder.  What I do know is that he beat someone up and that someone's gender is in question.  If it was a female, that is awful and he's already starting on the wrong foot with me.  If it was a dude, that's still awful and he's still starting on the wrong foot with me, but it's a little less awful.

Regarding his hockey skills, I like his stat line.  He would've been the second highest point scorer for a defenseman on the Bruins (only behind Chara).  He scored over half of those points on the power play (5-18-23) and that power play stat line is better than ANYONE on the Bruins.  Maybe Corvo will be what we all hoped Kaberle would be.  He's cheaper than what Kaberle got from Carolina and for a 4th rounder, I'd say he's worth the risk if there is some character issues with him.

I'm concerned with that -14.  Carolina did compete for a playoff position and if they had won their final game would've been the 8 seed.  Having a -14, which was good for second worst on the Hurricanes, on a playoff contending team is a little concerning.  That needs to improve.  I'll give him a little wiggle room if he can help out on the power play.  I really thought they couldn't get any worse on the power play, and then they did.  If he doesn't disrupt the locker room and produces on the power play, this will be a solid pick up.

Johnny Boychuk (3-13-16 +15 $1.88M):  "Wow wow wow, Dome.  What the hell are you doing??  Lay off the peace pipe, only 2 defenseman are on the ice at a time"  I'm including Boychuk here because I'm going to make a bold prediction.  I think he's the most likely candidate to be traded.  Especially if Kampfer or Bartkowski show up to the camp ready to rock n' roll.

Boychuk's play dipped this past season after a great 2009-2010 year.  There's no denying his shot is second only to Chara (speedwise).  Well that's only when he gets it on net.  I thought he was a second too late in letting that puppy fly and ended up shooting into a defender a majority of the time.  He's in the last year of his contract and they already extended McQuaid who's a pretty similar players.

With 1st round draft pick, Doug Hamilton, expected to join the club next year, he either walks at year end or they get some value for him. If there's an injury early on then he'll stick around.  But if another team has an injury to their defense, I expect the Bruins to try and send him off.  This is complete speculation on my part.