Boston Bruins 2010 Preview & Predictions

Boston Bruins 2010 Season Preview, Predictions Picks & Odds

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BOSTON BRUINS

2009-10 record: 39-30-13
Shootout Record: 10-9
Division Finish: 3rd, Northeast
Conference Finish: 6th, Eastern
Goals For: 206
Goals Against: 200

Boston Bruins 2010 Preview

It took much of the summer to find, but the Bruins eventually did realize the silver lining heading into 2010-11.

And not just because they’re loaded down the middle with centers Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, NO.1 pick Tyler Seguin and for the moment, Marc Savard. Not just because they added scoring winger Nathan Horton from Florida to further enhance their lineup.

They could take more than a little solace in coming from nowhere to make the previous spring’s playoffs, when their chances to get past the Sabres and their all-world goaltender Ryan Miller, with rookie Thukka Rask and a thin lineup, were rated slim to none. Yet they dispatched Buffalo in six games.

Boston produced some medical marvels, such as Savard, Andrew Ference and Mark Stuart, all thought to be out for the playoffs but who all made accelerated recoveries.

New talent was unearthed, such as hard-hitting defenseman Johnny Boychuk, who had been buried in the minors.

But their high water mark preceded a startling collapse that saw them lose a 3-0 series lead to Philadelphia in the conference semifinal.

Indeed, the entire Boston season never seemed to follow a straight line, much like navigating the streets of the Olde Towne.

Lack of scoring, poor results on home ice (the highly successful NHL Winter Classic at Fenway aside), a goaltending battle between Vezina Trophy winner Tim Thomas and the rising star Rask and all the injuries never seemed to cease hovering over The Hub.

A late March surge (8-3-1) led to a growing belief the Bruins were going places, and ousting Buffalo was one of the few times in recent team fortunes that the Bs won a series they weren’t supposed to.

Chiarelli managed to get to the second round of the playoffs and get a draft lottery pick. The Bruins held Toronto’s first-round selection, second overall, from the Phil Kessel trade, eventually taking Seguin, considered by many to be equal to or better than NO.1 Taylor Hall.

OHL Plymouth Whalers’ star Seguin, who was actually ranked higher than Hall by the League’s Central Scouting Bureau, will join a team that had a Norris Trophy-caliber defenseman in captain Zdeno Chara, plus Mark Stuart, Andrew Ference and Boychuk.

Seguin is being compared to Steve Yzerman, who happens to be his childhood idol.

Of all the new Bruins last year, it was Rask who came of age at the most timely opportunity.

2010 Boston Bruins Offense:

Seguin and Horton should replace the lost offense of Kessel, whose absence showed in the goal department, where Boston dropped to second-worst in the NHL, at 206, just ahead of Calgary’s 204. That was partially made up when veteran sniper Miro Satan joined the club at mid-season, but as Lucic alluded to, a better start in October is essential. Lucic, hampered by injury, dropped from 17 to nine goals in ’09-10, while the hurt Savard played just half a season and saw his 88 points more than halved. Bergeron, Satan and 42-year-old Mark Recchi rallied in the playoffs, all three reaching double figures in points, with Satan picking up three game winning goals. But a turning point in the Flyers’ series was 17-goal man Krejci being sidelined after getting eight points in nine playoff games. Marco Sturm was also pointless in seven games before he was felled by a serious knee injury that will likely sideline him at the start of 2010-11.

2010 Boston Bruins Defense:

There was a very good reason the Bruins made it past Buffalo while trailing for almost that entire series. Executing a trap-like system to near perfection provided lots of mutual support for partners and, of course, for Rask. Chara was a plus-19, playing more than 25 minutes a game, Boychuk was a workhorse, and before he was badly cut near the end of the year, Dennis Seidenberg, who played most of the season with Florida, contributed 32 points and was a plus-six. Dennis Wideman struggled in his zone at times but led the team’s blueline in playoff scoring. He left as part of the Horton trade. Ference and Stuart were able to see post-season action after missing almost half the regular season.

2010 Boston Bruins Goaltending:

It wasn’t Rask’s fault the Flyers came all the way back to spoil his Cup dream. Tall and square to the puck, he has a great future. Rask had a .931 save percentage in the regular season before things started dropping a bit in May, having closed with 22 wins and five shutouts in 45 games as Thomas’s partner. Thomas didn’t repeat his Vezinatype numbers, but had a .915 save percentage and five shutouts of his own. His 17 wins give him an overall record of 126-91 as a Bruin, with 17 shutouts, still pretty impressive for a goaltender who didn’t make his mark in the League until he was over 31.

Boston Bruins 2010 Special Teams

Boston’s penalty killing allowed it to play with such poise when behind so often in the playoffs, killing off 40 of the first 43 power plays. It was one of the League’s best-performing units in the spring at better than 90% and out hustled the Sabres’ group in the first round, which had been ranked slightly higher than the Bs in regular season. ehara’s long reach and Rask’s sturdy play led the way. The Bruins were the only Eastern playoff seed to be under 17% on the power play heading into the playoffs, but were 9-for-36 to start the playoffs. Six Bruins had four or more goals with the extra man in the regular season, with 15 in all coming from the sticks of Recchi and Michael Ryder. Recchi added three more in the playoffs, making him one of the oldest players ever to score one in League post-season action.

Boston Bruins 2010 Season Predictions

Last year marked the first time in five seasons that Boston slipped in points, going from 74 to 116 between 2006 and 2009. But if tight playoff finishes are always going to be a factor in the East, Boston had better learn from its close call in qualifying last year.

We predict that the Boston Bruins will finish 2nd in the NHL Northeast.

Boston Bruins Betting

Boston Bruins Stanley Cup Odds: +1500
Boston Bruins Eastern Conference Odds: +900

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