In this week’s Puck Prospectus roundtable, the discussion moved towards which teams have been the most surprising and which teams have been the most disappointing. The caveat is that the question included which of the Cinderella and disappointing teams have the ability to continue their success and which teams don”t have the ability to turn it around.
Here is an excerpt of the article:
Richard Pollock: Boston Bruins – The most disappointing team this season has been the Boston Bruins. With the recent loss of both Milan Lucic and Marc Savard and the trade of Chuck Kobasew, the Bruins are now without the offensive depth they had throughout last season. Luckily for Boston fans, their team is playing in arguably the NHL’s weakest division—the Northeast Division. So, the Bruins still have a chance to win the division, but this team was supposed to be at the top of the Eastern Conference standings with the Capitals, the Flyers and the Penguins. In fact, Puck Prospectus had the Bruins ranked as the third best team in the NHL (over 100 projected points), just behind the Blackhawks and Capitals and in front of the Red Wings and Penguins. Right now, there is little chance of this team finishing that high in the standings. The Bruins will be without Savard’s 14.3 projected GVT for at least the next month and without the physical presence of Milan Lucic (projected 8.4 GVT) for about the same amount of time. Combine that with the poor early season play of Tim Thomas (.896 save percentage) and the team’s overall poor defensive play and the Bruins may be digging themselves a hole that they won’t be able to get out of.
Read the entire article here.
