We’re halfway through June and still swaddling ourselves in blankets and sweaters. Looks like it may be one of those summers.
I hope not. But Monday and Tuesday’s chill puts us in the mood for some hockey talk. And as it so happens, there’s some hockey to talk about.
Marco Sturm is the new coach of the Bruins.
Sturm is a former player for the B’s, and he was good for at least 20 goals a season. So the man knows a few things about putting the puck in the net. He’ll have to. Other than David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie, no one else on the team seems to know how.
Boston has long been considered a hockey city, which, to me, means that even if the team’s terrible, interest in it does not wane. I’m not sure of that. I’m pretty sure, without any stats to back it up, that hockey is No. 4 of the four principal North American sports around here.
The Red Sox are the Red Sox, the Patriots seem to be poised for a new era, and the Celtics are stacked to win a title. Only a lackadaisical series against the Knicks – and injuries – got in their way.
The Bruins? They are/were a picture of how bad management spoiled one of the best teams in the NHL in only two years. Now, they’re in a pretty good-sized rut. That good will of the city being a “hockey town” cannot compensate for such ineptitude.
Besides, we are spoiled rotten. We have been conditioned to regard anything short of a deep playoff run as an affront to our dignity. God forbid any team miss the playoffs. It’s “off with your head,” unless you’re Alex Cora.
Into this abyss steps Sturm, who sounds like an earnest enough fellow. And I’m certain he understands he has a lot of work to do, and that he has an impatient base of hockey cultists who are smarting over seeing Brad Marchand on the cusp of a Stanley Cup ready to pounce on him.
I’m not in the cult, though I enjoy the game. And from the outside looking in, their biggest problem is grossly inadequate puck movement, especially in their own end. Even on the power play, where clearing your own end shouldn’t be a problem, it’s a problem.
It’s hard to be too critical because Charlie McAvoy is supposed to be their best puck-moving defenseman and he missed half the season with an injury. Still, every time I sat down and watched them this season, they seemed to have a terrible time getting it out of their own zone.
Everything flows from puck movement. If you can’t beat even a mediocre forecheck, you’re turning it over too many times in your own end. Not to mention the fact that you can’t create decent scoring opportunities.
That has to change.
More on McAvoy. He has a decent shot. He doesn’t have a cannon, but at least his shot has some muscle to it. But he’s puck shy. He won’t shoot. He’d rather pass. Sturm needs to pound it into him that he has to shoot the darned thing when it’s there for him.
The whole team’s demise last year isn’t just McAvoy’s fault. He had plenty of help. For a team that had so much trouble scoring, there seemed to be an unwillingness to go into the “dirty” areas. The ability to fight in those areas for scoring chances separates the champions from the also-rans.
Finally, goalie Jeremy Swayman needs to get his head on straight and stop pucks. He had a good offseason backboning Team USA to a gold medal in the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) games last month. He needs to carry this over. He was more a part of the problem than a part of the solution last season.
It’s tough to know yet how much Sturm can change this based on the players the Bruins have now. This is a big draft for them coming up and it could go a long way toward charting their future.
