Are the Bruins a Wagon Again? | Snap Shots Episode 60

0:00 Speaker 1: Guys, are the Boston Bruins a wagon like? Is this team finally figuring it all out for real? Now? I'll be honest. I'm nervous to let my guard down after such a horrible season last year and an absolutely disastrous start to this season. But last night's win against Toronto showed us that this team has the dynamic ability to pull off a win when everyone does their job and steps up when needed. For now, I will bask in the afterglow of a Bruins win Toronto and look forward to hopefully another win at home and maybe even Pasta's four hundredth Let's go.

0:36 Speaker 1: This is a Bruins tape. The tape snapshot.

0:42 Speaker 2: The Boston Bruins faced the Toronto Make Beliefs on Saturday night in Toronto. It was the Hockey Night in Canada game, so likely a great deal of eyes were on this game. Another big test for the Boston Bruins, which they passed with I won't say flying colors, however, it was a solid, solid team effort from top to bottom. I will say that in the third period of the game, Jeremy Swayman was by far the best player on the ice as it wasn't until the third period that the Toronto Maple Leafs started to put some offensive press on the Bruins.

1:22 Speaker 2: And actually it was the first time that I even noticed that Austin Matthews was playing in that game was in the third period. Anthony Stollard's started in net for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but he was pulled in the game and while he was having a very difficult time tracking the puck or getting any stops made, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the guys in front of Stolards did very, very little to help him. And I'm going to go even further in saying that the Toronto Maple Leafs defensive structure or whatever they call it, well, it absolutely stinks.

2:02 Speaker 2: We thought we had issues at times with our defensive structure. The Toronto made Beliefs have a hell of a lot more problems in that capacity than the Boston Bruins do. I will say, however, that the three goals that were given up were the results of defensive breakdowns by the Boston Bruins, two of them on the power play and one of them as the power play was completed and we got back to five on five. The Bruins did do a decent job killing off the penalties, but Toronto did enough to cause the Bruins to scramble around in their own end to create the scoring opportunities that they did have.

2:46 Speaker 2: Fraser Minton iced the game for the Bruins late in the third period, and how great that must that have felt, scoring against his former team. Nikita Zadorov rocked a hit on Scott Lowe that caused him to have to leave the game and he was not able to return. Now, I'm going to go off on a bit of a tangent here. I understand that that was Scott Lawton's first game back after being injured. However, Nikita Zadorov laid a clean, hard hit on Lawton, and I am now getting a.

3:24 Speaker 3: Little bit bored with the fact that players on opposing teams are going after players when there are clean hits. Okay, hitting is still allowed in the NHL, based on what I know, and it used to be that you didn't like the way someone got hit, you take the number of the player and you rock that player with the hit. You don't start a scrum and you don't start a fight. I don't know if this is part of the new age of hockey. But I'm frankly getting a little bored with seeing this game after game after game.

4:00 Speaker 3: These two teams will face each other again on Tuesday night at the TD Garden, so it will be interesting to see if there's any residual or any carryover as a result of Zadorov's hit on Lawton. But I will say that I am impressed with what I have been seeing from the Boston Bruins, and dare I say that we are actually going to have a hockey season and that the Bruins are starting to become a hard out in the league.

4:33 Speaker 1: The Leaves have to go through the Canes before they face Boston again, so let's hope they get obliterated and their confidence continues to get pummeled. But enough about the Leaves, Let's talk about the Bees and where they are at this point in the season. The Bruins haven't had a stretch like this since the opening days of the perfect season back in October twenty twenty three. They are finally at zero goals differential in all situations, up from their season low of no. Negative eight on October twenty seventh.

5:02 Speaker 1: The fact that they managed to get out of the hole in just six games. Shows how much better the Bruins have gotten on converting on chances and holding the line defensively. Geek continues to be superhumans, standing head and shoulders above his teammates, yes even Pasta when it comes to his ability to generate chances and score on those chances. His goal scoring efficiency is unmatched among his teammates. He's currently sitting at a one point zero nine expected goals per sixty and he's actually getting two point seventeen goals per sixty.

5:37 Speaker 1: Pasta also has a one point zero nine expected goals per sixty and he's converting at about one point zero two goals per sixty. Regardless, all eyes will be on Pasta Tuesday night, after having scored goal number three ninety nine against Leafs, it would only be fitting and write for his four hundredth to come at home and against the Leafs. He's also three behind Rick nifty Middleton, who had four h two At the other end of the ice, Jeremy Swayman stood on his head for the Bruins during his two hundredth career start, and again his season averages don't show just how on point he's been during this recent six game win streak.

6:16 Speaker 1: Case in point, his season average safe percentage is eight ninety eight and his goals against average is three point oh nine. Since his disastrous outing against Ottawa, Swayman has had a nine to twenty six safe percentage and a two point two eight goals against average. While I don't want to see Boston lose anytime soon, it will happen, and actually probably soon. However, now that they seem to be executing on storm system, what does the loss for this new Bruins team look like? And what does the game after look like too?

6:49 Speaker 1: All I know is I like what I see out there, and I hope it continues. Make sure you rate and review the podcast to help us reach more listeners, and tune in weekly to our full podcast, available on Apple's Spotify, YouTube, and all podcast platforms.