Fluto Shinzawa had a great piece in the Globe, looking at which of the Bruins recent GMs brought in which current player. I suspect current GM Peter Chiarelli is not quite getting all of the credit he deserves. He didn’t start as GM right away due to his contract with Ottawa, but some moves have [...]

People talk about the defensive play of the Bruins, but one of the things that seems to make them such a great team is their ability to shift gears. When coach Claude Julien switches on the offense, it’s a very impressive thing to watch. The Bruins can be very aggressive in transition and forecheck as [...]

Just some quick weekend notes that fascinated me: The Bruins have been playing with an incorrectly measured faceoff dot. I can’t believe it took so long for anyone to realize (someone from the press caught it) and I can’t believe those dots aren’t done off of some kind of stencil. Goalie coach Andy Moog is [...]

Wow. What’s with the Flyers? They blew a lead to the Sharks Saturday night, leaving them winless in their first five games. I haven’t watched a ton of the Flyers yet this season, but it’s hard not to notice how thin their defense is. Coach John Stevens has messed with his defensive pairings, but it [...]

While the weekend games in Europe were the official start of the NHL season, last night sure felt more real to me. Maybe because there were actually night games. Goaltending was a big theme of the evening. For instance, Despite giving up four goals, goalie Tim Thomas earned a win for Boston (login info.). It [...]

The Boston Globe had a nice piece on Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli (login info.). One of the interesting parts is the culture shift in Boston, moving from a place that seemed to hate its players to one that seems to respect them: One key difference in the Chiarelli regime has been the relative ease with [...]

I think one of the nice things about the NHL pre-season is that it’s truly a rebirth for teams. Basically, everything that worked the season before could be thrown out the window. There are no givens. Coaches, for the most part, scrap everything. Obviously, most coaches return to lines that worked in the immediate past, [...]

What do you do if you’ve got two expensive starting goalies? If you’re you or me, you’re probably going to figure out which one is the best and then trade the other one. And you’re probably going to start the process as soon as possible. If you’re the Blackhawks, you’re going to let them both [...]