In The Easiest Move Of The NHL Offseason, The Bruins Signed Taylor Hall To A Four-Year Contract

 

    After hearing days of reports that the Bruins and free agent left wing Taylor Hall were getting very close to signing a lucrative deal, the news dropped this evening that Boston had finally inked him to a four-year contract with a $6 million dollar annual cap hit. For a guy with his pedigree (former No. 1 overall pick in 2010, NHL MVP in 2018, etc) and in the prime of his career-he'll turn 30 in November-this was a relative bargain for the B's. By stealing, I mean trading for Hall from the Sabres last season, the Bruins showed him enough in just 27 games (16 regular season & 11 playoff) that he was openly raving about being on the team and his desire to stay here with a long-term deal. 

    This is Hall's fifth NHL club (along with Edmonton, New Jersey and Arizona) so his reputation naturally preceded him but from our limited experience watching him, he seemed like a model teammate and a player that understandably is sick and tired of playing for crappy teams in bad markets. Age-wise he also represents a critical bridge that the black and gold mostly lack: a star that is neither young nor old. One of Boston's main issues is that they have too many guys on either end of the spectrum in terms of age and not enough guys like Hall that have been productive NHL players for years but haven't been in the league for a million seasons already. 

    We have to admit that while Hall was amazing in those regular season contests for the B's with eight goals and six assists, he was noticeably bottled up in the postseason with only three goals and two assists. That didn't make him unique because pretty much all of Boston's top offensive players got shut down in the second round by the Islanders. It's not a question of work ethic, skill or desire with Hall when it comes to the playoffs, I think it's more about not having much experience there. Before this past campaign, he only had 14 total (5 with New Jersey and 9 with Arizona) playoff games on his resume and let's be honest, it's not like there was any pressure in either of those spots plus it wasn't like they were expected to go far. With some more playoff seasoning as a Bruin, there is no doubt that he can be the dominant force that he was immediately after getting traded here last season. 

    Now with Hall locked up, the Bruins need to do him a solid and either sign center David Krejci or some other quality passer that can get Hall the puck at the right time and where he needs it. There was a report today from The Fourth Period that the B's were looking into signing former Coyotes center Christian Dvorak who previously played with Hall in the desert. I'm not going to pretend to know much about Dvorak (haha who really does?) but I am pretty sure that even an aging Krejci is still better than him. I would hate to see Boston's GM Don Sweeney spend all this money on Hall and then cheap out in terms of getting him some linemates that are at least somewhat on his level. Free agency officially opens next Wednesday but with the NHL Draft beginning tonight, there have been a bunch of notable trades around the league.

The Bruins Don't Need Patrice Bergeron As Long As They Still Have David Krejci (ducks garbage)!

There is dominating a team for a long stretch of time and then there is completely owning them like the Bruins' (17-10-4) one-sided games with the Coyotes (13-14-2) for the past eight-plus years. No matter if the B's are missing some top players, competing in their third game in four days or even spot Arizona a 2-0 lead, it all ends the same fashion: with a Boston victory. Tonight the Bruins trailed 2-0 almost midway through the second period before exploding for four goals in the span of 4:50 en route to an eventual 4-3 win at TD Garden. If you can believe it, that was the 14th straight win for the Black and Gold vs. the Desert Dogs, now the longest such streak in the NHL.

You have to think that if Arizona was ever going to break that ugly drought (their last two points vs. Boston came back on Oct. 9, 2010 in Prague!), the stars were aligned to do just that this evening. The B's have been great on home ice (11-3-0) but they got off to a slow start in this one as Nick Schmaltz made it 1-0 with a power play goal at 12:22 of the first period. The former Blackhawk's shot went off Tuukka Rask (30 saves, 8th win of the season), off a post and then in for his sixth goal of the season. Oliver Ekman-Larsson and BU's Clayton Keller provided the assists on the bizarre goal. While that tally was being announced, the Coyotes doubled their lead as Nick Cousins beat Rask to the shortside 40 seconds later. His third goal of the season was assisted by Alex Goligoski and Josh Archibald as the Garden crowd started to grow a bit restless. If things couldn't get any worse in the first period for the B's, David Backes took an Ekman-Larsson skate blade to the face which forced him to quickly exit the ice and head to the dressing room for some serious repairs.

Arizona has the top penalty-kill unit in the league which is accentuated by the fact that they've scored a whopping 11 shorthanded goals (!). To give you some context on that absurd number, the next closest team is Calgary (6) while Boston has only one this entire campaign. As such, Boston's power play (which came into the contest ranked 6th in the NHL) went 0-for-3 but that hardly mattered as they reeled off four even strength goals in the blink of an eye. Danton Heinen of all people got the comeback started for the Bruins with a nifty goal at 8:40 of the second period. Jacob Forsbacka Karlsson gave him a sweet backhand saucer pass that he settled with his skate like a soccer player then knocked the puck in past Darcy Kuemper (22 saves). The new look third line's other member Ryan Donato had the secondary assist on Heinen's fourth goal of the season. 33 seconds later on the following shift, David Pastrnak tied it with a beautiful net drive that ended with him tapping in a pass from Brad Marchand with Krejci picking up the other helper on Pastrnak's team-leading 21st goal of the season. 2:18 after that, the first line struck again as Marchand tipped in a slap pass from Pastrnak. Krejci had the second assist on Marchand's ninth goal of the season. Three goals in 2:51 was cool but one more was even better: Marchand banged in a loose puck at 13:30 (becoming the 3rd Bruin with double-digit goals) a nanosecond before getting knocked over with Krejci and Pastrnak obviously getting the assists.

Krejci was playing in his 800th NHL game while Arizona defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson reached the 700 game mark as well. Meanwhile, Coyotes left wing Michael Bunting was competing in his inaugural NHL game and he made it a particularly memorable moment with a goal that cut it to 4-3 Bruins at 15:00 of the second period. Truth be told, it was a save that Rask has to make but we'll forgive him since he came up with some bigger ones later on. That's right, there were a total of five goals in 6:20 of game time so naturally, these clubs followed it up with a scoreless third period. Arizona pressed for the tying goal in the third, outshooting Boston 9-5 in the frame but the B's held on despite a late tripping call on John Moore. McAvoy blocked a shot from his fellow Terrier Keller and Krejci hit the post with a shot that would have clinched it but he also had a key blocked shot of his own in crunch time.

With their three wins in a row, the B's earned six points in the past four days which I'd imagine is more than you or I or anyone else that we know has accomplished since Saturday. A stat that perfectly illustrates this team's collective mental toughness is that they improved to 5-1-1 in Game 3s of three games in four nights this season. They have ten more sets throughout 2018-19 so I doubt that absurd percentage will hold but still, can we just appreciate that for a second? The guys get tomorrow off which I'd say that they've earned before they are back at practice on Thursday and then they fly to Pittsburgh for Friday's (7, NESN) meeting with the Penguins (13-10-6). Boston has matched up well with Pittsburgh for years (yes during the Cup runs) and the Pens were a disaster to start this season before recently getting their shit together (6-2-2 in their last 10 games). The Bruins' next home game is on Sunday (5, NESN) vs. Buffalo (18-9-4) who is two points ahead of them in the Atlantic Division for third-place. Patriots-Steelers of course starts at 4:25 pm so make sure that your DVR and/or the last button on your remote is working properly since you'll be doing double-duty on Sunday night.

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When You Need an Easy Win In the NHL, You Can Always Count On the Coyotes to Roll Over

It's a shame that the world will likely never get what it secretly desires: a Bruins-Coyotes matchup in the Stanley Cup Final. Boston (13-9-4) swept the season series with lowly Arizona (7-19-5)-the worst team in the Western Conference-with a 6-1 drubbing tonight at TD Garden. When you add up Boston's 6-2 beating at Arizona on October 14, the B's outscored the Coyotes 12-3 in their two meetings this season. Other than the lopsided score and Boston extending their win-streak vs. Arizona to 12 games (!), this one will likely be most remembered for David Backes scoring two goals.

In case you haven't been paying attention (and who doesn't love the NHL in October, November and December?), Backes had colon surgery and returned way sooner than anyone could have reasonably expected. His assist in Monday's 5-3 loss at Nashville (18-7-3) was the 500th point of his NHL career and his pair of goals tonight were his first of the season (his last one was on March 28 vs. Nashville). Backes is a very likable guy to begin with so this admirable return gives you even more reason to root for him. Did I mention that he loves animals and does tons of charity work for dogs?

The Coyotes were 5-3-2 in their last 10 games coming into this tilt but they couldn't be bothered to put up much of a fight this evening. What else can you conclude when Brad Marchand made it 1-0 B's just 15 seconds into the contest? David Pastrnak (7-game point streak) and Patrice Bergeron assisted on Marchand's 10th goal of the season. Thanks to Brandon Carlo's rough turnover, Christian Dvorak (4th goal of the season) tied it for Arizona at 17:07 of the first period.

Backes' goals came in succession in the second period: first he tipped in Riley Nash's shot from the point with Matt Grzelcyk picking up the other helper at 13:54. Alex Goligoski saw Carlo's error and matched it with an equally egregious mistake that led to Backes' unassisted goal with 54 seconds left in the frame. The veteran American skated in on a breakaway which needless to say, doesn't happen too often for a slower player like him. This marked the second time this season that Boston hasn't been called for a penalty (also Nov. 15 at Anaheim) and Arizona faced the brunt of four whistles.

David Krejci put it out of reach 45 seconds into the third as he finished a pretty passing sequence with Marchand and Bergeron for a power play goal (his 4th tally of the season). Poor Scott Wedgewood (26 saves)-great name!-had no friends that wanted to help him out as he was continually under fire by the Bruins' normally average offense. Two rookies rounded out the scoring for Boston as Danton Heinen (5th goal of the season) put in a juicy rebound at 17:56 from Nash and Kevan Miller than Anders Bjork was on the end of a rush that looked straight out of practice or better yet a preseason game with 1:09 left in garbage time. Bjork's fourth goal of the season was also assisted by Zdeno Chara.

You never talk about the goaltender in a 6-1 victory but Tuukka Rask (20 saves) won his third start in a row, remember when there was a legitimate goalie controversy a few weeks ago? Unlike the miserable Coyotes, an actual living, breathing NHL team visits the Garden on Saturday night (7, NESN) as the Islanders (16-9-3) come for their first game against the Bruins in 2017-18. Highly coveted free-agent-to-be John Tavares (17 goals, 14 assists) is playing the best hockey of his life and we'll also be able to see some old friends in Johnny Boychuk and Dennis Seidenberg who are defensemen for New York. The Isles lost 4-3 in Pittsburgh (16-11-3) tonight but they are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games while Boston improved to 7-3-0 in their last 10.

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In Their First Home Game In Over Two Weeks, the Bruins Take Care of the AHL Coyotes 4-1

In the last few seasons under former head coach Claude Julien, tonight would have been a tailor-made trap game for the Bruins (33-24-6). They were coming off a very successful four-game road trip (3-1-0) and hadn't played at TD Garden in over two weeks (thanks to a bye week before the games in California and Texas) so it was refreshing to see them look like a completely different club in an easy 4-1 victory on First Responders Night. This is Boston's first four-game home winning streak since 2014-the last time that they made the playoffs. They are also unbeaten in their last 10 games vs. Arizona dating back to the 2010 opener in Prague that the Coyotes won 5-2.

Boston improved to a remarkable 7-1-0 under interim head coach Bruce Cassidy, seriously when do they give him some job security and ditch the cheesy title? Arizona (22-33-7) lived up or rather down to its advance billing as the second-worst team in the league. The crazy part is that they are still 14 points ahead of Colorado (17-41-3) who might as well have cancelled the season by now. Would anyone notice? Four different Bruins scored the goals (Colin Miller, Riley Nash, David Backes and Brad Marchand) as they continue to spread the offense around like any quality hockey team is known to do. Tuukka Rask (30-14-4) only had to make 22 saves as he has posted four straight 30+ win seasons.

Other than the paint by numbers two points for the B's, this game will be remembered most for the bone-crunching hit by Boston defenseman Colin Miller on Arizona center Alexander Burmistrov early in the second period. It left Burmistrov down on the ice for a long stretch before he was wheeled off on a stretcher. The good news is that after getting checked out at a hospital in Boston, he will rejoin his teammates later tonight. Miller was assessed a five-minute major for charging and a game-misconduct (10-minutes). For me, that was the type of hit that looks worse than it actually was intended to be. Burmistrov had his head down and was hunched over as he released the puck right before Miller caught him with a shoulder directly to his head. If the play should go to the NHL's Department of Player Safety, Miller could have a reasonable case based on his lack of previous dirty plays and the fact that he's an honest player in general.

Ironically, Colin Miller had begun the scoring with a goal just 3:06 into the first period. David Pastrnak and David Krejci had the assists on his fifth goal of the season. The B's have scored first-period goals in 10 straight games including notching the first goal in the past six games. Boston led 1-0 after the first period but Arizona tied it early in the second as Peter Holland wrapped around the net for a power play strike at 3:27. Something named Brendan Perlini (who sounds like an honorary resident of the North End) and Radim Vrbata (trade that man to a real team!) had the assists on Holland's second goal of the season.

As they have for much of 2016-17, Boston's penalty kill unit sparked them (they are tied for the NHL lead with 8 shorthanded goals) as Riley Nash of all people bagged his first career shorthanded goal in the NHL. Mike Smith (10 saves, 4 goals allowed) fumbled the puck to Patrice Bergeron who fed a wide open Nash for his fourth goal of the season at 7:07. The Bruins put it away from there with two more goals in a scintillating second period: David Backes beat Smith with a one-timer from Brad Marchand and Bergeron at 18:05 and then the backbreaker was Marchand getting his own wraparound goal with 11 seconds left in the frame (his team-leading 28th goal of the season).

Smith was pulled after the second in favor of his backup Louis Domingue and the Bruins settled in for a rare easy win at home where they are 16-13-0. Their focus now turns to Thursday (7, NESN) as they host the Rangers (40-21-2) who as usual are a legitimate contender in the Eastern Conference this spring. Against the pathetic Coyotes, Boston was able to put it on cruise control for much of this one but they know they will need to be much better to continue this amazing stretch. An underrated factor for their remarkable turnaround has been their health: the Bruins don't have any significant injuries to speak of which is almost unheard of as the calendar flips to March. Don't forget to stay locked to Twitter and the NHL Network or NESN tomorrow as the NHL Trade Deadline comes at 3 p.m. I wouldn't expect the B's to do much but you never know, maybe GM Don Sweeney will make a surprise last-second move to add to his group that suddenly looks like a real playoff team.

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Bruins Notch First Home Win of the Season In Resounding Fashion, 6-0 vs. Coyotes

There are times in every professional sports regular season where one team has a distinct advantage in terms of rest and travel against their opponent. The key is to use those to your advantage and make the most out of them since everyone faces an impossible schedule at some point. Arizona (5-4-1) is an up-and-coming young team that is off to a surprisingly decent start to the 2015-16. However, they limped into TD Garden tonight at the tail-end (no pun intended) of a five-game road trip with their third game in four nights. Boston (4-3-1) had been off since Friday so you can guess the result: a 6-0 Bruins victory that was competitive for almost two periods before the Coyotes completely folded.

The win was extra meaningful for the B's for a couple notable reasons: first of all, they finally got their first win at home out of the way after starting 0-3-1 here. Additionally, Tuukka Rask (2-3-1; 24 saves) picked up his first shutout of the season and 27th of his career. David Krejci (2 goals) extended his NHL points lead and also built upon his point-streak to eight games, the most for a Bruin since 1992-93 (when Joe Juneau and Dmitri Kvartalnov went 14 games with a point to start the year).

Boston continued to get help from some unlikely sources: five different players had goals and 11 notched points. Jimmy Hayes led the way with three points (1 goal, 2 assists) while Loui Eriksson (2 assists), Matt Beleskey (2 assists) and Brad Marchand (1 goal, 1 assists) all had multiple points. Krejci started the fun with a beautiful goal at 17:22 of the first period. He skated in with Connolly on a 2-on-1 and you expected him to pass it but at the last second he instead chose to roof it over Mike Smith's (21 saves) shoulder. Eriksson and Krug assisted on his six goal of the season.

Hayes doubled Boston's lead at 6:51 of the second period when he knocked in a rebound. Beleskey and Ryan Spooner assisted on the Dorchester native's third goal of the season. You felt like the Bruins had this one in their skate bag when Joe Morrow of all people walked over the blue line and beat Smith with a beautiful shot. It was only his second career NHL goal, assisted by Beleskey at 17:29.

Connolly scored a goal for the third straight game at 10:22, a pea to the far corner on Smith's blocker side. Marchand and Bergeron assisted on his third goal of the season. Bozos John Scott (how the hell is he still in the NHL?) and Steve Downie had seen enough so they both got game-misconducts with 8:48 left in regulation. Boston's top-ranked power-play was able to cash in for its first power-play goal of the night (they were 1-for-4) as Brad Marchand put one by Smith who didn't seem to even know where it was headed. Colin Miller and Hayes assisted on Marchand's second goal of the season. Krejci fittingly put the bow on top with a garbage time tally with 38 seconds left in this laugher. Smith was still in there for some reason while Hayes and Eriksson padded their stats with another helper.

The B's get another break as they don't play again until Friday (7:30, NESN) in Florida (4-3-1). They are at Tampa Bay (5-3-2) the next night (7, NESN) on Halloween against one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. That Florida trip used to be an automatic six points but not so much anymore since the Panthers are a legit playoff contender now too. Jaromir Jagr left Florida's game tonight with a lower-body injury so let's hope the league's oldest player is healthy enough to return by then against one of his countless former teams.

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Bruins Pick Up 4 Points In a Little Over 24 Hours With 4-1 Win Vs. Lifeless Coyotes

For once this season, the Bruins (31-22-9) made things easy on themselves by dispatching the lowly Coyotes (20-36-7) 4-1 tonight at TD Garden. Boston won its second game in as many nights (and 3 out of their last 4) while Arizona has lost nine in a row. Ironically, Boston is now off until Thursday (7, NESN) when they host the Flames (33-25-4) so that means that they can fully enjoy the NHL Trade Deadline on Monday (3 pm).

This one was never really in doubt as the B's scored twice in the first and twice in the second period. The only slight disappointment for them is that they couldn't get a shutout for Tuukka Rask (31 saves). Milan Lucic, Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand all had a goal and an assist while Reilly Smith added two assists. Rookies David Pastrnak and Ryan Spooner continued their strong play as well with both recording helpers in the one-sided win.

It has been a nightmare of a season for the Coyotes and Mike Smith (16 saves). In the Tank for McDavid/Eichel sweepstakes, they are only one point ahead of Edmonton and four points in front of Buffalo. Keep shooting for the stars, boys! Right off the bat, you knew what kind of contest it would be when Smith misplayed the puck behind his net then Milan Lucic banked it in off his skate at 2:40. Lucic's 12th goal of the season was assisted by his young linemates-Pastrnak and Spooner.

Marchand's goal was prettier as he sniped a shot into the top of the far corner at 14:13 of the first. Smith and Bergeron assisted on Marchand's team-leading 18th goal of the season. The Bruins had more good fortune (when have I said that this season?) early in the second frame as Bergeron's backhander went in off Keith Yandle's skate. Haha nice to see the local guy help the B's out. It was also Bergeron's 18th goal of the season so either him or Marchand look like a safe bet to lead the team in goals this campaign. Marchand and Chara assisted on the tally.

Smith's miserable performance was capped off by a Chara power-play missile at 11:50. Smith and Lucic assisted on Chara's fifth goal of the season. My man Louis Domingue, which sounds like Pitbull's real name (whatever that is, I'm too lazy to look) came on for the final 22 minutes and change of garbage time action.

Martin Erat spoiled Rask's shutout bid at 10:21 of the third period. He tipped in Shane Doan's pass with the second assist going to Yandle. PS Doan has been Arizona/Phoenix's captain for 11 years, two more than Chara who is the second-longest tenured captain in the NHL. Why would he want to be with that joke of a franchise for that long? He must love the desert or something, weird.

I'll keep you updated if the Bruins make any trades over the next few days, I wouldn't expect anything major since they are playing pretty well now but then again they do have that extra cap space to work with since Krejci and Miller are on long-term IR. We shall see.

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B's Salvage Something From A Miserable Week In The West By Beating Up On The Pitiful Coyotes

It was a rough week for the Bruins and their fans as they were humiliated three late night games in a row in California. Luckily, Boston (15-12-1) sucked up their collective pride and were able to rally against one of the worst teams in the NHL-Arizona (10-15-3)-for a 5-2 win going away tonight in their road trip finale at good old Gila River Arena.

Nine different Bruins tallied points, led by Brad Marchand (2 goals), Reilly Smith (2 assists) and Dougie Hamilton (2 assists) as Boston matched their season-high by scoring five goals (something they'd done twice before). Tuukka Rask (24 saves) bounced back from technically the worst performance of his NHL career (7 goals allowed) even though if you watched that debacle in San Jose on Thursday, you know that he really didn't play that poorly at all and Boston easily could have give up 10+ goals. Seriously.

For the record, their formerly lifeless offense has come together for nine goals in its past two contests. Now the B's come home and get a few days between games before they host Chicago (18-8-1) on Thursday (7, NESN) in a juicy matchup and Ottawa (10-11-5) on Saturday afternoon (1, NESN). The Coyotes are a complete mess in almost every manner possible so it was heartening to see them come out and allow two goals in the first six minutes of the game.

Marchand scored his first goal 58 seconds in, a one-timer from Smith and Hamilton for his team-leading seventh goal of the season. Kevan Millar made it 2-0 good guys five minutes later as he capitalized on a loose puck that found its way right to the blade of his stick in slot. One of the best players in Northeastern's mostly forgettable history cut it to 2-1 at 13:11 as Joe Vitale beat Rask to the top shelf over his far shoulder. It was the former Husky's third goal of the season, assisted by Arizona lifer (poor bastard) Shane Doan and Michael Stone.

Boston ensured it would be a happy flight home by pumping in three straight goals in the second period for a commanding 5-1 advantage. Simon Gagne had the puck go off his skate and in at 8:34 for his third goal of the season, assisted by Daniel Paille. A carbon copy one-timer by Marchand (from Smith and Hamilton) at 14:47 ended the proceedings for the immortal Devan Dubnyk (20 saves) and summoned Mike Smith from Arizona's bench.

If that wasn't enough evidence, you truly knew it was long over when Loui Eriksson of all people put in a power play goal at 19:30. His fourth goal of the season (Tyler Seguin only has five times as many goals as him this season) was assisted by Patrice Bergeron and Torey Krug. For once, Eriksson went to the net and was rewarded with a tasty rebound that he deposited through Smith's five-hole.

Arizona made the score a little less sad with a power play goal by Mikkel Boedker at 5:41 of the third period. His ninth goal of the season was assisted by Antoine Vermette and Cushing Academy's Keith Yandle. I feel like the Coyotes have used the same core guys for the past decade.

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