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.

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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