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Take Five: Khudobin solid in 5-3 win over 'Canes

January 29, 2013, 4:22 AM ET [6 Comments]
Ty Anderson
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • RSSArchiveCONTACT
It’s been as pleasant a start for the Boston Bruins as one could have hoped for when the puck dropped on this topsy-turvy 2013 campaign.

Entering Raleigh with a 3-0-1 record on the year, a matchup with the Carolina Hurricanes, a team they went a disappointing 0-for-4 against last season, it seemed as if this would surely be the game to put the first regulation loss on the Bruins’ record. Especially with Anton Khudobin making his first start in a Boston uniform in about ten months.

Boy, was I wrong.

Getting the scoring opened with Brad Marchand’s second goal on the year, beating the Hurricanes’ Cam Ward with a shorthanded marker a mere three-and-a-half minutes into play, the B’s added another when Zdeno Chara’s second is as many games (on the power-play no less) gave the Black-and-Gold a quick 2-0 lead in Carolina.

While the ‘Canes would answer with a late-period Jamie McBain goal that caught the B’s sleeping on Carolina’s incredibly active defense, it was a 2-1 edge for Boston that’d only increase as the second wore on.

Simply taking it to the Hurricanes with each line, and refusing to let Ward nap, Boston top-liner Nathan Horton opted to make Tim Gleason look absolutely silly with a curl-and-drag before beating ‘Wardo’ with a wicked wrist shot equally silly, good for his second goal of the season.

But you knew that the ‘Canes, perhaps one of the NHL’s most potent offenses (already) on this young campaign, weren’t going to bow down to the Black-and-Gold attack. Responding with two goals within 50 seconds of each other -- the first coming off a pretty shot from Jeff Skinner and the second from Eric Staal via a terrible Chris Kelly giveaway -- Carolina’s late-period charge against Khudobin and the B’s set the stage for a deadlocked third period just waiting for a break between these conference foes.

As each team sputtered on third period power-play chances, the B’s unable to capitalize on a Jay Harrison hook while Carolina couldn’t answer Chris Bourque’s tripping call with a tally on the man-advantage, the eventual breakthrough came with a series of smart plays and relentless puck-possession in the attacking zone.

Beginning with a key Dennis Seidenberg intentionally wide keep-in, the Bruins’ furious swarm towards the Carolina crease ended with the 19-year-old Dougie Hamilton’s delicious dime to David Krejci, who slammed the puck home into the cage for his first of the year.

Giving the Bruins a 4-3 lead with 1:50 to go in the third, an empty-net goal for Tyler Seguin (a true pity goal that gets No. 19 off the scoreless sheet on the year) would seal the deal despite some late-game dramatics between Skinner and Boston’s Patrice Bergeron, giving the B’s another two points by way of a 5-3 victory.

Khudobin, while rusty, does enough to earn ‘W’

Much has been made of the Bruins’ depth in the crease. Through four games people were really ready to wave goodbye Tim Thomas forever and never look back. All was good in the Boston hood, ‘cause Tuukka Rask’s been a brick wall.

But the talent of the 25-year-old Rask was never really in question -- health, maybe -- but never the talent. Instead, the focus was on his backup, Anton Khudobin. Entering the season with just seven games of NHL experience under his belt, albeit an impressive seven-game run thanks to a .961 save-percentage and 44-save showing in his only appearance for Boston last year, Khudobin really held the keys to the workload of Rask, especially in a travel-heavy schedule that comes with a monstrous month of March in addition to seven back-to-back games this year.

So, just how did the 26-year-old ‘Dobby’ fare in his first test as being an underappreciated cog in the Bruins’ 2013 system? Good, not great. Finishing the night with 29 saves on 32 shots, Khudobin played like.. well, the reality of his situation. Despite his daily practices with the club, Khudobin came into tonight’s game without a competitive game to his name in over a month, and it certainly showed at certain points throughout tonight’s game. Yet, that’s undoubtedly not a knock to what Khudobin appears capable of providing this B’s squad.

Certainly unlikely to play more than 12 games this year (barring what’d have to be a ridiculously ‘hot-handed’ run), Khudobin’s ability to rise to the occasion, headlined by stopping all seven shots he faced on the Hurricanes’ five power-plays tonight, will make him a viable asset to Rask and Claude Julien’s brain as fatigue will naturally come as we move deeper into the year.

David Comes to Life

As I’ve screamed about all summer and through the lockout, the criticism of Boston center David Krejci has been a bit harsh. Through pretty much no fault of his own, many have been quick to throw the top-liner out of town for a perceived lack of effort or heart; The 20-year-old Tyler Seguin simply needs to be centering a line on the B’s top-six and it’s Krejci’s fault that he’s not.

Well, through five games do you still feel this way? The smart answer here would be a quick, “no,” cause the 26-year-old has been damn good for the Black-and-Gold.

Recording at least a point for the third straight game tonight, and tallying his first multi-point night of the year, the Czech-born center now has a goal and four assists in five games, and has without question been the straw that turns the drink featuring Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton.

But perhaps most impressive has been Krejci’s work along the point on the Boston man-advantage. Finally appearing to settle in along the point on the power-play, Krejci’s ability to dish the puck and find the open man has certainly opened up options for a budding first power-play unit, which has continued to improve (at an immense pace, as well) from a puck-moving standpoint. Burying the puck? Well, that’s the next step.

The Chris Bourque Situation

I’ve found that it’s not hard for people to fall in Boston to fall in love with the Chris Bourque story. It seems as if it’s impossible to talk about Chris Bourque, the 5-foot-7 winger currently skating on the Bruins’ third line, without mentioning his father, Ray, whose No. 77 banner hangs from the rafters of the TD Garden. That’s not fair. Not at all. That’s not fair to Chris, nor is it fair to Ray. Specifically, it’s unfair to the objective eye when analyzing Bourque’s play through five games, which to be honest, has been mediocre at best.

Given a chance to thrive on Boston’s third line, which revived the career of Benoit Pouliot and helped redeem the final days of Brian Rolston’s NHL career, Bourque has done everything but. Through five games, he’s registered zero goals, zero assists, skates with a minus-4 rating, and has just two shots. Two. Again, two.

While nothing to write home about, what makes that lack of anything substantial even worse is the fact that Bourque has averaged 2:37 of power-play time-on-ice this year. You’re telling me that you’re not putting more than two shots on goal in five games despite logging nearly three minutes of 5-on-4 action per game? And no, it’s not as if Bourque’s net-front presence has been the sole reason for his lack of shot production, as his power-play time in primarily spent along the half-wall, awaiting feeds from Patrice Bergeron or Dougie Hamilton. That, regardless of your last name, just seems unacceptable.

The reality here could be that Bourque, while bearing the name of a Boston sports icon, is an American Hockey League talent asked to play a role he’s simply not suited for.

Normally, this wouldn’t be cause for concern, but when the line’s not clicking, which the third line unquestionably isn’t, you need to start looking for answers, and it may very well be resting on the wing. In directly related news, Jordan Caron had two shots on goal and a minus-1 rating in his first game back with the Providence Bruins this past Saturday.

At this point, his callup seems just around the corner.

Hey, check out the “I-don’t-wanna-get-hit-in-the-face” fight of the year

Tim Gleason and Milan Lucic dropped the gloves tonight in a true heavyweight fight. It was a cool (see: bad) fight ‘cause neither guy wanted to get hit in the face. Like, at all. Seriously.



Johnson providing quiet insurance on point

The Bruins were without bruising defensemen Adam McQuaid tonight, but you really wouldn’t have known it from watching the game.

Really, though. Missing the game for ‘personal reasons’, the Bruins carried on without a defensemen that’s owned Carolina throughout his career (by his standards, anyways) with three goals and a plus-5 rating in seven games, and you simply would never have known that the 6-foot-5 blue-liner wasn’t anywhere near PNC Arena.

That’s because through three games, the defense of the club’s seventh defensemen, journeyman Aaron Johnson, has been everything you’d hope for out of the team’s 20th skater. Nothin’ flashy, but nothin’ that’s made him a liability out there a la Joe Corvo (Hey, anybody notice that guy tonight? Didn’t think so...).

Up next

Quick turnaround for the Boston Bruins, who will host the New Jersey Devils tomorrow night at the TD Garden. The B’s swept the season series against the Devils last year, outscoring them 18-to-8 in those four meetings, but will have to take down a Black-and-Red squad led by the 40-year-old Marty Brodeur, who enters Boston with a 3-0-1 record and .932 save-percentage this year. Ageless, my friends.

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