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In this edition of the hotstove, we share our choices for most underrated on the Boston Bruins.
Todd Cordell
Matt Grzelcyk.
He is undersized, he is not physical, and he doesn’t exactly stuff the scoresheet on a nightly basis. As such, he’s not somebody who really stands out by the eye or gets a lot of recognition. That should change because he is an awesome player.
Grzelcyk is mobile, he makes a good first pass, and he consistently helps his team transition from defense to offense with relative ease. He is very smart and always seems to know where to go with the puck.
While hardly Torey Krug, he’s quite capable of filling in on the top power play unit when needed.
He’s also very good defensively. He doesn’t do the job with brute force like his captain, of course, but his skating ability allows him to keep tight gaps and stay in good positions.
That’s why the Bruins have given up high-danger shots and goals – both pretty important, I’d say – at a lesser rate with Grzelyck on the ice than without in each of his three seasons.
He deserves a healthy raise this off-season.
Sean Maloughney
Charlie Coyle.
While most people talk about how dominante the Marchand, Bergeron Pastrnak line is, there are a large number of people outside of the Boston fanbase who have no clue how good Charlie Coyle is.
Despite both playing 70 games, Coyle actually played more minutes at 5 on 5 than Brad Marchand with 13 of his 16 goals being scored at even strength, good enough to be fourth on the team. Coyle also tied Marchand in shots on net at even strength with 121 despite not playing with the same level of talent.
One thing that surprised me was looking at Coyle's assists. 17 of his 21 assists were at evens but more impressively was that only 2 of those were secondary assists, the rest of course being primary. Coyle is not a player that can be accused of taking advantage of skilled linemates; he was directly responsible for a number of goals for the Bruins.
Coyle will never get the name recognition that the Bruins top line has, but without his hard work and effort the Bruins would not be nearly as good of a team.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com
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