Bruins v Canadiens: Take 700

06Nov09

BOS (6-7-1–13) 12th in the East v. MON (7-8-0–14) 10th

Thursday, November 6, 2009

Here are some In-game notes and Out-game commentary from the 700th clash between Montreal and Boston.  Sounds like hyperbole, but it’s true.  Chicago and Detroit are the only two teams that have played each other more often, with 704 games.  What is also not hyperbole, as Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan pointed out (I hopped in the Delorean and read tomorrow’s Globe) if the Bruins are shut-out tonight, it would be the first time they went scoreless in three consecutive games in 80 years.

Former Bruins defenseman and current contributor to NESN, Mike Milbury explains in the pregame, of the last 9 goals the Bruins scored, six of them have been “garbage goals,” one other from the left faceoff dot and two from the left point.  Both goals from the point were screen-shots.

A lot of talk during the pregame show is about simplifying the game to get off the schneid.  For me  “simplifying” your game is to the NHL what the prevent defense is to the NFL: It prevents your team from winning.  Players seem to be more flat-footed, and are thinking too much about what they’re going to do once they get the puck, instead of relying on the instincts that got them to the professional level.  Malcolm Gladwell wrote an article about this kind of pressure and our response to it; how we tend to try harder, concentrate harder, we care more about how we perform – and then we choke:

Under conditions of stress, however, the explicit system sometimes takes over. That’s what it means to choke. When Jana Novotna faltered at Wimbledon, it was because she began thinking about her shots again. She lost her fluidity, her touch. She double-faulted on her serves and mis-hit her overheads, the shots that demand the greatest sensitivity in force and timing. She seemed like a different person–playing with the slow, cautious deliberation of a beginner–because, in a sense, she was a beginner again: she was relying on a learning system that she hadn’t used to hit serves and overhead forehands and volleys since she was first taught tennis, as a child. The same thing has happened to Chuck Knoblauch, the New York Yankees’ second baseman, who inexplicably has had trouble throwing the ball to first base. Under the stress of playing in front of forty thousand fans at Yankee Stadium, Knoblauch finds himself reverting to explicit mode, throwing like a Little Leaguer again.

Marc Savard – the Bruins’s top centerman, currently on the injured reserve – and former Bruin and NESN commentator Andy Brickley touch on this issue during the 2nd period when Savard joined Brickley and play-by-play-man Jack Edwards in the booth.  Paraphrasing:

Brickley: When you hear that phrase, “we gotta simplify,” that’s the message when it’s not going good…But I think sometimes it seeps into the player’s mind to simplify, and now you’re getting a little too stationary and not getting the movement.

Savard: I agree, and you end up taking worse shots. You get stationary, your feet aren’t moving and you hold onto the puck for too long.

When things are going well, and players are clicking – and guys are purportedly “in the zone” – they’re relying on intuition.  Hockey is one of the most intuitive team sports there is.  There’s not much time to verbally communicate with one another – and the play unfolds faster than any other sport on two feet because you can achieve higher speeds on skates to ice than sneakers to ground.

Another interesting thing Savard mentioned when the Bruins were on the power play was a revelation – after watching his team setup in the offensive zone – that he didn’t know how hard it was to play off the half-wall.  He seemed surprised that it looked so difficult when he has been playing this role when healthy.  Well, if you have seen Savard in this situation during games, he makes it look easy.  Quarterbacking the power play from about halfway between the goal-line and the blue-line, checking off teammates – like Patriots QB Tom Brady checks off receivers – while determining whether an opposing player is going to attack him, Savard seems to always find the open man and in less time than most observers can recognize the opportunity…including himself.  You got the feeling that if Savard was watching himself from the balcony, he would be amazed at his own passing abilities.  He’s more comfortable in the pocket.

In a 2005 interview with 60 Minutes, Tom Brady talked to Steve Kroft about the unspoken communication he has with his receivers.  In this particular demonstration, it was former Pats WR Deion Branch who lined up to his right.  Brady told Kroft the play he was going to run with Branch – without telling Branch – who runs the pattern Brady predicted.  How did Branch know what Brady wanted? “Because I know,” says Branch, with a smile.

Gladwell writes:

[P]sychologists often use a primitive video game to test motor skills. They’ll sit you in front of a computer with a screen that shows four boxes in a row, and a keyboard that has four corresponding buttons in a row. One at a time, x’s start to appear in the boxes on the screen, and you are told that every time this happens you are to push the key corresponding to the box. According to Daniel Willingham, a psychologist at the University of Virginia, if you’re told ahead of time about the pattern in which those x’s will appear, your reaction time in hitting the right key will improve dramatically. You’ll play the game very carefully for a few rounds, until you’ve learned the sequence, and then you’ll get faster and faster. Willingham calls this “explicit learning.” But suppose you’re not told that the x’s appear in a regular sequence, and even after playing the game for a while you’re not aware that there is a pattern. You’ll still get faster: you’ll learn the sequence unconsciously. Willingham calls that “implicit learning”–learning that takes place outside of awareness. These two learning systems are quite separate, based in different parts of the brain. Willingham says that when you are first taught something–say, how to hit a backhand or an overhead forehand–you think it through in a very deliberate, mechanical manner. But as you get better the implicit system takes over: you start to hit a backhand fluidly, without thinking. The basal ganglia, where implicit learning partially resides, are concerned with force and timing, and when that system kicks in you begin to develop touch and accuracy, the ability to hit a drop shot or place a serve at a hundred miles per hour. “This is something that is going to happen gradually,” Willingham says. “You hit several thousand forehands, after a while you may still be attending to it. But not very much. In the end, you don’t really notice what your hand is doing at all.”

Savard has made several thousand passes on the ice, and he plays the game implicitly.  He may not watch as much game film as Tom Brady, but when you consider that since 2000, Savard has appeared in roughly 650 NHL games, while Brady has started approximately 130, you can understand why Savard can learn sequences that aren’t visible to the naked eye – or mind.  He can make a blind back-handed pass to a teammate for an easy goal in front of the net and know that the player was there, not by seeing him open, but by sensing it.  It’s not that Savard has ESP, but through repetition, he has been in this situation so many times that he instinctively knows where his teammates are going to be without having to deliberately think about it.  When he was observing the players from the booth, he was viewing it explicitly, in a more mechanical sense.

When you’re telling people to simplify the game, you’re inadvertently telling them to go out and choke.  If Savard had to take an extra second to process and think about who to pass the puck to, the opportunity would be squandered and Marc Savard wouldn’t be Marc Savard.

Without getting into too much of another tangent, knowing where your teammates are without visual confirmation will also be predicated on repetitions with the same teammates.  You can imagine if Savard played 10 years in the NHL with the same teammates, he would have more instinctual confidence in them, as opposed to playing on 10 different teams, or having the coach shuffle the lines frequently over the same time frame.

So, it’s not so much about simplification.  We don’t necessarily want to make the game of hockey less complex or complicated.   It’s about playing implicitly.  Most of the players in the NHL have logged tens of thousands of hours of ice time.   We don’t want them to think about the mechanics of a wrist-shot, or where all of your linemates are, or whether you should shoot the puck since your last six shots have sailed wide.  It’s about intuition.  Reacting to what the situation presents.

Let’s go back to Brady’s interview, where he talks about the preparation for a game, in which he is supplementing his in-game experience with film, since football only allows him 16 regular season contests:

“A lot of it is spending time in here on the film and understanding, trying to get as many pictures in your head before the game as you can,” says Brady. “So when you do walk on the field, you can just verify what’s going on. And it’s not you can’t just go back there and wing it. You try that, you are going to wake up Monday morning with headaches. And you’re going to get hit and your going to throw interceptions. And that’s no way to play the game.”

He’s learning implicitly.  It’s almost like learning a new language.  In the beginning, you need to learn your ABC’s and the words to express your feelings are hard to retrieve.  After years of practice and use, language becomes fluid and the process of retrieval and communication are virtually seamless.

* * * *

If you don’t recognize the players emerging from the tunnel for Montreal, it’s understandable.  Eight players from last year’s team have left and the Habs have added Cammalleri, Gomez, Gionta, Moen, Spacek, Mara, M. Begeron, and fan-favorite, Hal Gill.  Not exactly going with size (with the exception of the giraffe on stilts, Gill).

Andy Brickley notes before the game that the Bruins play their best hockey when they’re physical.  When they protect the dangerous areas, take the body and create turnovers.  Use their team speed to transition those turnovers into scoring opportunities.  The Bruins need an emotional game and to play with intensity.  This should be the mindset going into tonight’s game (and it helps that they’ll be staring across the ice at le bleu, blanc et rouge).

One of the problems in achieving this checklist tonight is Savard and Krejci are probably the Bruins best two forwards who can create the opportunities off of turnovers (and probably not coincidentally, two of the most intuitive), and both will not be in the lineup.

Julien sends out the checking line of Paille (LW), Begin (C), and Thornton (RW), so we should see some intensity right away.  Wideman and Hunwick out first for the defense.  Montreal is countering with Latendresse (LW), Plekanac (C), and Laperierre (RW) at forward and Hamrlik and Spacek at defense.

1:30: Montreal has an early 2-on-1 (Boston is playing a little too aggressively), which is broken up by Stuart.  Montreal scores on a wraparound goal, but it is called back because Moen was interfering with Boston goaltender Tim Thomas.

Montreal’s goal came on a turnover from Mikko Lehtonen – Boston’s recent call-up from their priary development team in Providence. Lehtonen was in the offensive zone on the cycle.  Three forwards were deep and Wideman played too aggressive and was looking for the KO (open-ice hip check) on Kostitsyn, and then realized he was of position.   He backed off of the hit and tried to circle while skating backwards and ran into his teammate, Hunwick, which created a partial breakaway, which ultimately resulted in a goal.

When you make one bad play in the NHL, most teams can capitalize on it and threaten your goal.  When you have two in succession, that’s when the red light goes on.

End of 1st Period: MON 1, BOS 0

* * * *

Marc Savard, while in the play-by-play booth, makes a good point about Krejci not being used to playing against the opponent’s top lines, checking lines and top defense pairs.  When Savard is in the lineup, his line gets top billing and attention from the opposition’s best players.  Now, with Savard injured, Krejci has been thrown into the Lion’s Den for the better part of the nascent season (although tonight he is out with the H1N1 virus).  What should be noted, too, is that Savard is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and looking for a big contract.  When the Bruins are determining their depth at center, Krejci’s performance should be closely monitored in the alpha dog position, since the departure of Savard would leave Krejci as the de facto 1st-line center.

Savvy also alluded to the importance of home-ice when he said Bergeron plays against the top lines in Boston.  The home team can make the last line change, so teams have the advantage of dictating the matchups throughout the game.

6:13: Boneheaded penalty by Sturm while on the power-play after the Bruins were showing signs of life.  Sturm had a bad offensive-zone penalty in the 1st period against the Red Wings a few days ago.

This leads to a Montreal 5-on-3 (when Chara is the recipient of a horrible call for cross-checking) and Thomas robs Gionta, who had an open net, only to have it turned back by Thomas lunging with his stick and swiping it off the goal-line. It was like watching Dwight Howard going up for a two-handed jam and Rondo leaping up and sticking his hand through the cylinder to thwart the play (although if you watch the replay, Gionta all but whiffed on the puck entirely, which otherwise would have been a sure goal).

17:35: The Bruins had a goal disallowed in the 2nd period on a nice rush from Sturm on the ride wing side – Price made the save – and Bergeron cleaned up the rebound in front of the net. However, Sturm was at the side of the net with his hands on top of the goal and lifted the goal (with the near-side post coming off its mooring) and Bergeron’s shot actually appeared to slip under the post.

“It kind of felt like we scored a goal for a little bit,’’ Bergeron shrugged, after the game. (courtesy of Boston.com)

After 2 periods: MON 1, BOS 0

* * * *

19:08: With a faceoff in the left side of the offensive zone and one minute left in the 3rd – the goalie pulled for Boston – Bergeron wins the faceoff.  Chara, playing left wing, streaks toward the front of the goal and parks his 11-foot frame in front of Carey Price.  Derek Morris throws it at the net, and after pinballing its way through a couple of sticks, the puck squirts to Price’s right (nice), and Bergeron is there to bury the puck in the back of the net for Boston’s first goal in a fortnight. Actually, more like 192 minutes and 6 seconds, but who’s counting?  And let’s not rule out the ticking clock that’s still lingering on the goal drought when the Bruins have five skaters at even-strength.

After regulation: BOS 1, MON 1

* * * *

We go to overtime, where both team have chances but neither team can seal the victory, and lack of finish is what has been the Bruins’s forte this season.  The Bruins were also 0-3 on the power play, and have a league-worst 10.9 percent “effectiveness.”  Montreal wins in the shootout and Boston suffers a relatively less painful overtime loss to Montreal given the recent dreadful circumstances.

Final: MON 2, BOS 1 (SO)

* * * *

“Well, we finally got a goal in this game,’’ said Steve Begin after the game, “and we have to build on it. It was a little bit too late, but we still got a point out of it.’’

A pretty sad commentary when you think about it.  Imagine the 2008-09 Bruins talking about building on the experience of a 2-1 shootout loss at home against the Canadiens?  In their last ten meetings with the Habs, the Bruins have collected 19 out of possible 20 points (albeit four of those games were in the playoffs and no points are awarded, but I don’t think that stopped the Canadiens from trying in those matches), scoring 38 goals for an average of 3.8 GF.  Obviously this Canadiens team is significantly different, but you could argue they’re weaker defensively than a year ago (averaging 3.19 GA, 25th in the NHL to date, while having an average 2.93 goals against per game a season prior).

After 15 games this season, the Bruins are 6-7-2 with 14 points.  After 15 games last season, they were 10-3-2 with 22 points.  They would also go 20-2-1 in their next 23 games.  The 2008-09 Bruins suffered their eighth regular season loss on January 17 of 2009.  I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the 2009-10 Bruins are not going to match this (they would have to go the next 32 games without suffering a regulation loss).

In the salary cap era and 30 teams in the league, GMs dream of having two dangerous scoring lines.  For Chiarelli, that dream was reality last year with a top six of Lucic, Savard, Kessel, Krejci, Ryder, and Wheeler.  Right now, four of those guys are out of lineup and all of a sudden we’re putting pressure on Bergeron to be the lynchpin.  On a positive note, Bergeron is rising to the occasion with the most impassioned play on the front lines and leads the team in scoring.

Tim Thomas has been between the pipes for the Bruins in the last three games.  Four goals against for a 1.33 GAA.  He turned away 71 of 75 shots for a save percentage of .947.  And he is winless in the same stretch.  How is this possible?  Let’s look at the other side of the coin.  The Bruins were shutout in the first two of Thomas’s starts and took almost the full sixty and six skaters before Bergeron potted the Bruins lone goal in regulation.  In the last five games, the Bruins have scored four goals.

One of the few things that the Bruins can take solace in is they have ample time to turn things around.  The season is less than 20% complete and their top two lines are running on a similarly depleted capacity.  With Krejci, Savard, Lucic, and even Bitz out of the lineup, this is a vastly different team.  Include the off-season loss of Kessel and there’s less margin for injury.

It was nice to see the Bruins get on the board in regulation, and they can certainly try to build on whatever momentum is obtained from scoring one goal, but I’m not quite ready to map the parade route in June.  If they can get healthy, and stay healthy, it’s another matter entirely, for it’s an entirely different team.

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