A nice break for us.
Welcome to Tuesday, folks!
The Bruins aren’t back in action until tomorrow night, when they’ll continue this Road Trip of Doom in Anaheim.
After that, they’ll have a brief stop in Detroit before returning home one week from today in what surely will be a rousing, energy-filled reception.
If nothing else, this Monday-Tuesday stretch without a game gives us a break from watching what has become an increasingly hopeless on-ice product, so…enjoy it!
When the Bruins dealt everything not nailed down at the trade deadline, it was natural to think along the lines of “OK, let’s see what some of these guys can do for the rest of the year.”
I think I underestimated just how bad things would get though, as the Los Angeles game in particular was a new level of “yikes.”
Still, we’ve been spoiled around these parts for quite a while, so you kind of have just grin and bear it, finding the positives where you can.
For example, I’ve enjoyed watching Marat Khusnutdinov, who seems (to me) like the fastest skater the B’s have had in a while.
Casey Mittelstadt looks OK.
David Pastrnak continues to do his best to drag this team to something respectability; he won’t finish high in MVP voting due to his team’s place in the standings, but he deserves some votes.
Elsewhere, there’s been a lot of chatter about Nikita Zadorov’s comments, or more specifically “no comment,” about Jeremy Swayman’s attempted fight Sunday night.
To me, the comments were more of a guy who was mad after another thorough defeat than a guy calling out his teammate.
(I thought Andrew Raycroft had a pretty good read on the whole thing.)
Plus, Zadorov must know that he and Swayman are both part of the problem, with each drastically underperforming for most of the season.
Both of them, plus Elias Lindholm and a few others, basically just need this season to be over so they can write it off and try again.
Anyways, at least it’s given us something to talk about!
Lastly, the Providence Bruins signed forward Jake Schmaltz to an AHL contract today, with the contract kicking in next season; he’ll join the P-Bruins on an ATO for the rest of the season.
Schmaltz was a seventh-round pick by the Bruins in 2019. He’s coming off of a 6G-10A-16PTS season at the University of North Dakota.
What’s on tap for today?