What Do I Need to Know About the Bruins?

There are some advanced metrics starting up for hockey but as hockey is more flowing than baseball they’re not nearly as useful as the baseball statistics. However if you’d like to find out more here are a couple links:
http://www.behindthenet.ca/ – where stats are kept
http://www.behindthenet.com/ – where stats (and the winnipeg jets now) are blogged about
http://www.copperandblue.com/ – an Edmonton Oilers (booooooo) blog that talks about advanced stats
and anything from Cam Charron on any number of different blogs.

Some of the stuff they try to make work just plain doesn’t but they’re trying.

Owner: Jeremy Jacobs – Known as a cheapskate since he bought the team in 1975, was one of the main proponents for the salary cap in the NHL, has spent to the cap since the lockout ended and the cap was put in place. Hired Bruins Hero Cam Neely as President, promptly won the cup. Not a coincidence.

Coach: Claude Julien – has won the Jack Adams (coach of the year) Award once and the Stanley Cup once. A very good defensive coach, his strategies have given opposing teams fits since he got here. People often call for him to be fired. These people are idiots.

General Manager: Peter Chiarelli – Obviously a super-genius because he’s kept together a cup-winner pretty well in a salary cap league with room under the cap. Okay he probably got lucky too, but whatever. Very calm about roster moves, not apt to trade a player immediately out of frustration.

President: Cam NeelyHall of Fame former player for the Bruins. His #8 is retired in the rafters. Embodies the image of “Heart” and also a great scorer. Career ended prematurely by noted human garbage Ulf Samuelsson. People compare current Bruin Milan Lucic to him, but Lucic has a ways to go. As president, is a stanley cup winner and can be seen celebrating goals in the owners box.

Also in general feel free to ask questions, we’re all reasonably nice people usually

Another tip for watching Bruins hockey.

Listen to Brick. The man knows his stuff and I am constantly learning from him. Is one of the best color men in the game.
Take Jack with a grain of salt… his enthusiasm can be overwhelming at times but its genuine and he truly loves this game.

Together, they may just be the most entertaining announcing pair out there (for the home town fans)

Actually, as a former Houston Aeros watcher, you may be familiar with Benoit Pouliot and our minor league goalie, Anton Khudobin!

The Bruins have one of the best goalie tandems in the league.

On the one hand you’ve got 2-time Vezina (best goalie in the league) winner and one-time Conn Smythe (Playoff MVP) winner Tim Thomas, who set records for modern goaltending last year. He’s playing pretty damn well this year and will also ahem “get into it” with forwards sometimes:

He’s also one of the only Americans on the team, so if you’re into that sort of thing he’s your guy.

His backup (and goalie of the future, and would-be main goalie on some teams) is Finnish Tuukka Rask. He’s known for also flipping out (famously once throwing a milkcrate from the tunnel to the locker room onto the ice as he left a providence bruins game). Rask is also a more traditional goalie than Thomas is, stopping a lot of pucks with solid positional play and cutting down angles and being a big dude.

My most important tip, if you haven’t yet, is to go to a game. Grab some tickets off stubhub or something and get yourself to the Gahden. Hockey games are awesome live.

Thanks everyone. That’s just what I was looking for.

One thing that I really love about this team is their depth. Their top two lines don’t have the flashy superstars that some teams have (though Seguin is rapidly approaching that status), but they’ve done a great job filling the lineup with quality players. Just about everyone does all the “little things” that don’t show up in box scores, but are critical to being successful: face-offs, blocking shots, maintaining possession, providing energy, defending teammates, killing penalties, getting in opponents’ heads, winning battles along the boards, etc. That depth was a major reason the Bruins beat the Canucks for the Cup and one of the things that makes them so entertaining in my eyes.

all you need to know is this. Even our goalies know how to lay down the law.

Go read http://daysofyorr.com/ because it is hilarious. Very silly Bruins blog that is heavily focused on hilariously bad photoshopping to create hockey memes.

All News Weather and Traffic related Bruins is found right here at
stanleycupofchowder.com

Its very interesting to see what everyone takes out of being a Bruin fan.

I know its tough because you are a newbie to the Bruins and if I were you I would focus short term on the current team and front office but make sure you take the time to get to know the history later on. You cant help but take some of it in just by talking about the Bruins but the history will make you even more apt to love the Bruins. I affectionately used to refer to them as the hot girlfriend that broke your heart every year only to win it back later. The best part about being a Bruin fan is the rivalries, the history, and best of all the bond between you and other Bruin fans you will meet in the future. We are a big family and are always welcoming new members.

Welcome to the team.