Banking on Brad

Brad Marchand extends contract through 2017-2018 (Photo Credit: Steph Phillips)

With the idea of the NHL lock out coming closer and closer, the Boston Bruins are still focusing on having a season and maintaining contracts with the current team.

Today it was announced that forward Brad Marchand has been signed to a four-year contract extension through the 2016-2017 season. His contract will be worth an average of $4.5 million annually, $18million all together.  This deal makes Marchand the fourth highest paid player on the team, behind guys like Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron.  While it may seem like a lot of money, Marchand has accomplished a lot in the past two seasons wearing his black and gold sweater.

The 5′ 9″ little ball of hate has managed to be among the teams top scorers in both seasons, contributing 49 goals and 48 assists combined, setting a career high of 28 goals last season.  While he has a major influence on the ice in scoring goals, he has also provided the Bruins with some hefty penalty minutes as well with 138 minutes spent in the box.  We also can’t forget his greatest contribution of helping the team win the Stanley Cup in 2011 by sealing the fourth and final goal of Game 7.

“It’s always nice when you sign players,  but it’s nice when you sign a player like Brad, who has worked his way up through and played the way we enjoy watching.  He has an in-your-face game, he sacrifices his body and he’s really coming into his own as an offensive player,” Chiarelli told the Herald’s Steve Conroy.

Along with Marchand big names like Milan Lucic, Tuukka Rask and Tyler Seguin are also looking to be locked up this season, as they are RFA’s come July, while Nathan Horton and Andrew Ference will be considered unrestricted.

Sticking to his game plan, Chiarelli has continued to lock up his core players that he had during the Cup run, and given recent events, we can assume that this pattern will continue.  With a market already being set for Seguin with Taylor Hall and Jeff Skinner signing contracts averaging the $6million mark per season, we can assume he will get somewhere along those lines.

While the current CBA negotiations try to hinder GM signings, Chiarelli is still jumping at the chance to sign his core.

“I can’t ignore (the labor situation) and I’m trying not to.  We’re trying to lock up core guys, we;re trying to lock up the critical mass of our team (but) I’ve told the guys ‘Look, if the system changes dramatically and I have to shuffle pieces around, I have to do that.’ That’s part of the business and, when we’re signing guys, they’re okay with that.”(via Boston Herald)

 

The Reign of Claude Continues in Boston

Claude is sticking around in Boston! (Credit:Flickr/Slidingsideways)

This summer has been filled with signings, contract extensions, and trades all with the players. Now this is important and all but a team would be nothing without a strong coach. The B’s won the Stanley Cup last year under the reign of Claude Julien and it looks as though Julien will have a few more years to try and relive the magic in Boston.

Tomorrow Peter Chiarelli and Julien will speak to the media but so far all we know is that the extension is multi year and if you ask me that’s good news.

Julien has spent five seasons in Boston and has led the club to an overall record of 228-132-50 (.617 win percentage). During this time Julien and co. have not missed a postseason with a career playoff record of 36-27 (.571 win percentage) to rank first all-time among B’s coaches in post-season victories.

This season Julien notched a few coach milestones including coaching his 600th NHL (December 28th at Phoenix) and 400th Bruins (March 19th vs. Toronto) games while notching his 300th NHL win in a 3-2 shootout victory at Chicago on October 15th and his 200th victory behind the Boston bench by a 6-0 score in Philadelphia on December 17th.

A multi-year contract means that Chiarelli and Co. are not only pleased with Claude’s coaching but that they are confident in another trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Stay tuned for updates on this extension as we get them here!

(Stats provided by Bruins official site)

Breaking Down the Bruins Breakdown

Patrice Bergeron teaching Jordan Caron the finer points of taking faceoffs - a critical, yet overlooked, part of playing a winning game. (Photo: Stephanie Vail)

What seems like years have passed since the Bruins were a winning team. In that time, I – like most other fans, I’m sure – have evaluated every possible explanation for this nightmare. How did it go from being so perfect, to being almost irreparable?

Do the answers lie in the numbers on the stat sheets? The video replays? The players themselves? Or is it something we can’t see – something wrong inside the locker room? A problem that can be traced back in time? Or something even deeper? Or maybe something far simpler and more obvious? If the answer is a little bit of everything, doesn’t it seem more impossible to overcome? Searching for answers doesn’t yield solutions. We can only sit and helplessly wait for the results.

When rendered helpless, I like to pretend I can put myself to good use. This is my feeble attempt to make sense of the situation and shed some light, as dim as it may be. I go into uncharted territories, personally, by exploring advanced statistics and the many different types, uses, and even practices in the NHL.