On Sunday, the Bruins fell 4-1 to the Buffalo Sabres, capping off a five game road trip on which Boston went a middling 2-3. Two of theses three losses came at the hands of teams that are completely out of the playoff race, including a Sabres team that was 18-33-11 coming into Sunday afternoon’s action.
The Bruins are entering arguably the most difficult stretch of their schedule this season, playing an average of one game every 44 hours (according to Jack Edwards, Bruins play-by-play commentator). Although they played poorly during their time away from the Garden, the B’s did have one bright spot on Sunday: acquiring Rick Nash in a trade with the New York Rangers.
On the outset, I will say that Nash didn’t look completely in-sync with his linemates (understandable considering that he’d been on the team for less than 12 hours), and he took a few noticeably short shifts. Other than that, Nash was probably Boston’s best player, creating a flurry of offensive opportunities with his wide frame and long reach. If nothing else, It was a welcome sight to see a towering left shot next to David Krejci again.
Krejci is a player who is most successful when he has bruisers around him; physicality is not his forte, so he benefits from hard-hitters who can dig out and provide him with the puck. Krejci’s best years came when he played in between Nathan Horton and Milan Lucic, as he posted his highest point and plus/minus totals in 2012-2013 and led the NHL in playoff scoring in both 2011 and 2013.
I’m not gonna lie--Rick Nash reminds me quite a bit of prime Milan Lucic: a lumbering giant who knows how to use his body and fight for the puck even if he’s not the first one there. But the best part about Nash is that he has everything Lucic had but with a longer reach, better hands, and a harder shot. I got pretty excited when I saw Nash line up behind Krejci for an offensive zone faceoff because I think we’re gonna be seeing a lot of this in the not-too-distant future:
Aside from Nash’s shot, I also expect to see many plays similar to this one, where Lucic (and now hopefully Nash) fishes the puck out down low and finds Krejci in the slot:
With regard to Nash’s play on Sunday, I think we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of what him and Krejci can do together. Give ‘em a couple weeks together in practice, and they’ll be criss-crossing over the blue line ripping goals top shelf before we know it. The Bruins employed Nash conservatively in five-on-five play, and it was nice to see him worked into the power play as a big body in front of the net.
My only real concern is that Nash’s short shifts were a product of poor conditioning and that he shied away from contact several times. I haven’t watched a lot of Rangers hockey this year, so I have no idea if he’s been showing signs of aging, but part of me fears that this could be David Backes 2.0: another experiment where Don Sweeney tries to put a big-bodied winger alongside Krejci, but he turns out to be too old to play such a significant role. For now, I'll blame it on the travel and short preparation time afforded to Nash.
In any case, a full trade deadline analysis will be coming later this week, but I’m quite pleased with what I’ve seen out of Boston’s new left-winger so far. Nash-Krejci-DeBrusk definitely isn’t as sick as Lucic-Krejci-Horton, but it’s a helluva lot better than Spooner-Krejci-DeBrusk, and it’s a good enough second line to make a legit Cup run.
(GIFs courtesy of youtube.com and GIPHY.com)
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