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Sunday, December 31, 2006

New Year: An 8th spot and a question mark

After the sorry display in Nashville, last night, the B's finished the year at the 8th spot of their conference. A very nice improvement after a shaky start. In fact, 2007 look very good when you consider all those games in hand and the fact that the team put herself in a position to really compete for a playoffs spot.

At the very beginning of this season, goaltending was a question mark. After last night's dreadful performance, the question remain: What will happend with the goaltending. Thomas did his job and handle the #1 position like no one can predicted. That said, the backup issue is rising. There's no doubt that Thomas can take some of the workload but he cannot do all the job. Right now, the team have the bad habit to play awful when their backups are between the pipes. Toivonen did his job in Nashville but was clearly let down by the team. Then, Some funny stuff appear: Trade Toivonen, Call back Finley and Trade for Lalime.

The fact is that, if the B's want to stay competitive and compete for a playoffs spot, the backup have to play. Whatever the name you put at the position, there's no way a backup can put a good on ice performance by playing one game in a month. You have to win some and lose some. Right now, the B's are doing an excellent job to avoid a losing skid and it might be the perfect time to give some work to the backup. Yes, there's some situations where you have to play your #1 but there's some situations that he have to sit too. Right now, Thomas is on the verge to be exhausted at the end of January. You cannot ask that kind of effort from a goaltender without suffering the consequences. One way or the other, Lewis will have to find a solution. In order to make those playoffs and compete in the 1st round, Thomas need some rest.

This team showed that they can make it. Playing Thomas, so often, can ends up with the wrong result. Mismanaging the goaltending can be lethal; especially in a competitive conference. There's no easy solution here and maybe we can wish, for 2007, a solution for that dilemma. 2006 was a good year to be a Bruins fan. Thanks guys for the last few weeks. It's been a blast !

Happy new year to everyone. I wish you the very best in 2007.

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