Sports of Boston » Byron Dafoe

Bruins All-Decade Team: 2000′s

Erikk — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:00:35 +0000

The first decade of the new millennium has been a pendulum for the National Hockey League: it has seen the disappointment of a lockout during the 2004-2005 season coupled with the high expectations of “the Next One,” Sidney Crosby. The Boston Bruins had the same swings, ranging from the excitement of a first-place finish in 2009 to the disappointment of being the only Boston team to be championship-less in the decade. Despite the absence of the Stanley Cup in Beantown, certain players deserve to be honored in the SoB’s Boston Bruins All-Decade Team.

Center: Marc Savard, 2006-Present

The all-time leading scorer in Oshawa Generals history, Marc Savard has only spent three seasons with the Boston Bruins, but they have been three of the best for the team in the past decade. Leading the team in scoring with 96, 78, and 88 points between 2006 and 2009, Savard anchored one of the league’s most potent offensive lines, with Milan Lucic and Phil Kessel on each wing. Despite missing the playoffs in his first season with the team, Savard has restored the Bruins to past heights, including a first place finish in the Eastern Conference in 2009. Savard is set to remain in Boston through most of the next decade, too, after signing a cap-friendly seven-year extension.

Honorable Mention: Joe Thornton, 1997-2005

Left Wing: Sergei Samsonov, 1997-2006

Drafted seven spots behind first-pick Joe Thornton, Sergei Samsonov won the Calder Trophy as the league’s best rookie, contributing 47 points. While Samsonov never reached the potential most expected (despite outscoring Thornton in five of the eight season they played together), he helped the Bruins to the playoffs in three of the five seasons he spent with the team in the new millennium. His best season came in 2000-2001, when he notched 29 goals and 46 assists. In the 2004 NHL Playoffs, the current Carolina Hurricane added seven points (2-5-7) in seven games before the Bruins bowed out to the Montréal Canadiens in the quarterfinals.

Honorable Mention: P.J. Axelsson, 1997-2009, Milan Lucic, 2007-Present

Right Wing: Phil Kessel, 2006-2009

While Phil Kessel’s departure to the Toronto Maple Leafs may have been just shy of amicable, his contribution to the team during his short stint in Boston cannot be undervalued. His 36 goals in the 2008-2009 campaign were tied for second in the decade only to Bill Guerin’s 41 in 2001-2002. In 2007, the Madison, Wisconsin-native was awarded the Bill Masterson Memorial Trophy following his return to hockey after a short bout with testicular cancer. In addition, Kessel led the team with six goals during the 2009 playoffs, despite playing with an injured shoulder. Many Bruins fans booed Kessel in his return to the TD Garden, but the current situation should not outweigh the benefits he provided for the team.

Honorable Mention: Bill Guerin, 2000-2002, Glen Murray, 1991-1995, 2001-2008

Defense: Zdeno Chara, 2006-Present, Hal Gill, 1997-2006

Fluent in five languages, Zdeno Chara has been adjusting to the Bostonian accent since his arrival in 2006. The NHL’s tallest player was named the team’s captain following Joe Thornton’s departure and has earned every cent of his $37.5 million contract with the Bruins. With 144 points in three seasons and a Norris Trophy (league’s best defenseman) to his name, Chara has proven himself as one of the top blueliners in both the offensive and defensive zones. In addition, he is currently the three-time defending Fastest Shot champion, his most recent shot setting an NHL record of 105.4 mph.

A Bolton, Massachusetts-native, Hal Gill only played hockey in New England before the 2004-2005 lockout that sent him to Finland. Now (unfortunately) with the Montréal Canadiens, the Providence College graduate originally joined the Boston Bruins in 1997. The turn of the century saw his productivity increase to a career-high 22 points in 2001-2002, the same season the Bruins finished in first in the Eastern Conference. Two seasons later, Gill anchored the defense that helped the Bruins finish second in the conference, but still could not find a way to beat his current team (the Habs) in the opening round of the playoffs.

Honorable Mention: Dennis Wideman, 2006-Present

Goalie: Tim Thomas, 2002-Present

Despite having been with the Boston Bruins organization since 2002, Tim Thomas did not begin to see significant playing time until the 2005-2006 season, during which he went 12-13-10. As starting goaltender Hannu Toivonen struggled the following season, Thomas was named starter and went 30-29-4 before beginning a yoga-based physical conditioning program, which helped the former Bruins’ 7th Man Award-winner post records of 28-19-6 and 36-11-7 in 2007-2008 and 2008-2009, respectively. At the conclusion of the 2009 season, Thomas was also awarded the Jennings Trophy (jointly with backup Manny Fernandez), the Crozier Award, and the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goaltender.

Honorable Mention: Byron Dafoe, 1997-2002

Coach: Claude Julien, 2007-Present

The Boston Bruins had six head coaches in the past decade with only two earning more wins than losses in their stints. Current head coach Claude Julien has been the most successful, earning a winning percentage of .640 and taking the Bruins within one point of the President’s Trophy in 2009, the same season he won the Jack Adam’s Trophy as the league’s top coach. While Julien has yet to bring the Stanley Cup back to Causeway Street, he has certainly done his part in making the Bruins one of the league’s best teams.

Honorable Mention: Robbie Ftorek, 2001-2003

The Bruins have certainly had a solid decade filled with emotional swings and immense talent. Unfortunately, they failed to bring home hockey’s ultimate prize, but there’s also the next ten years for that.

What Could Have Been: P.J. Axelsson and the 1997-1998 Playoffs

Erikk — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 17:49:04 +0000

On July 27, Anders Per-Johan Axelsson, the left wing better known as P.J. Axelsson, signed a four-year contract with the Frolunda HC Indians of Sweden’s Elitserien, ending his tenure with the Boston Bruins and, most likely, his career in the NHL. The signing, which will return the Swedish native to the team with which he won a national championship during the NHL lockout in the 2004-2005 season, came after the Bruins failed to offer Axelsson a contract extension.

Drafted by the Bruins in the seventh round of the 1997 NHL Entry Draft (176 picks behind Joe Thornton and 169 picks behind Sergei Samsonov), the shutdown forward will leave the Hub as the longest-tenured Bruin, having sported the spoked-B in 797 games. While not renowned for his offensive ability, “Pebben” (as the Swedes call him) was a fan and locker room favorite, often praised for his intelligent play, his tenacious penalty-killing ability, and leadership skills.

In light of P.J.’s signing with Frolunda HC, which will indubitably sadden No. 11 lovers, let’s journey back into history as we’ve done before, not to relive his career, but to simply ponder what could have been for both Axelsson and the Boston Bruins.

So, What Could Have Been?

During the 1997-1998 regular season, rookies Axelsson, Samsonov, and Thornton, aided by the veteran leadership of Ray Bourque and Ted Donato, led the Bruins to a 39-30-13 record, good enough for second place in the Northeast Division and fifth in the Eastern Conference. In the first-round of the playoffs, the B’s were pitted against the Washington Capitals, whose line-up featured former Bruins Joe Juneau and Adam Oates, the latter of whom had been acquired at the season’s trade deadline. The third game of the series between the two Eastern-seaboard teams was to feature one of the most controversial overtime calls in Bruins and NHL history. It has also become one of the most recalled moments of Axelsson’s 11-year career in black and gold.

After splitting the first two games of the series with Washington in the nation’s capital, the second of which was a double-overtime affair, the teams returned to Boston for the third game of the series. In the building formerly known as the Fleet Center, the Bruins peppered Caps goaltender Olaf Kölzig with 35 shots in three periods, nearly double the amount Byron Dafoe faced. However, Kölzig’s mastery of the net kept the score knotted at two goals apiece after regulation and forced overtime.

In the first extra session, the Bruins had many opportunities to score, including three power plays, and score they did. Midway through the period, Axelsson slipped one of the fourteen shots taken by the Bruins in the first overtime past Kölzig for what he thought was his second career playoff goal, what the Bruins thought was the game-winner, and what 15,520 fans thought was the series lead.

However, after protests from the Capitals bench, the referees used instant reply to review the goal and saw that, according to the NHL rulebook, it was not a goal. The reason: Tim Taylor, the center who anchored the Bruins checking line alongside Axelsson and Rob DiMaio, had entered Kölzig’s crease before Axelsson shot the puck. Despite the fact that Taylor’s single skate in the crease did not interfere with Kölzig, the rulebook at the time stated that any goal scored while another offensive player had a presence in the crease would not stand. (The rule differed if the shooter was the infringing party.) As a result, the score remained tied at two and play continued.

Both teams failed to score in the remainder of the first overtime and were forced to play a second overtime for the second game in a row. At the 6:31 mark, after 86 minutes and 31 seconds of play, Oates slid the puck to Juneau, who punched the puck past Dafoe and gave the Capitals victory. For the Bruins, the loss – after the disallowed goal – was painful enough, but having the game-winning goal scored by a former Bruin on an assist from a former Bruin destroyed their spirits.

The Capitals would win the next game in Boston 3-0 and return back to Washington, D.C. with a 3-1 series lead. While the Bruins would win Game 5, they failed to complete the comeback and lost the deciding game of the series 3-2 in Boston. The Capitals would continue in the playoffs and make an improbable Cinderella-like run to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they would be swept by the Detroit Red Wings, the defending Cup holders.

Would things have been different if Taylor hadn’t entered the crease and Axelsson’s goal was allowed to stand? It doesn’t require much imagination to wonder. In fact, at the start of the 1999-2000 season, the skate-in-crease rule was changed to allow any player to be in the crease as long as they did not interfere with the goaltender. The dissatisfaction with the original rule – the one that governed the 1997-1998 playoffs – was exacerbated after the infamous “No Goal” goal in the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals between the Buffalo Sabres and the Dallas Stars, who would end up winning the series.

So, if the series between Boston and Washington had taken place just two years later, the Bruins would have won the third game on Axelsson’s goal and held a 2-1 series before the second game in Boston. It’s highly plausible that the Bruins would not have lost Game 4, especially since the momentum would have remained on their side. Assuming they pulled out a win, they would return to D.C. one win away from the conference semifinals. If one keeps history the same for just this part, the Bruins win the series 4-1 after shutting out the Capitals 4-0. Even if Washington takes the game – giving them the benefit of the doubt, since they are playing on home ice, after all – the B’s would still have a 3-2 series lead returning to the Fleet Center.

While one cannot assume that the Bruins would have advanced all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals like the Capitals did – especially when one considers that Thornton played for Boston – it is possible that they might have done just that. The Capitals easily handled the Ottawa Senators 4-1 and slid past the Sabres 4-2, two teams who finished below Boston in the regular season standings. (If Boston had beaten Washington, the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs would have been an entire upset, with the 5-8 seeds advancing.) Unfortunately, a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals doesn’t guarantee winning the Cup, as the Capitals discovered.

The world will never know if the Boston Bruins could have raised the Stanley Cup above their heads at the end of the 1997-1998 or even if they would have advanced past the conference semifinals. However, P.J. Axelsson’s disallowed goal certainly leaves us, the Boston Bruins faithful, to wonder…what could have been.

Author’s postscript: Even if Axelsson’s goal had been allowed, it is unlikely that the bad blood that flowed between the Bruins and Capitals as a result of the heated series would have ebbed. In their next regular season meeting, November 21, 1998 in Boston, the two teams combined for more than 200 PIM, a fair share the result of a near-comical fight between Dafoe and Kölzig, who served as the best man at each other’s respective weddings just a few years prior. They insist they remain friends to this day.