They are both playing tremendous hockey right now. Since being moved back to the first line, PJ Axelsson has really cranked his game up a notch. He makes excellent plays in the neutral zone that lead to offensive chances, and he is kind of a "one man trap" on defense, he seems to have a knack for making the puck carrier go exactly where PJ wants him to go. He's never been a big hitter, but he can be very good at breaking up plays with his body. I remember a game when PJ was killing a 5-on-3 years ago, and he closed with the puck carrier just inside the Boston blue line and just pushed him (and the puck) out of the zone. He does stuff like that all the time, and ends offensive chances before the start. Although PJ's +/- for this season is mediocre, that is almost entirely because his line has not scored many even strength goals; they have also allowed very few. I think his value to the team will be even greater in the playoffs than it is in the regular season. With overall scoring likely to be down, it is more likely that a game could turn on a single defensive mistake, breakaway, or great defensive play.
The trouble with judging PJ on stats alone is that no one has (yet) found a good way to measure the things he does well. He ended the Chicago game a few weeks ago with a great play to steal the puck from Brian Campbell at center ice and then scored into the empty net. Forget the goal, the great play was the steal. If Brian Campbell had gained the Bruin zone, would Chicago have scored? They certainly would have had a chance, and with the extra skater they might have succeeded. PJ's play could have been the difference between a win and a loss - but there isn't a great way to measure such things. Lucic has also been very good of late, and his steal yesterday seemed like something PJ would do. I think Krejci's line started producing again when Lucic was put on the line. I agree with Ian that what really impresses about Lucic is his hockey sense. He reminds me a little of Bergeron - at very young ages both of them seem to have a better sense of what to do on the ice than many 10-year veterans. Julien will have some interesting decisions to make when Kessel returns from his injury. Does Kessel go back to RW on Savard's line? If so, where does Wheeler go? Back to Krejci? That might be hard to do, with Krejci/Lucic/Ryder playing so well right now. The easy answer would be to move Axelsson to the 4th line, but I'm not sure that would be the best answer. Bergeron, Recchi and Kobasew have been playing well, too. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Go Bruins Mailing List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/go-bruins?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
