Many above, beyond
No shortage of worthy options for B’s Seventh Player Award
When WSBK-TV, formerly known as Channel 38, introduced the Seventh Player Award in 1969, Bruins fans almost always got it right. On a team chock full of stars, lower wattage players such as Eddie Westfall, Johnny McKenzie, Dallas Smith, Carol Vadnais, Don Marcotte and Gary Doak won the award earmarked for the player who goes above and beyond expectations.
But as time passed, fans increasingly gave the award, now bestowed by NESN, to one of the team’s top players. Bill Guerin, Tim Thomas, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak have each won it twice, which should never happen (the exception is Cam Neely, who won it in his first season with the B’s in 1986-87 and then again in 1993-94 after coming back from a leg injury that would eventually cost him his career). And it would have been hard for Joe Thornton, who won in 1999-00, to go beyond people’s expectations after he was taken No. 1 overall in 1996.
So, yes, sometimes the fans got it wrong, and at other times there were no worthy candidates, which usually meant the team wasn’t very good. There are no excuses this year. You can’t go wrong with a number of players.
Rookie Jake DeBrusk has, for the most part, held down his top-six forward spot on the David Krejci line and is proving to be a very likable player. Danton Heinen, though he’s hit an iceberg the past month, had produced regularly for a couple of months and is still fifth on the team in scoring. Matt Grzelcyk helped solidify the defense in November by giving coach Bruce Cassidy a balanced left-right back end. Just about anyone on the fourth line — Sean Kuraly, Tim Schaller or Noel Acciari — is worth a vote.
Even Zdeno Chara, whose stature on the team should have made him exempt from this award before now, would be an understandable choice given the fact that he’s still the team’s best defender at age 40. On the other hand, Charlie McAvoy, whom we suspect will get a lot of support because he’s a rookie, was simply meeting the sky-high expectations for him before he got hurt.
But the feeling here is that it should come down to two candidates — goalie Anton Khudobin and center Riley Nash.
The B’s would have been in trouble had Khudobin started this season as he did last season, when he didn’t nail down a win until February. While Tuukka Rask ran into trouble in previous years because he was overworked, he suffered a perplexing early slump that threatened the B’s entire 2017-18 season. Khudobin stepped in, won some games when Cassidy gave him consecutive starts, and afforded Rask time to get right. Once he did get his game back, Rask went on a 19-0-2 run that catapulted the B’s into a secure playoff spot and thrust him into the Vezina discussion for a time. For his part, Khudobin held a 15-4-4 record with a .918 save percentage and a 2.45 save percentage going into yesterday.
If the B’s are fortunate enough to go on a long playoff run, and Rask appears to be getting run down, I wouldn’t hesitate to give Khudobin a game. There was a time when a backup went into mothballs when the playoffs started, but there’s no rule that says a backup can’t get a playoff game. The two-time defending champion Penguins needed at least some contribution from Matt Murray Marc-Andre Fleury in both Stanley Cupwinning seasons. There were injuries involved, but the Pens needed both goalies to get through the twomonth grind.
Nash, meanwhile, has anchored the third line when it was an open question as to whether he was up for being the regular fourth-line center. Going into yesterday, he had already notched career highs in goals (13) and assists (22) and was a plus-player (plus-14) for the first time in his career. He’s been a regular contributor to what for the most part has been a strong penalty kill.
Nash is now doing a terrific job of playing up in the lineup, taking over for the injured Patrice Bergeron and allowing Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak to continue their magic. And his inclusion in the overtime rotation has helped the B’s 3-on-3 play immensely. While Marchand has rightly received the big accolades for finishing off the OT wins, Nash’s heady play and puck protection in the OT sessions, in which possession is the name of the game, has led to much of their recent success in the extra frame.
The verdict here? I’ll go with Nash. But there are many ways to vote without being wrong. And that’s a big reason why the B’s have had the season they’ve enjoyed.