Suck It Up, Claude, Spooner Needs to Stay

Ryan Spooner is just what the Boston Bruins need; a young, speedy skater with an accurate shot and a knack for scoring, trying to make a team that desperately needs the finishing touch it so sorely lacked in its second-round playoff exit at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens.

He’s doomed.

The argument for Spooner’s inclusion on this year’s Bruins roster began well Tuesday night in Montreal, where Boston dropped its first exhibition game of the preseason, 3-2, to the Canadiens. Only 1:17 into play, the 22-year-old center took advantage of a turnover by Montreal’s Nikita Scherbak and scored the first goal of the preseason for the Bruins, who took a 1-0 lead.

That was the good.

Alas, Spooner also proved why he’s something of an afterthought, despite having scored 110 points in 116 games with AHL affiliate Providence, in the Bruins organization. Spooner had a weak poke at Montreal’s Christian Thomas, who was able to dish the puck easily to Drayson Bowman for the game-winner in the third period.

Hey, guess which one head coach Claude Julien focused on after the game.

“In Spoon’s case it was nice to see him score that goal, but if you watched the game he’s still a liability defensively,” Bruins coach Julien said, per CSN New England. “The guy gets a quality shot from the slot there [on the game-winner], so he needs to keep working on that part of his game. It’s okay and it’s exciting to see a guy do great offensively, and we love his game offensively. But at the same time if you score a goal and you give up two, then you’re not really helping your team.

“We need commitment from that part of his game to see that he’s going to work hard at it.”

To be fair, Claude, Spooner finished the game with a plus-minus of zero, which is the same as pet child Chris Kelly, and yes, he did indeed look disinterested at best in the framework of the Bowman goal. Spooner also outshot Kelly by a 5-0 margin, and if it weren’t for his seemingly unpopular willingness to try and find the back of the net, let’s face it, the Bruins are merely looking at a 2-1 loss in Montreal instead of what transpired.

Quelle horreur.

Under Julien’s watch, the defensive-minded Bruins have seen a rebirth of success in Boston, including winning their first Stanley Cup in 39 years. But the play not to lose mentality simply burned the Bruins in last year’s playoffs, when scoring opportunities against Carey Price and the Canadiens were at a premium, and when they came, Bruins skaters hit more pipes than Josh Gordon. The philosophy may breed regular season success, but it’s a mind-numbing exercise in futility come spring.

Let’s also not forget that the Bruins aren’t winning the cup in 2011 if not for Tyler Seguin’s immersion into the series against the Lightning, and the Dallas Star sniper isn’t exactly known for his defensive skills. These Bruins as constituted don’t have anything close to the talent level of a player like Seguin (but any day now for Loui Eriksson, right?). Spooner is the closest thing they’ve got to that type of player.

And the Bruins seem perfectly content to allow him to rot in Providence for yet another season.

“As a centerman, you’ve got to be reliable down low,” Julien told the Globe. “If we look at one part of the game, it’s real exciting. If you look at the other part of the game, this is where we have an issue right now. You have to be reliable. Even your teammates want you to be reliable. If you’re on the ice, not doing your job, and getting scored on, eventually your teammates will turn on you too. That’s the biggest thing we want Spoons to work on. He’s such a good skater. But there’s times he just backchecks slowly. He could be backchecking better. There’s a little bit of commitment there that we’re going to need from him.”

No doubt, it’s the part of Spooner’s game that the kid needs to work on.

Still, if any NHL team figures out a way to win a game 0-0, the Bruins brass will be there, either willing to instruct others on how it’s done, or first in line to absorb the Holy Grail of their organizational philosophy. They’re not afraid of offense, per se, but what one-dimensional players can lead too, which is mainly breakdowns in the defensive end. If Julien and general manager Peter Chiarelli could have 23 Kelly’s, defensive-minded forwards who only score when the rare opportunity is afforded them, he’d ask the league for a roster exemption to carry one more.

Then, of course, is the matter of Spooner being a center, which means the only spot for him on the team would be on the re-shaped fourth line, where he could take the place of Gregory Campbell, who has yet to take the ice this camp due to a core injury. Spooner, teamed with fourth-liner mainstay Daniel Paille and newcomer Simon Gagne, would create a fascinating evolution in the dynamic of the line post-Shawn Thornton.

But what is with the Bruins’ steadfast insistence that Spooner needs to remain at center? They had no qualms about moving either Phil Kessel or Seguin to wing upon each player’s arrival, and if Julien is concerned about his “reliability” at the center position, what’s the harm in tinkering with his skills on the right or left side of the ice?

If the Bruins would only be willing to give a little and surrender a little bit of defense for the speed and offense they lack (only all the more exaggerated with the absence of holdout Reilly Smith) Spooner might be the injection this team needs. Hell, he has been for two years now.

Jarome Iginla is in Colorado, and the team’s solution for replacing his firepower is to move Eriksson to the top line. Brilliant. Habs fans might as well start preparing their taunts now and save them for April.

For certain, these Bruins feel stagnant. Spooner may be a risk, but the teams that play too safely usually go home before Memorial Day.

Wash. Rinse.