Bruins Corner Blog

Bruins beat Predators in shootout

2012-02-11T22:53:00.001-05:00

Referee Kevin Pollock, right, signals as Boston Bruins' Patrice Bergeron (37) celebrates after making the winning goal in a shootout against the Nashville Predators during an NHL hockey game in Boston, Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012. The Bruins won 4-3. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Early afternoon games haven't been much fun for the Bruins this season but today they played better against a tough Nashville Predators team. The game would eventually go to a shootout, after Tim Thomas allowed a soft five-hole goal with less than four minutes remaining in the third period and then Milan Lucic tied the game for the Bruins with a little over a minute to play in the third period. In the shootout, Tyler Seguin and Patrice Bergeron scored to win the game 4-3 and get those two points while Tim Thomas shut the door on the two Predators shooters he faced. This was a really good comeback win for the Bruins and I'm hoping it can get them going again and on the right track. Milan Lucic played a heck of a game, probably his best of the season.

In the first period, Patrice Bergeron scored his 16th goal of the season, a shorthanded goal after Brad Marchand made a strong effort in the Predators zone.

In the second period, Shea Weber tied the game 1-1 with a big slap shot on the power-play.

In the third period, Daniel Paille scored his 9th goal of the season to make it 2-1 Bruins. He was set up beautifully by Shawn Thornton. Predators Patric Hornqvist would tie the game 2-2 later. Mike Fisher would later score making it 3-2 Predators. Then on the power-play, Lucic scored his 20th goal of the season to tie the game. Lucic is the first player this season to reach the 20 goal/100 PIMs mark.

In the shootout, David Krejci was stopped, Sergei Kostitsyn was stopped, Tyler Seguin scored after many dekes, Martin Erat was stopped, and Patrice Bergeron scored to end the game, Bruins winning 4-3.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 41-22 and faceoff wins 38-26. The Predators led the game in hits 14-11 and blocked shots 29-9.

The Bruins went 1-for-4 on the power-play while the Predators went 1-for-3.

Tim Thomas played in net and made 19 saves on 22 shots. Thomas is now 23-10-0 with a 2.18 GAA and a .931 save percentage this season.

Milan Lucic led the Bruins in shots with 7.

Jordan Caron and Dennis Seidenberg led the Bruins in hits with 3 apiece.

Adam McQuaid had a bad game, picking up two minor penalties and was -2. He had another "puck over the glass" penalty in this game.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 34-17-2 with 70 points (1st place in the Northeast Division and 2nd place in the Eastern Conference). The Bruins next game is on Tuesday against the New York Rangers in Boston at 7pm ET.

Sabres dominate Bruins 6-0

2012-02-09T01:08:00.001-05:00

BUFFALO, NY - FEBRUARY 08: Patrick Kaleta #36 of the Buffalo Sabres hits the ice after being checked by Zdeno Chara #33 of the Boston Bruins at First Niagara Center on February 8, 2012 in Buffalo, New York. Chara was called for interference on the play. (Photo by Rick Stewart/Getty Images)

The Bruins started Wednesday night's game at Buffalo playing well against the Sabres but after a good Milan Lucic goal was called no goal because ref Rob Martell thought he saw goalie interference he waived it off. After that disallowed goal the game went downhill for the Bruins and the Sabres went on to beat the Bruins 6-0 in their worst loss of the season. I'm not even going to bother going through who scored for the Sabres. It was just another bad loss for the Bruins against a bad team.

Tuukka Rask started the game in net but was taken out in the second period after he allowed the third goal of the game, 1:52 into the period. Tim Thomas came in and played the rest of the game. Rask made 7 saves on 10 shots. Rask is now 11-7-2 with a 2.01 GAA and a .932 save percentage. Thomas made 16 saves on 19 shots. Thomas is still 22-10 and now with a 2.16 GAA and a .932 save percentage.

The Bruins led the game in shots 36-29, faceoff wins 45-21 and hits 20-18. The Sabres led the game in blocked shots 14-11. The Sabres went 1-for-2 on the power-play while the Bruins had no power-plays.

Zdeno Chara, Johnny Boychuk and Dennis Seidenberg were all -3. Patrice Bergeron went 18-4 in the faceoff circle. Chris Kelly went 10-0 in the faceoff circle. Tyler Seguin led the Bruins with 5 shots. Johnny Boychuk led the Bruins with 3 blocked shots. Patrice Bergeron led the Bruins with 3 hits.

Bruins goal gets disallowed, and we all know why

Wednesday night is ok for fighting too
The game had three fights and some rough stuff throughout the game. In the first period, Shawn Thornton took on Cody McCormick in a quick bout which you could probably say was a draw. Then later off a faceoff, when the NBC telecast had Pierre talking to Sabres assistant coach James Patrick, Milan Lucic dropped the gloves with Patrick Kaleta. Yes you didn't read that wrong, Kaleta actually dropped the gloves while wearing his huge visor, and Lucic did to him what others always dreamed of, speedbagged his face with rights. Kaleta waved to the crowd trying to get them going, telling them "hey I got pounded cheer for me."

Milan Lucic vs Patrick Kaleta, February 8, 2012

In the second period, Kaleta hits Chara with a late hit, and Chara comes back with a big hit on Kaleta.

Also in the second period, Shawn Thornton got into his second fight of the game, knocking down Mike Weber with a big left hand.

Bruins-Sabres scrum with Kaleta holding on for dear life and then talks trash after the refs break everyone apart. Yup Kaleta is the toughest guy and talks the most when there's a ref between him and whoever he is talking to.

Onto the next one
The Bruins play the Sabres again later this month, on February 24th in Buffalo again.

The Bruins are now 33-17-2 with 68 points. The Bruins next game is on Saturday hosting the Nashville Predators in Boston at 1pm ET. We may see ex-Bruin Brian McGrattan in the lineup for that game. McGrattan has been pounding all of his opponents just about this season.

Bruins full game effort gets win over Capitals

2012-02-05T21:23:00.003-05:00

The Bruins finally played a full 60-minute game and they beat the Washington Capitals 4-1 this afternoon.

In the first period, Milan Lucic scored his 19th goal of the season. Later, Brad Marchand scored his 19th goal of the season. Capitals Matt Hendricks got into a short fight with Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid not too long after the second goal. Hendricks made sure to get in tight on McQuaid but McQuaid got in a few punches before they both went down to the ice.

In the second period, no scoring happened.

In the third period, Tyler Seguin scored his 20th goal of the season to make it 3-0 Bruins. Later, Capitals Marcus Johansson would get credit for a goal as a pass went off of Dennis Seidenberg and into the net, making it 3-1. Rich Peverley later added an empty-net goal to finish the game 4-1.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in faceoff wins 43-24. The Capitals led the game in shots 36-29 and blocked shots 27-11. Both teams had 18 hits apiece.

The Bruins went 0-for-3 on the power-play, while the Capitals went 0-for-1.

Zach Hamill was scratched and Jordan Caron was in the lineup for the Bruins.

Tim Thomas made 35 saves on 36 shots. Thomas is now 22-10-0 with a 2.11 GAA and a .934 save percentage this season.

Patrice Bergeron had 2 assists, was +3, and went 15-9 in the faceoff circle.

Brad Marchand and Rich Peverley both had 1 goal and 1 assist.

Tyler Seguin led the Bruins with 5 shots.

Johnny Boychuk led the Bruins with 4 hits.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 33-16-2 with 68 points (1st place in the Northeast Division and 2nd place in the Eastern Conference). The Bruins next game is on Wednesday at the Buffalo Sabres, at 7:30pm ET.

Bruins lose 2-1 to Penguins

2012-02-04T23:51:00.000-05:00

Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara skates off the ice after their 2-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in an NHL hockey game in Boston Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

The Bruins had an overall better game this afternoon against the Pittsburgh Penguins than they did against the Canes but there were times where the Penguins outplayed them. The Bruins couldn't score to tie the game late in the third period and fell to the Penguins 2-1.

In the first period, Evgeni Malkin scored a power-play goal with 9 seconds left in the period to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead.

In the second period, no scoring happened.

In the third period, Penguins Matt Cooke scored to make it 2-0. Later, Joe Corvo scored his 3rd goal of the season to make it 2-1. But the Bruins wouldn't be able to tie the game, even with Tim Thomas pulled and the game ended 2-1.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 29-28. The Penguins led the game in faceoff wins 31-30, hits 28-17 and blocked shots 19-12.

The Bruins went 0-for-2 on the power-play, including a 4-minute power-play. The Penguins went 1-for-3 on the power-play.

Tim Thomas was in net and made 26 saves on 28 shots. Thomas is now 21-10-0 with a 2.14 GAA and a .932 save percentage this season.

Patrice Bergeron went 13-6 in the faceoff circle.

Johnny Boychuk led the Bruins in shots with 7.

Chris Kelly led the Bruins in hits with 3.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 32-16-2 with 66 points (1st place in Northeast Division and 2nd place in the Eastern Conference). The Bruins next game is tomorrow at the Washington Capitals at 12:30pm ET.

Go Pats!

Bruins fall to Canes once again

2012-02-03T00:58:00.001-05:00

Besides the first period in Thursday night's game against the Carolina Hurricanes, most of the game was frustrating to watch as the Canes outplayed the Bruins. The Bruins once again couldn't get much done against the Canes and played poor defensively. The Canes wound up beating the Bruins 3-0. I'm not going to write much about this game because it pretty much sucked all around for the Bruins. The Canes, for the first time ever, have swept the Bruins in a season series, winning all four games this season.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 47-31, faceoff wins 38-16, hits 29-21 and blocked shots 9-8.

The Bruins went 0-for-2 on the power-play while the Hurricanes went 0-for-4.

Tuukka Rask made 28 saves on 31 shots as he allowed a goal in each period. Rask is now 11-6-2 with a 1.88 GAA and a .936 save percentage this season.

Andrew Ference was back in the lineup, returning from his suspension, and made a few mistakes defensively, looking like he hasn't played in a while.

In the game, I don't think I have ever seen more Bruins defensemen collide with one another than I can remember from past seasons. I at least saw it happen three times in the game and one of those times the Canes scored.

Chris Kelly led the Bruins with 5 shots.

Johnny Boychuk, Shawn Thornton, Milan Lucic and Daniel Paille all had 4 hits apiece to lead the Bruins.

Patrice Bergeron went 14-4 in the faceoff circle.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 32-15-2 with 66 points. The Bruins next game is on Saturday hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins in Boston at 1pm ET.

Bruins comeback in 3rd to beat Sens

2012-02-01T23:42:00.001-05:00

BOSTON, MA - JANUARY 31: Dennis Seidenberg #44 of the Boston Bruins is congratulated by teammates on the bench after he scored the game winning goal against the Ottawa Senators on January 31, 2012 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Bruins defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-3. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Last night the All-Star break was finally over and the Bruins took on the Ottawa Senators. The first period was about even, the second period is when Ottawa took over the game, and the third period is when the Bruins woke up and won the game.

In the first period, Zdeno Chara scored his 8th goal of the season, a power-play goal to take the lead 1-0. Earlier Chris Neil took a run at Shawn Thornton as Thornton went in to try and score. Thornton didn't like it and challenged Neil but Neil backed down, not surprisingly. So after the Bruins went up 1-0 then Neil drops the gloves with Thornton and they have a good long spirited bout. And yes, they have fought each other before. Thornton probably didn't forget about Neil going after Dennis Seidenberg last season either.

Shawn Thornton vs Chris Neil

A little later, Zenon Konopka went right at Adam McQuaid and challenged him and they dropped the gloves and had a spirited bout as well. This could have just been Konopka trying to get his team going or it could have been Konopka going after McQuaid for some revenge, as in the last Bruins-Senators meeting, McQuaid got a kneeing major on Nick Foligno.

Adam McQuaid vs Zenon Konopka

Later in the period, Colin Greening tied the game 1-1 for Ottawa.

In the second period, Kyle Turris scored to make it 2-1 Ottawa. Later, Erik Karlsson scored to make it 3-1 Ottawa. With 45 seconds left in the period, Milan Lucic scored his 18th goal of the season to make it 3-2.

In the third period, Brad Marchand scored his 18th goal of the season, a power-play goal, to tie the game 3-3. Later, Dennis Seidenberg scored his 3rd goal of the season to give the Bruins a 4-3 lead, which would be the game-winner. Seidenberg took a long slap shot from the center ice red line and the puck looked to bounce off the ice and change direction slightly and it got by goalie Craig Anderson. Anderson has been known to give up bad goals and if he threw his whole body in front of the puck he may have had that one.

Dennis Seidenberg's goal from the red line

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in blocked shots 16-11. The Senators led the game in shots 33-30, faceoff wins 31-28 and hits 32-20.

The Bruins went 2-for-4 on the power-play while the Senators didn't get any power-play chances. In the third period, the Senators were upset they didn't get any power-play chances and some players were even diving to try and get some calls, *cough* Chris Neil.

Tim Thomas played in net for the Bruins and made 30 saves on 33 shots. Thomas is now 21-9-0 with a 2.15 GAA and a .933 save percentage.

Zdeno Chara had 1 goal and 1 assist, was -1, and led the Bruins with 4 hits.

Joe Corvo had 2 assists and was +1.

Milan Lucic had 1 goal and 1 assist. Lucic would have had a Gordie Howe hat trick but Chris Neil backed down after Neil put a hit on David Krejci. Again, not surprising Neil backed down, he probably remembered the beating he took in the preseason two years ago against Lucic.

Dennis Seidenberg also had 1 goal and 1 assist.

Even though the Bergeron-Marchand-Seguin line were flying last night, they were all -2.

Tyler Seguin led the Bruins with 6 shots.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 32-14-1 with 66 points (1st place in the Northeast Division and 2nd place in the Eastern Conference). The Bruins next game is on Thursday when they host the Carolina Hurricanes in Boston at 7pm ET.

Bruins lose 5-3 to Capitals

2012-01-25T01:32:00.002-05:00

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 24: Tuukka Rask #40 of the Boston Bruins makes a save against the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center on January 24, 2012 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)

Another game where the Bruins didn't put in a full 60-minute effort equals another loss. Tuesday night the Washington Capitals without Alex Ovechkin beat the Bruins 5-3. This was the first meeting this season between the Bruins and Capitals. Nathan Horton was out obviously, with a mild concussion, and Zach Hamill was back in the lineup. Will Hamill every score his 1st NHL goal? Tuukka Rask played in net against Tomas Vokoun.

In the first period, Rich Peverley scored his 8th goal of the season, as he attempted a pass to Milan Lucic but Karl Alzner, while on the ice, swung his stick on the ice and knocked the puck past Vokoun.

In the second period, Capitals Cody Eakin scored to tie the game 1-1. Only 41 seconds later, Mathieu Perreault scored, making it 2-1 Capitals. Later, Tyler Seguin stole a pass in the Capitals d-zone, went in and backhanded a shot that got by Vokoun, tying it 2-2. It was a great individual play and great defensive play stealing the pass. He's learning from Bergeron. A little later, Mathieu Perreault scored again for the Capitals, making it 3-2 Capitals. Later, Brad Marchand scored his 17th goal of the season, a power-play goal to tie the game 3-3.

In the third period, Mathieu Perreault would score again getting himself a hat trick, 4-3 Capitals lead. With Rask pulled, Dennis Wideman scored an empty net to finish off the Bruins 5-3.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 32-22. The Capitals led the game in hits 30-16 and blocked shots 21-15. Both teams had 28 faceoff wins.

The Bruins went 1-for-2 on the power-play while the Capitals went 0-for-1.

Tuukka Rask made 18 saves on 22 shots. Rask is now 11-5-2 with a 1.82 GAA and a .938 save percentage this season.

David Krejci blocked a shot in the first period and after that he didn't seem to be himself. Hopefully he is ok by the next game. Krejci was -2 and went 1-9 in the faceoff circle tonight.

Daniel Paille and Dennis Seidenberg led the Bruins in shots with 5 apiece.

Adam McQuaid led the Bruins with 4 blocked shots.

Zdeno Chara led the Bruins in hits with 5.

Onto the next one
This was the last game for the Bruins before the NHL All-Star break. The Bruins won't play again until Tuesday, January 31st against the Ottawa Senators in Boston at 7pm ET. The Bruins are now 31-14-2 with 64 points (1st in Northeast Division and 2nd place in the Eastern Conference).

Report: Nathan Horton may have mild concussion

2012-01-23T18:08:00.001-05:00

Not good news for Bruins fans and Nathan Horton, as Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli says it looks like Horton may have a mild concussion from the headshot he received from Flyers Tom Sestito in yesterday's game.

"I don't have an official update other than I think it's a mild concussion from what I heard and what I saw last night," Chiarelli said. "I talked to him again today and these things are day-to-day. It may not be, there's that gray area between when you take your impact tests and you see how it is the next day, the following day and then you make that determination. He's in that gray area."
Source

Bruins visit the White House

2012-01-23T17:36:00.002-05:00

The Boston Bruins visited the White House today and President Obama gave a short speech. Good to see Mark Recchi there. Tomas Kaberle was also there. Michael Ryder couldn't make it due to scheduling conflict. Tim Thomas did not attend.

Bruins beat Flyers in wild one

2012-01-22T21:24:00.005-05:00

Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas (30) makes a stick save on a shot by Philadelphia Flyers' Wayne Simmonds (17) during an overtime shootout in an NHL hockey game on Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, in Philadelphia. The Bruins won 6-5. (AP Photo/Tom Mihalek)

This afternoon's game between the Bruins and Flyers was a wild hard-hitting hockey game, a man's game as Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said after the game. The Bruins were up 3-1 after the first period but the Flyers came back in the second period. The Bruins took the lead back in the third period but the Flyers came back and the game would eventually go to a shootout where the Bruins would take the extra point from the game, beating the Flyers 6-5.

In the first period, Patrice Bergeron scored his 15th goal of the season 50 seconds into the game making it 1-0 Bruins. Off a faceoff, Milan Lucic and Tom Sestito dropped the gloves and had a good fight with Lucic landing some big punches. Watch the fight here. This was most likely some payback for Lucic's hit on Zac Rinaldo in their last game. The Flyers would come back less than two minutes after the Bruins goal as a Max Talbot attempted pass went off of Dennis Seidenberg and between Tim Thomas' legs to tie the game. Later on the power-play, Tyler Seguin scored his 18th goal of the season to make it 2-1 Bruins. Later, Brayden Schenn laid out Steven Kampfer with a big hit and Chris Kelly dropped the gloves and they fought. Schenn ended up getting bloodied from the fight. Watch the fight here. Milan Lucic later scored his 17th goal of the season making it 3-1 Bruins.

In the second period, Nathan Horton was hit with a blindside hit by Tom Sestito. Horton got up right away and went at Sestito with everyone else joining in a big scrum. Horton would not return to the game. Sestito was suspended in the preseason for a bad hit so he may be suspended again for another bad hit. Video down below of this hit.

Flyers Scott Hartnell scored a power-play goal making it now a 3-2 Bruins lead. Shawn Thornton and Jody Shelley dropped the gloves and had a good spirited fight with both guys trading punches. This looked like a good draw. Watch the fight here. Hartnell would score again to tie the game 3-3. The Flyers would take the lead 4-3 with Hartnell scoring his 3rd goal of the game.

In the third period, 1:19 into the period, David Krejci scored his 11th goal of the season to tie the game 4-4. Later, Gregory Campbell scored his 6th goal of the season, making it 5-4 Bruins. Later, Scott Hartnell would hit Chris Kelly with a shoulder-on-shoulder blindside hit which Shawn Thornton didn't like and Hartnell quickly turtled as Thornton went after him. Talbot would score later to tie the game 5-5.

In overtime no scoring happened so it went to a shootout.

In the shootout: Flyers Matt Read didn't score, Bruins David Krejci scored, Claude Giroux scored, Tyler Seguin scored and Tim Thomas stopped Wayne Simmonds to win the game for the Bruins.

Video with 3 Flyers high hits, Tom Sestito coming high at Steven Kampfer, Tom Sestito's high hit on Nathan Horton, and Scott Hartnell's hit on Chris Kelly

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in faceoff wins 43-36. The Flyers led the game in shots 38-37, hits 39-24 and blocked shots 19-18.

The Bruins went 1-for-3 on the power-play while the Flyers went 3-for-8.

Tim Thomas made 33 saves on 38 shots. Thomas is now 20-9-0 with a 2.12 GAA and a .933 save percentage.

Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Milan Lucic and Tyler Seguin all had 1 goal and 1 assist in the game.

Milan Lucic got a Gordie Howe hat trick, goal, assist and a fight.

Zdeno Chara led the Bruins in shots with 9.

Chara and Dennis Seidenberg both had 4 blocked shots to lead the Bruins.

Benoit Pouliot led the Bruins with 4 hits.

Rich Peverley went 10-1 in the faceoff circle.

Steven Kampfer only had 3:15 of ice time as I don't think he got a shift after the big hit he took in the first period.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 31-13-2 with 64 points (1st in Northeast Division and tied with the New York Rangers with 64 points). The Bruins next game is on Tuesday at the Washington Capitals at 7pm ET. Bruins fans will get to see "All-Star" and former Bruin Dennis Wideman but Alex Ovechkin may be suspended for a hit in today's Capitals game. We'll have to wait and see. Andrew Ference won't be back until his suspension ends which will be in February.

Andrew Ference suspended 3 games

2012-01-22T15:54:00.001-05:00

Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference gets suspended for 3 games for his hit on Rangers Ryan McDonagh. Watch Shanahan's video explanation of the suspension below.

Rangers beat Bruins in overtime

2012-01-21T17:53:00.003-05:00

Boston Bruins' Shawn Thornton (22) and New York Rangers' Mike Rupp (71) fight in the second period of an NHL hockey game in Boston, Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Today's afternoon game between the Bruins and New York Rangers was a good one. There was a lot of back and forth action with the Bruins having more chances after the Shawn Thornton-Mike Rupp fight. The game would go into overtime tied 2-2 and then Andrew Ference made a bad hit on Rangers Ryan McDonagh and the Rangers scored with four seconds left in the period.

In the first period, no scoring happened.

In the second period, Ryan Callahan would make it 1-0 for the Rangers. A little more than a minute later, Shawn Thornton and Mike Rupp dropped the gloves and had a good fight with both guys trading punches. Thornton has never had real success the past few seasons fighting Rupp but he did better than the past fights. Less than a minute later, Andrew Ference scored his 4th goal of the season to tie the game 1-1. Later, Marian Gaborik scored to make it 2-1 Rangers. With 49 seconds left, Adam McQuaid scored his 2nd goal of the season to tie the game 2-2. McQuaid's shot went off of Brian Boyle's stick or skate and went up high and in the short-side corner to beat goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

In the third period, no scoring happened.

In overtime, the puck went deep in the Rangers end, Andrew Ference came rushing in too fast and hit Ryan McDonagh against the boards. McDonagh looked to have his shoulder hurt on the play. I don't think Ference made contact with McDonagh's head but regardless it was a bad hit. Ference got a 5-minute major for charging and a game misconduct. Look for Shanahan to have at least a talk with Ference and a suspension most likely will come.

After the game Andrew Ference said this about the hit (quotes taken from Bruins reporters on Twitter):

"I'm obviously going as fast as I can to get to the puck, and when I realized I wasn't going to get there first, he boxed me out."

"I tried to lean back, but I was going too fast. Obvsly it was a dangerous position.I tried to let up and didn't let up fast enough."

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 34-33 and faceoff wins 32-27. The Rangers led the game in hits 27-12 and blocked shots 22-14.

The Bruins went 0-for-4 on the power-play while the Rangers went 1-for-2.

Tuukka Rask played well making 30 saves on 33 shots. Rask is now 11-4-2 with a sick 1.69 GAA and a .943 save percentage.

Andrew Ference had a goal and an assist, was +2 and had 3 shots.

Johnny Boychuk and Joe Corvo both had 4 shots apiece to lead the Bruins.

Dennis Seidenberg had 7 blocked shots but he was -2.

Gregory Campbell led the Bruins with 3 hits.

Defenseman Steven Kampfer was recalled by the Bruins after the game.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 30-13-2 with 62 points. The Bruins next game is tomorrow at the Philadelphia Flyers at 3pm ET.

Bruins awaken in 3rd period to beat Devils

2012-01-20T15:49:00.001-05:00

Last night's game against the New Jersey Devils started good for the Bruins as they looked to have energy. They traded chances back and forth with the Devils. As the period went on the Devils looked like they wanted it more. Then the second period came and the Bruins looked like they have in the past few games, not good. But in the third period, they woke up and found a way to beat the Devils.

In the first period, Gregory Campbell dropped the gloves with Brad Mills and it wasn't much of a fight. I would say Mills had the better punches thrown but no one got hurt in the fight. The fight seemed to energize the Devils more than the Bruins. Later, Petr Sykora scored with less than two minutes left in the period, to make it 1-0 Devils.

In the second period, no scoring happened.

In the third period, the Bruins woke up and took over the game with a big period. First, Andrew Ference scored his 3rd goal of the season to tie the game 1-1. A little more than four minutes later, Nathan Horton scored his 17th goal of the season, a power-play goal, to make it 2-1 Bruins. 35 seconds later, Gregory Campbell finished off the Gordie Howe hat trick by scoring his 5th goal of the season to make it 3-1 Bruins. With 47 second left in the game, Chris Kelly scored an empty-net goal, his 14th goal of the season to finish the game 4-1.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in faceoffs 35-29, hits 17-13 and blocked shots 5-4. The Devils led the game in shots 31-24.

The Bruins went 1-for-1 on the power-play while the Devils went 0-for-1.

Tim Thomas made 30 saves on 31 shots. Thomas is now 19-9 with a 2.02 GAA and a .936 save percentage.

Gregory Campbell had 1 goal, 1 assist and a fight, was +2 and had 3 hits.

Shawn Thornton had 2 assists and was +2.

Milan Lucic led the Bruins with 4 hits.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 30-13-1 with 61 points (1st place in Northeast Divison and 2nd place in Eastern Conference).
The Bruins next game is on Saturday at 1pm ET against the New York Rangers in Boston.

Lightning beat Bruins 5-3

2012-01-17T23:55:00.000-05:00

What a frustrating game to watch tonight as the Bruins for the most part looked asleep. At times they looked good but for most of the game they weren't playing Bruins hockey. As in the Canes game, the Bruins had another bad third period, allowing three goals in it. The Bruins made too many turnovers in the defensive zone and Tim Thomas played maybe a little too aggressively as he found himself out of position on a few of the Lightning goals.

In the first period, Vincent Lecavalier scored to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead.

In the second period, Nathan Horton scored his 15th goal of the season to tie the game 1-1. Later, Tom Pyatt scored for the Lightning making it 2-1. Only 2:37 later, Nathan Horton scored his 2nd goal of the game, his 16th goal of the season to tie the game once again.

In the third period, Ryan Malone scored to make it 3-2 Lightning. Later, Daniel Paille scored his 8th goal of the season, a short-handed goal on a breakaway, tying the game 3-3. Dominic Moore later scored for the Lightning making it 4-3. With Tim Thomas pulled for the extra attacker, Steven Stamkos scored giving the Lightning a 5-3 lead and that's how it would end.

Game notes
The Lightning led the game in shots 30-29, faceoff wins 36-30, hits 23-18 and blocked shots 17-14.

Tim Thomas made 26 saves on 30 shots. Thomas is now 18-9-0 with a 2.06 GAA and a .935 save percentage this season.

Nathan Horton led the Bruins with 6 shots.

Milan Lucic led the Bruins with 4 hits.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 29-13-1 with 59 points (1st place in Northeast Division and 2nd place in Eastern Conference). The Bruins next game is on Thursday at the New Jersey Devils at 7pm ET.

Bruins beat Panthers in shootout

2012-01-16T23:05:00.003-05:00

Boston Bruins center David Krejci (46) celebrates after scoring the game winning goal during a shootout in an NHL hockey game against the Florida Panthers, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, in Sunrise, Fla. The Bruins defeated the Panthers in a shootout 3-2. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Game 2 of a 4-game road trip was tonight at the Florida Panthers and they got 2 points via a shootout win. But the Bruins are lucky to get those 2 points as they didn't play well enough to deserve them.

In the first period, Patrice Bergeron scored his 13th goal of the season to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. Late in the period, in the Bruins d-zone, Ed Jovanovski unintentionally hit Daniel Paille in the head with an elbow. Paille didn't like it and went at Jovanovski, skated away, Jovanovski gave Paille a whack with his stick, Paille then went back at Jovanovski and challenged him. Before Shawn Thornton could get there, Paille and Jovanovski dropped the gloves and went at it. Jovanovski controlled the fight, as Paille isn't a fighter, but that wasn't about winning the fight, it was about showing up which Paille did. Jovanovski didn't return to the game after this as he was said to have suffered an upper body injury. I'm going to guess a hand or shoulder injury as he was really swinging for the fences in some of the punches he threw. Update: some are saying that Jovanovski broke his hand in the fight.

In the second period, Jason Garrison scored for the Panthers to tie the game 1-1 as the puck went off Dennis Seidenberg's glove and into the net. Later the Bruins had a 5-on-3 power-play and Patrice Bergeron scored his 2nd goal of the game, his 14th goal of the season, to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead. After Shawn Matthias got out of the penalty box he had a breakaway and scored to tie the game 2-2.

In the third period, no scoring happened.

The game went into overtime and the Bruins killed off a 4-on-3 Panthers power-play. Nobody would score in the overtime period, so onto the shootout it went.

In the shootout: Rask stopped Marcel Goc. Clemmensen stopped Benoit Pouliot. Dmitry Kulikov missed the net. Tyler Seguin beat Clemmensen with a deke but his backhand missed the open upstairs of the net. Stephen Weiss scored on Rask as Rask tried a poke check that didn't work and Weiss had an open net. Patrice Bergeron scored to tie it. Mikael Samuelsson lost the puck and didn't manage to get a shot on Rask. David Krejci went five-hole and scored on Clemmensen to win the game for the Bruins.

Game notes
Rich Peverley was scratched from the game as he had a personal matter, so Zach Hamill was in the lineup. Peverley is expected to miss tomorrow's game as well.

The Bruins led the game in blocked shots 9-7. The Panthers led the game in shots 40-35 and faceoff wins 32-26. Both teams had 27 hits apiece.

The Bruins went 1-for-1 on the power-play while the Panthers went 0-for-2 on the power-play.

Tuukka Rask made 38 saves on 40 shots. Rask is now 11-4-1 with a 1.61 GAA and a .946 save percentage this season.

Patrice Bergeron had 2 goals and a shootout goal, was +1 and led the Bruins with 6 shots. He also went 11-13 in the faceoff circle.

Tyler Seguin had 2 assists, was +1 and he had 5 shots.

Gregory Campbell and Zdeno Chara led the Bruins with 5 hits apiece.

Unfortunately we didn't get to see another round of Shawn Thornton vs Krys Barch.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 29-12-1 with 59 points (1st place in Northeast Division and 2nd place in Eastern Conference) this season. The Bruins next game is tomorrow at the Tampa Bay Lightning at 7:30pm ET.

After tonight's game, Brad Marchand now has 1 game left to serve for his suspension.

Canes outplay and beat Bruins

2012-01-15T04:25:00.002-05:00

Milan Lucic yells at Bryan Allen while being restrained by a linesman after Allen slashed at Lucic and then turtled down to the ice when Lucic challenged him to fight (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

The Hurricanes dominance over the Bruins this season continues as the Canes scored three times (one empty-net goal) in the third period to beat the Bruins 4-2. The Bruins definitely looked like they weren't "into" the game enough or didn't have the energy to match the Canes. The Canes also figured out how to score on Tim Thomas, redirections, tips and ugly goals. Credit to the Canes in that game.

In the first period, no scoring happened. The Bruins had two power-plays in the period but they couldn't do anything with them as they looked bad.

In the second period, Patrice Bergeron scored his 12th goal of the season making it 1-0 Bruins. Canes Patrick Dwyer later scored to tie the game 1-1.

In the third period, Milan Lucic scored his 16th goal of the season with a perfect shot beating Cam Ward upstairs far side, giving the Bruins a 2-1 lead. Later, Justin Faulk scored a goal tying the game 2-2. Faulk took a high shot from the point and somehow it got redirected or tipped a little down and it went into the net. Jay Harrison later scored to make it 3-2 as Dennis Seidenberg tried to clear the puck up the middle (I'm not sure why as there was a Bruins forward nearby) and it went right to Harrison who fired the puck and the it went off of Seidenberg's skate and into the net. Eric Staal scored an empty-net goal with 1:02 left in the game to put it away. I'm surprised he didn't hit the glass and start screaming at fans again since he's playing at home. Maybe that NHL worst -21 has him not too excited. The Bruins weren't able to score at the end and the Canes won 4-2.

With 53 seconds left in the third period, I thought the Bruins were playing Montreal again. Hurricanes Bryan Allen, listed at 6'5" and 226lbs, did his best P.K. Subban impression near the end of the game as after a whistle he bumped with Milan Lucic, Lucic gave him a shove back, Allen then responds with a big time slash with his stick. Lucic then drops the gloves to fight him and Allen turtles and goes down to the ice. Wow, don't slash at a guy if you aren't going to back it up. I hope Kirk Muller didn't bring the Montreal back-down and turtle play to Carolina. Or maybe it was there all along, as we've seen Tim Gleason do the same before. Allen was wearing a huge visor covering most of his face, but he doesn't usually wear a visor, so maybe he has some type of injury.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 35-20 and faceoff wins 28-22. The Hurricanes led the game in hits 18-14 and blocked shots 16-15.

The Bruins went 0-for-2 on the power-play while the Hurricanes didn't get any power-plays.

Tim Thomas made 17 saves on 20 shots. Thomas is now 18-8-0 with a 1.99 GAA and a .937 save percentage.

Johnny Boychuk led the Bruins with 5 shots.

Gregory Campbell and Dennis Seidenberg were both a team-worst -2.

Seidenberg led the Bruins with 4 blocked shots.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 28-12-1 with 57 points (1st place in Northeast Division and 2nd place in Eastern Conference. The Bruins next game is on Monday at the Florida Panthers at 7:30pm ET.

Bruins win 2-1, Habs make trade during game

2012-01-12T23:33:00.000-05:00

Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price, right, can't get his stick on the puck as he is out of position for a goal by Boston Bruins right wing Jordan Caron, left, in the first period of an NHL hockey game in Boston, Thursday Jan. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Well you may have thought you heard it all when it comes to hockey but how about trading a player while the game is going on? That's exactly what happened to Montreal's Michael Cammalleri as before the third period started he was taken out of the game and was said to go back to the hotel. Cammalleri was traded to Calgary for Rene Bourque and a few other names were included in the deal from both teams, but those two are the main pieces.

So back to the actual game, which for the most part, it didn't have the feeling of the heated Boston-Montreal rivalry we've been use to, except when P.K. Subban put a headshot (elbow) on David Krejci and Andrew Ference went after a turtling Subban. But other than that, not much else happened. Luckily Krejci seemed fine after the hit. The Bruins didn't play well as they gave chances to Montreal throughout the game but Tim Thomas made the saves. Even Claude Julien after the game had these words about the Bruins play:

"I can't say I've been pleased with the way we've been playing lately...certainly have to pick up our game."

"Tonight, I have to say, we didn't play well...they are a smaller team than we are, but they won more battles."

"I would like to see our team pick it up a little bit."
Source: Bruins NHL Twitter

In the first period, 1:23 into the game, Jordan Caron scored his 2nd goal of the season as he filled in for Zach Hamill. The puck took a "Bruins bounce" off a stantion and found its way to the front of the Montreal net, where Carey Price left to go behind the net to retrieve the puck, and Caron hustled to the net and put it in the empty net. It's good to see Caron get rewarded for his hard work and dedication as he's been getting called up and sent down every few days it seemed the past few weeks. Montreal came back in the second half of the period and put lots of pressure on the Bruins defense.

In the second period, no scoring happened.

In the third period, Milan Lucic scored his 15th goal of the season to make it 2-0. Later in the game, villain P.K. Subban put a big check on David Krejci, as his elbow got up and hit Krejci in the head. Andrew Ference, like we've seen so many times in the past, went right after Subban dropping the gloves and tried throwing punches at Subban but Subban ducked and turtled right away. No he didn't man up and take responsibility for his cheap hit. That's the Subban way. Out of all of that, Montreal gets a power-play, 2-minutes for Subban and 4-minutes for Ference. So you get to elbow a guy in the head, then turtle and get a power-play from it? Amazing. P.K. keep smiling, your team is in last place in the division, you just elbowed a guy in the head and you may be suspended, and you're laughing and smiling? Being in last place is so much fun for Subban I guess. How's that -2 tonight?

P.K. Subban elbows David Krejci in head, then turtles to Andrew Ference

Yannick Weber would score on the power-play and make it 2-1. The game would end 2-1 as Montreal couldn't score at the end of the game as they pulled their goalie while the Bruins had a power-play.

Game notes
Montreal led the game in shots 34-30, faceoff wins 26-22, hits 31-29 and blocked shots 14-13.

The Bruins went 0-for-5 on the power-play while Montreal went 1-for-2.

Tim Thomas made 33 saves on 34 shots. Thomas is now 18-7-0 with a 1.95 GAA and a .939 save percentage this season.

Benoit Pouliot with another dumb penalty, second game in a row now. You can't hit someone from behind.

Shawn Thornton led the Bruins with 4 hits.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 28-11-1 with 57 points (1st place in Northeast division and 2nd place in Eastern Conference). The Bruins next game is on Saturday at the Carolina Hurricanes at 7pm ET.

Boston-Montreal tonight, get ready!

2012-01-12T13:29:00.004-05:00

Ok enough with the Canucks and all that. Time to get ready for tonight's Bruins game against the hated Montreal Canadiens. After reading some of the comments by Montreal players I'm not hating them as much right now. Ok that's a lie, I still do not like them. But it's interesting to hear some of their comments about the Bruins and the way they play. Check it out.

Quotes from Montreal players
Max Pacioretty was asked if he finds the Bruins to be dirty:

"No. They play a certain way and I think that's why they're successful. To some extent, I wish we played a little more like them. Maybe not as much as they do, but they're definitely an intimidating team to play against. They have so many guys who can step up - I'm not talking about fighting — I'm talking about physical. You watch the games recently in the NHL, and there's not many pretty plays happening. They're all tough, grinding goals, and a big body presence. I think that's why they're successful this year."
Source

P.K. Subban on the Bruins:

"They're in your face, you know what I mean? They've had a lot of success over the year. They're Stanley Cup champions, and they're playing some good hockey this year. Whatever they're doing, they're doing something right. Whenever you play them, you know they're going to be in your face, they're going to finish their checks and they're going to work hard."

"They've got some tough guys on that team. Some real tough guys. They play the game hard. Our team, we're not built to kind of brawl it out every night. We're going to stick up for each other as a unit as a group."
Source

Josh Gorges on the Bruins:

"[The Bruins] aren't a team where you say 'we better have our heads up because they're going to do something dirty.'
Source

"[Bruins] are a hard team. They're a physical team. If you get a punch in face after a whistle that's not dirty. That's hockey"
Source

All-Star news
In Bruins news, Tim Thomas (voted in), Zdeno Chara and Tyler Seguin will be going to the All-Star game this year. Congrats to all of them. You can see the entire All-Star roster on NHL.com here. It's too bad Patrice Bergeron wasn't named to the All-Star game but who knows maybe somebody won't be able to make it and Bergeron may get a call?

Shawn Thornton talks with Canucks columnist

2012-01-11T00:23:00.000-05:00

Thanks to CSNNE, here's a video clip of CSNNE's Mike Felger chatting with Mike Gallagher of Vancouver's The Province and Shawn Thornton joins in on the conversation about Saturday's Canucks-Bruins game and Dale Weise chickening out of a fight.

It's funny that even a Vancouver reporter thinks the Canucks have no toughness. "How can you be so hated when you have no toughness?"

Bruins 3rd period surge puts Jets away

2012-01-10T23:58:00.000-05:00

BOSTON, MA - JANUARY 10: Shawn Thornton #22 of the Boston Bruins celebrates after he scored a penalty shot in the second period against the Winnipeg Jets on January 10, 2012 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

After two periods the Bruins were down 3-2 but the Bruins being the NHL's best 3rd period team, took over the game in the third period and won the game 5-3. This game had some bad penalty calls against the Bruins once again and I'm going to expect this for the rest of the season.

In the first period, Andrew Ladd scored to make it 1-0 Jets. Nathan Horton scored his 13th goal of the season, 40 seconds before the end of the period, to tie the game 1-1.

In the second period, Blake Wheeler scored to make it 2-1 Jets. Shawn Thornton was given a 2-minute illegal hit to the head penalty even though he never made contact with Chris Thorburn. When Thornton came out of the box to join the play he found himself with a loose puck and lots of open ice. As he went in on the breakaway his stick was whacked at and the ref called a penalty shot.

On the penalty shot, Thornton went in, faked a wrist shot with the back leg kick, then went to his backhand and got it up enough to go over Ondrej Pavelec pad and into the net to score his 4th goal of the season to tie the game 2-2.

A few minutes later, with the Bruins fourth line out on the ice, they had a good chance and Thornton tried to get at a rebound and ex-Bruin Mark Stuart took exception and knocked down Thornton. Thornton got up and pushed Stuart back and they dropped the gloves and had a spirited fight with mostly Thornton throwing punches and connecting on a few as Stuart went down to stop the fight. Later, Eric Fehr scored after a bad Joe Corvo turnover and Fehr's shot actually went off of Corvo's skate and got by Tuukka Rask, making it 3-2 Jets.

In the third period, Nathan Horton scored 8 seconds into the period, his 14th goal of the season and his 2nd goal of the game, to tie the game 3-3. A little less than three minutes later, Tyler Seguin scored his 17th goal of the season, to make it 4-3 Bruins. Later, Benoit Pouliot scored his 8th goal of the season, a power-play goal, making it 5-3 Bruins.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 42-32 and faceoff wins 39-23. The Jets led the game in hits 20-18 and blocked shots 19-10.

The Bruins went 1-for-3 on the power-play while the Jets went 0-for-3.

Tuukka Rask played in net and made 29 saves on 32 shots. Rask is now 10-4-1 with a 1.59 GAA and a .945 save percentage this season.

Patrice Bergeron had 2 assists and went 12-9 in the faceoff circle.

Nathan Horton had 2 goals on 3 shots. Milan Lucic and David Krejci both had 2 assists each. Krejci went 11-2 in the faceoff circle. Lucic and Dennis Seidenberg led the Bruins in hits with 3 apiece.

Johnny Boychuk led the Bruins with 3 blocked shots.

Shawn Thornton led the Bruins with 7 shots on net.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 27-11-1 with 55 points (1st in Northeast Division and 2nd in Eastern Conference). The Bruins next game is on Thursday as the Bruins host the hated Montreal Canadiens in Boston at 7pm ET. The Habs are last place in the division and 3-7-0 in their last 10 games.

Brad Marchand moving on

2012-01-10T17:40:00.003-05:00

Bruins Brad Marchand spoke with the media today about his suspension, the hit and responds to Vigneault's comments that the Bruins play stupid.

"I'm obviously a little disappointed, and I wasn’t expecting as many games as I got," said Marchand. "But, that's the decision, and now I just move on."

"We play a hard game – we have a lot of physical guys, a lot of tough guys on our team and it's tough for other teams to play against, and some teams might not like it," he said when asked if the Bruins reputation around the NHL was unfair. "But that's our style of hockey and we're not going to change because people wont like it."

Asked to recount why he had previously asked NHL Vice President of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan about the type hit he threw at Salo, Marchand said, "well I’m a small guy. I play low to the ice and that’s a way I’ve protected myself in the past – I just felt that it was better to be safe than sorry.

"I brought it up to him, and when I walked away from the conversation he told me to protect myself – that that's okay in that situation.

"When that situation [arose], I felt I was protecting myself and was allowed to do it and that's why I did it," he said.

"It's clear that I'm not allowed to do that and guys in the league aren't allowed to do that," said Marchand. "They [tried] to make that clear, and I'm going to have to do something else."

"I expect if there's any more hits like this, they'll be penalized the same way," said Marchand. "Otherwise...it will be a double standard."

"Until we see more hits like this, then we can't say that. So hopefully when hits like this arise from now on, they'll be penalized the same way."

"I'm still going to play hard – that's my game. I have to play hard and at the end of the day I still have to strive to protect myself and so does everybody in the league. It's not going to change the way I play," he said.

Asked about Vancouver Head Coach Alain Vigneault's comments about players taking things into their own hands with regard to Marchand, Brad said, "Yeah they are threatening, it sounds like it's a threat but -- whatever."

Queried if the comments coming from the Canucks after Vancouver jumped Shawn Thornton in front of the visitors bench on Saturday bothered him, Marchand said, "Yeah for sure, they had six, seven guys at one point and six guys jumped Thorty [Thornton].

"No one seemed to want to do anything after they got pulled off, so that shows their character."

And Marchand remained in character when asked about comments coming out of Vancouver about Boston's "stupid" play.

"Yeah we play stupid," said Marchand. "I guess smart enough to win a Cup."
Source

Chiarelli statement on Marchand suspension

2012-01-09T21:28:00.002-05:00

Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli issued a statement about the Brad Marchand suspension after it was announced.

"While we respect the process that the Department of Player Safety took to reach their decision regarding Brad's hit on Sami Salo, we are very disappointed by their ruling."

"While we understand that the Department of Safety is an evolving entity, it is frustrating that there are clear comparable situations that have not been penalized or sanctioned in the past."

"It is equally disappointing that Brad sought the counsel of the Department this past Fall for an explanation and clarification regarding this type of scenario so as to adjust his game if necessary. He was advised that such an incident was not sanctionable if he was protecting his own safety. Given our feeling that Brad was indeed protecting himself and certainly did not clip the player as he contacted the player nowhere near the knee or quadricep, today’s ruling is not consistent with what the Department of Player Safety communicated to Brad."
Source

Brad Marchand suspended 5 games

2012-01-09T18:33:00.000-05:00

Shanahan has suspended Brad Marchand for 5 games for his clipping major on Canucks Sami Salo. Watch his video below of the explanation of the suspension.

Canucks cry to media, Bruins respond

2012-01-09T17:22:00.002-05:00

Well isn't this new, Canucks crying to the media. No, not really. The Canucks won right? And they're still crying to the media? Yes and yes.

Even before reading the comments from the Canucks, make sure to check out this Days of Y'Orr post where they list a few times Canucks have done the exact same thing, Ballard on McGinn (who didn't have the puck) and last playoffs Raymond on Marchand. Where's the outrage! Only in Vancouver.

First Canucks GM Mike Gillis cried to the media saying that Brad Marchand's "check" was "a dirty hit by a dirty player."

Then it was Canucks coach Alain Vigneault crying to the media. In response to Claude Julien's comments that Marchand was protecting himself, Vigneault had this to say:

That's stupid. That's a stupid comment. You know, what Marchand did there, you can end a player's career doing that. I've never seen Sami Salo take a run at any player in the NHL. All I've seen Sami Salo do is play with integrity and play the right way. Marchand, this is just my feeling on this, some day he's going to get it. Someday, somebody's going to say enough is enough and they're going to hurt the kid, because he plays to hurt players. In my mind, if the league doesn't take care of it, somebody else will.
Source

Hmm Mike and Alain, seems you may have forgot who you have on your roster, specifically Alex Burrows and Maxim Lapierre.

Bruins Claude Julien and Peter Chiarelli heard the comments and responded. Both did not like the comments about Brad Marchand "going to get it."

"I think we've learned our lesson over time that that's a real inappropriate comment. That's a real inappropriate comment, and an unprofessional comment," said Chiarelli.

Said Julien: "We all know that that comment's been said before and it didn't turn out well, so we'll leave it at that."

Neither Julien nor Chiarelli mentioned a specific incident, but it's assumed they were referencing the Todd Bertuzzi-Steve Moore altercation in 2004 in which Moore suffered a broken neck after then-Canuck Brad May alluded to a bounty being on Moore's head.
Source

Here's Julien's response to Vigneault's comments:

"Sometimes you got to look in your backyard," Julien said. "We all know he's got the same type of players on his team. They've all done the same thing. You just have to look at [Alexandre] Burrows putting his blade in [Shawn] Thornton's throat."

"It's hypocritical and we're stupid and we're idiots and they're the smartest team in the league," Julien said. "I guess we need to listen to all the gab they have to say."
Source

That last quote is just awesome from Julien.

Chiarelli on Marchand and all of the Canucks comments:

"He's no dirtier than maybe two or three of their players," Chiarelli said after today's practice at TD Garden. "After a game like [Saturday's 4-3 loss to the Canucks], you see all the high-handed propaganda, you feel the need to respond. Whether it's from GMs, coaches or players, I don't like to hear that kind of stuff."

"Certainly, there's a lobbying element to it and I feel the league does a real good job in these hearings and I don't think, it's necessary to have that out there," Chiarelli said. "It's about protecting yourself. This is what this is all about."

"We generally try to take the high road when it comes to this stuff, but when it comes at us like that, we have to respond," Chiarelli said. "That's our position."

"Look, we're a physical team, and we're going to be under the microscopee for beingg that," Chiarelli said. "Our players are generally clean. Every team has players that do dirty things -- or illegal things. It just happens. That's why penalties are in place and that's why suplemental discipline is in place."

"He was protecting himself and we're going to tell our players to protect themselves."

"But the lobbying, I call it 'propaganda' that came out [Sunday] in advance of the hearing, I think it's distasteful," Chiarelli said. "And I'm friends with Mike [Gillis, Canucks GM] and I'm friends with Alain, but I don't like the way that it's come out and I have to respond."
Source

Bruins-Canucks war continues

2012-01-07T16:43:00.002-05:00

Boston Bruins' Milan Lucic, center left, and Vancouver Canucks' Dan Hamhuis (2) and other members from both teams fight in front of the benches during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Boston, Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Well there was a lot of talk from players saying that it's just another game but once the game started you knew it wasn't just another game. This was the game of the year with playoff intensity and action everywhere on the ice.

In the first period, 3:54 into the game the rough stuff began as Shawn Thornton and Alex Burrows got tangled up, after Burrows looked to place his stick near Thornton's head/throat, Thornton went after him and everybody jumped in. Nathan Horton ended up dropping the gloves with Dale Weise and they had a long spirited fight trading punches. Milan Lucic was given a game misconduct for leaving the bench, but pictures show that he was actually still on the ice but heading off, and he joined the scrum.

A lot of people are saying Lucic will get suspended but there was another incident earlier this season in a Lightning-Rangers game where Steve Downie was literally sitting on the edge of the bench and jumped off it to join a scrum after a goal (the Artem Anisimov incident) and he was only fined, not suspended. And we can say that Downie has a longer "rap sheet" than Lucic. Picture shows Lucic standing on the ice.

Video of the big scrum with Shawn Thornton taking on six Canucks players and Nathan Horton vs Dale Weise.

Ryan Kesler would score on the power-play making it 1-0. Later, Brad Marchand tied up the game scoring his 16th goal of the season. Gregory Campbell and Maxim Lapierre dropped the gloves off a faceoff (yes Lapierre he actually dropped his gloves) and had an ok fight. At the next faceoff, Shawn Thornton and Weise had some words, Thornton dropped the gloves and Weise lost his balls and kept his gloves on.

In the second period, Rich Peverley scored his 7th goal of the season after a non-icing call was made and the Canucks stopped playing because they thought it was icing, making it 2-1 Bruins. The Canucks then cried to the refs about that. Later, Alexandre Burrows scored a power-play goal making it 2-2.

Boston Bruins' Brad Marchand, right, trips Vancouver Canucks' Sami Salo, left, in the second period of an NHL hockey game in Boston, Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012. Marchand was penalized for tripping. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

With 1:13 left in the period, Brad Marchand was given a game misconduct for clipping as he ducked a Sami Salo hit and Salo went flying over Marchand. This was similar to in the playoffs last year when Marchand ducked an oncoming Daniel Sedin. Salo stayed down for a second and then got up and threw his stick up in the air. After his tantrum he skated to the dressing room. Video of the Marchand-Salo incident is below. Henrik Sedin scored a power-play goal before the period ended, making it 3-2.

In the third period, 1:09 into the period Cody Hodgson scored on a huge slap shot making it 4-2. Only 42 seconds later, David Krejci scored his 10th goal of the season to make it 4-3. The Bruins would pull Tim Thomas at the end and had a power-play with 30 seconds left in the game but the Bruins couldn't tie it up.

Video of Brad Marchand ducking out of the way of Sami Salo

After the game quotes
Andrew Ference on Shawn Thornton scrum in the first period: "It's Thorty, so I wasn't too worried about him. He was probably smiling whole time."

Thornton cites "spear to the throat" from Burrows as starting the scrum on the bench. Sedin says #22 jumped their bench unprompted... Source

Thornton on scrum: "I was surprised I could stand up that long w/6 guys on top of me, until Zee grabbed somebody + pulled whole pile down." Source

Julien on Marchand hit on Salo: "I'd rather our guys protect themselves instead of getting their face slammed into the glass." Source

Julien on Lucic game misconduct: "It was a legal change, he didn't come off the bench...we'll let the League take care of that stuff." Source

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 39-36 and faceoff wins 42-39. The Canucks led the game in hits 24-17 and blocked shots 10-7.

The Bruins went 0-for-6 on the power-play while the Canucks went 4-for-11.

Tim Thomas made 32 saves on 36 shots. Thomas is now 17-7 this season.

Patrice Bergeron, Joe Corvo and David Krejci all had 5 shots to lead the Bruins.

Johnny Boychuk led the Bruins in hits with 3.

Milan Lucic only had 1:27 of ice time due to his game misconduct. Makes you wonder what would have happened if both Lucic and Marchand didn't get game misconducts.

Nathan Horton had a big game today, despite not getting any points, he played hard all game, got into some rough stuff and had a good fight. Maybe he was pissed that Aaron Rome was injured and didn't play in this game?

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 26-11-1. The Bruins next game is on Tuesday against the Winnipeg Jets in Boston at 7pm ET.

Bruins destroy Flames 9-0

2012-01-05T21:46:00.002-05:00

Boston Bruins center Tyler Seguin (19) is congratulated by teammates and fans after his goal against Calgary Flames goalie Leland Irving during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Boston, Thursday Jan. 5, 2012. At left is Bruins' Patrice Bergeron, and at right is left wing Benoit Pouliot. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

If last night was domination against the Devils, tonight the Bruins completely destroyed the Calgary Flames with a 9-0 win. The Flames looked totally lost and at no time in this game did they look like they would come back. Tuukka Rask played good in net and stopped every shot he faced to get his third shutout of the season. Brad Marchand was scratched as he had flu-like symptoms so Benoit Pouliot took his place on the Bergeron-Seguin line, and Zach Hamill played on the third line with Kelly-Peverley.

In the first period, only 1:14 into the game, Tyler Seguin scored his 16th goal of the season making it 1-0. Only 2:03 later, Milan Lucic scored his 14th goal of the season making it 2-0. Lucic had the puck near the offensive zone faceoff circle, tried to pass the puck through Olli Jokinen but it went off Jokinen's skate and into a wide-open net as Flames goalie Leland Irving was moving. Later, David Krejci scored a power-play goal, his 9th goal of the season, to make it 3-0.

In the second period, only 1:19 into the period, Patrice Bergeron scored his 10th goal of the season to make it 4-0. Less than a minute later, Chris Kelly scored his 13th goal of the season, making it 5-0. Only 2:09 later, Nathan Horton scored his 11th goal of the season, making it 6-0. Later in the period, Horton scored his second goal of the game, his 12th goal of the season, making it 7-0.

In the third period, Patrice Bergeron scored his 11th goal of the season, making it 8-0. Later, Daniel Paille scored a short-handed goal, his 7th goal of the season, making it 9-0.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 42-25, faceoff wins 37-16, and blocked shots 14-8. The Flames led the game in hits 24-9 as the Bruins had the puck in the Flames end for most of the game.

The Bruins went 1-for-2 on the power-play while the Flames went 0-for-2.

Tuukka Rask stopped all 25 shots he faced, earning his 3rd shutout of the season. Rask is now 9-4-1 with a 1.49 GAA and a .949 save percentage this season.

Patrice Bergeron had 2 goals and 1 assist, was +3, and went 13-4 in the faceoff circle.

Zdeno Chara had 2 assists and was +3.

Nathan Horton had 2 goals and 1 assist, was +3, and had 4 shots.

David Krejci had 1 goal and 2 assists, was +3 and went 9-3 in faceoffs.

Milan Lucic had 1 goal and 1 assist, and was +3.

Rich Peverley had 2 assists and was +2.

Benoit Pouliot had 3 assists and was +3.

Tyler Seguin had 1 goal and 2 assists, was +3.

Joe Corvo led the Bruins with 7 shots and was +4.

Dennis Seidenberg led the Bruins with 4 blocked shots.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 26-10-1 with 53 points (1st in the Northeast Division and 1st in the Eastern Conference). The Bruins next game is one a lot of people have been waiting for, as it's against the Vancouver Canucks in Boston on Saturday at 1pm ET.

Bruins dominate Devils 6-1

2012-01-04T23:55:00.000-05:00

Boston Bruins' David Krejci, right, of the Czech Republic, tips the puck past New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur for a goal during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012, in Newark, N.J. The Bruins won 6-1. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

The Bruins started 2012 with a bang as they dominated the New Jersey Devils tonight beating them 6-1. The first period was almost even but the Bruins led 2-1 after it. The second and especially the third period was dominated by the Bruins play. Just an overall great team game and win. Here's how the scoring went down.

In the first period, Devils David Clarkson scored a power-play goal to make it 1-0 Devils. Later, Gregory Campbell got credit for his 4th goal of the season as an Andrew Ference shot went off of Campbell's skate and into the net to tie the game. Five minutes later, Nathan Horton scored his 10th goal of the season, a power-play goal, off a sweet pass from David Krejci across the crease to make it 2-1.

Also in the first period, Shawn Thornton dropped the gloves with Cam Janssen and they had a long fight trading punches. Some punches looked like they landed but neither guy did any real damage to the other.

In the second period, Patrice Bergeron scored his 8th goal of the season as he made a nice deke move to get around Martin Brodeur to score, making it 3-1.

In the third period, Bergeron scored his 2nd goal of the game, his 9th goal of the season, as Brad Marchand used his speed to get around the net and pass out in the slot to Bergeron who one-timed the puck past Brodeur, making it 4-1 Bruins. A little more than two minutes later, David Krejci scored his 8th goal of the season as he tipped in a Dennis Seidenberg shot, making it 5-1. Later, Shawn Thornton scored his 3rd goal of the season, as he received a pass from Daniel Paille in the slot area and took a hard half-slapper and got it by Brodeur. The puck may have went off or got tipped by a Devils defenseman by it was Thornton's goal.

Game notes
The Bruins dominated the faceoff circle going 30-12. The Bruins led the game in hits 23-18. The Devils led the game in shots 31-27 and blocked shots 16-11.

It's a little odd that the Bruins dominated the faceoff circle and Patrice Bergeron was only 3-3 in faceoffs. But David Krejci went 13-4, Gregory Campbell went 4-2, Chris Kelly went 6-0 and Rich Peverley went 4-3.

Both teams went 1-for-3 on the power-play.

Tim Thomas played in net and made 30 saves on 31 shots. Thomas is now 17-6 with a 1.90 GAA and a .940 save percentage this season.

Bergeron with 2 goals tonight and Krejci with 2 points (1 goal and 1 assist). Milan Lucic and Dennis Seidenberg both had 2 assists. Johnny Boychuk led with +3. Zdeno Chara and Brad Marchand led the Bruins with 3 shots apiece. Boychuk led the Bruins with 3 blocked shots. Lucic led the Bruins with 4 hits.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 25-10-1 with 51 points which puts them in 1st place in the Northeast Divison and in 2nd place in the Eastern Conference behind the New York Rangers (52 points but the Rangers have played 1 more game than the Bruins).

The Bruins next game is tomorrow as the Bruins host the Calgary Flames in Boston at 7pm ET. Flames captain Jarome Iginla is one goal away from 500 career goals. Doesn't it always seem that players make some kind of history against the Bruins? Either their first NHL goals (Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby come to mind) or reach some type of career mark? Iginla may make history against Boston tomorrow, we'll see.

Bruins mistakes cost them, lose 4-2 to Stars

2012-01-01T02:07:00.001-05:00

DALLAS, TX- DECEMBER 31: Trevor Daley #6 and the Dallas Stars get a puck past Tim Thomas #30 and the Boston Bruins at the American Airlines Center on December 31, 2011 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Glenn James/NHLI via Getty Images)

Michael Ryder and the Dallas Stars beat the Bruins Saturday night 4-2 in a game where the Bruins mistakes cost them. In the first period, Loui Eriksson scored a 5-on-3 power-play goal to make it 1-0 Stars. Later, Tyler Seguin scored his 15th goal of the season to tie the game 1-1, as he tipped in a David Krejci shot. Later, Trevor Daley scored as the puck got up in the air and went off of Tim Thomas' back and into the net to make it 2-1 Stars. With forty seconds left in the period, ex-Bruin Michael Ryder scored a power-play goal making it 3-1 Stars.

In the second period, Gregory Campbell and Jake Dowell dropped the gloves and had a rather quick and uneventful fight. With one minute left in the period, Tom Wandell scored to make it 4-1 Stars. Near the end of the period, Milan Lucic had two big hits laying out Stars players. Which then after the buzzer Steve Ott started yapping and had his stick around the head of a Bruin. Ott made sure to hide behind a linesman before a Bruins player could get close.

In the third period, Milan Lucic scored his 13th goal of the season making it 4-2.

Game notes
The Stars led the game in shots 27-20, faceoff wins 30-27, hits 36-16, and blocked shots 19-11. Wow the Bruins haven't been outhit by that big of a margin in a while.

The Bruins went 0-for-3 on the power-play while the Stars went 1-for-4.

Tim Thomas made 23 saves on 27 shots. Thomas is now 16-6-0 with a 1.94 GAA and a .939 save percentage this season.

David Krejci had 2 assists.

Johnny Boychuk led the Bruins with 5 blocked shots.

Zdeno Chara and Adam McQuaid both had 3 hits apiece to lead the Bruins.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 24-10-1, in first place in the Northeast Division with 49 points, and in second place in the Eastern Conference behind the New York Rangers (50 points). The Bruins next game is on Wednesday, January 4th at the New Jersey Devils at 7:30pm ET.

Bruins winning streak continues with OT win

2011-12-28T23:32:00.000-05:00

GLENDALE, AZ - DECEMBER 28: The Boston Bruins celebrate around Dennis Seidenberg #44 after he scored the game winning goal in overtime against the Phoenix Coyotes during the NHL game at Jobing.com Arena on December 28, 2011 in Glendale, Arizona. The Bruins defeated the Coyotes 2-1 in overtime. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

The Christmas break is over and the Bruins played in Phoenix tonight against the Coyotes and extended their winning streak to 7 games with an overtime win. Surprising to see Tuukka Rask get the nod tonight in net for the Bruins but he's been playing great as Tim Thomas has, so no downgrade there.

In the first period, David Krejci scored his 7th goal of the season only 47 seconds into the game, to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. Later in the period, Bruins killer Ray Whitney scored to tie the game 1-1.

Also in the first period was classic Bruins hockey, sticking up for teammates. Raffi Torres, you may remember he played for the Vancouver Canucks last year, threw an elbow at Andrew Ference's head as they raced for the puck in the Bruins d-zone. Adam McQuaid came right in instigating a fight with Torres and landed some punches that left Torres bleeding above his left eye. You may also remember last year in the playoffs McQuaid and Torres met up a few times with Torres throwing some big checks at McQuaid and McQuaid challenging him a few times but Torres wanted nothing to do with him then.

Adam McQuaid vs Raffi Torres

Click picture to view larger image.
Phoenix Coyotes' Raffi Torres (37) skates to the bench after a fight with Boston Bruins' Adam McQuaid during the first period in an NHL hockey game on Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

In the second period, no scoring happened.

In the third period, no scoring happened but the Coyotes had a strong ending of the period.

In overtime, a Dennis Seidenberg shot found it's way into the net to win the game 2-1 for the Bruins. On the replays it looked like Chris Kelly tipped the puck past Coyotes goalie Jason LaBarbera but the official score has Seidenberg with the goal. If it stands as Seidenberg's goal, it will be his 2nd goal of the season.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 29-22 and faceoff wins 28-19. The Coyotes led the game in hits 29-27 and blocked shots 20-13.

The Coyotes went 0-for-1 on the power-play while the Bruins had zero power-plays.

Tuukka Rask played in net for the Bruins and made 21 saves on 22 shots. Rask is now 8-4-1 with a 1.61 GAA and a 94.5 save percentage this season.

Rich Peverley was again out of the lineup, but Claude Julien has said that Peverley is on track to return against the Dallas Stars.

Joe Corvo led the Bruins in shots with 5.

Milan Lucic led the Bruins in hits with 5.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 24-9-1 this season with 49 points. The Bruins are in 1st place in the Northeast Division and 1st place in the Eastern Conference (2nd place in the entire NHL, one point behind the Chicago Blackhawks). The Bruins next game is on Saturday at the Dallas Stars at 8pm ET. Will this upcoming game be another fight filled game or does that only happen in Boston when these two teams meet? :) We'll also get to see old friend Michael Ryder.

Bruins blow out Panthers 8-0

2011-12-23T23:50:00.000-05:00

Boston Bruins' Brad Marchand (63) celebrates with Zdeno Chara (33) after completing a hat trick in the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Florida Panthers in Boston, Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. The Bruins won 8-0. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Wow what a dominating game the Bruins had tonight against the Florida Panthers. The Panthers played last night and looked tired as the Bruins looked like they had control for just about the entire game. Tuukka Rask played in net and earned his 2nd shutout of the season and Brad Marchand scored his 1st career NHL hat trick in the win. Jose Theodore started the game in net for Florida, but he did not have another great game against the Bruins as he did a few weeks ago.

In the first period, Brad Marchand scored his 13th goal of the season, a shorthanded goal, to make it 1-0. Later, Milan Lucic scored his 12th goal of the season, a power-play goal, making it 2-0 Bruins. On the next faceoff, Krys Barch and Shawn Thornton dropped the gloves and had a good short fight. Thornton looked to get more punches in on Barch before Thornton lost his balance and got twisted around as he went down to the ice. Less than five minutes later, Benoit Pouliot scored Bruins goal of the year so far as he got by a Panthers defenseman and slid the puck past Jose Theodore. That was Pouliot's 7th goal of the season. 31 seconds later Dennis Seidenberg scored his 1st goal of the season making it 4-0 Bruins.

Benoit Pouliot's sick goal vs Panthers

In the second period, the Panthers had Scott Clemmensen come in and play net for the rest of the game. Gregory Campbell scored his 3rd goal of the season as he was able to get a good wrist shot off from the slot area. Later in the period, Patrice Bergeron got credit for his 7th goal of the season, a power-play goal, as his pass went off a Panthers skate and into the net, making it 6-0.

In the third period, Brad Marchand scored his 2nd goal of the game, his 14th goal of the season. Later in the period, Brad Marchand scored his 3rd goal of the game, getting his 1st NHL career hat trick. That was Marchand's 15th goal of the season.

BOSTON, MA - DECEMBER 23: Brad Marchand #63 of the Boston Bruins after the game he scored his first career hat trick against the Florida Panthers at the TD Garden on December 23, 2011 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Steve Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 35-30 and faceoff wins 35-20. The Panthers led the game in hits 18-14 and blocked shots 16-13.

The Bruins went 2-for-5 on the power-play while the Panthers went 0-for-2.

Tuukka Rask played in net for Boston and stopped all 30 shots he faced to get his 2nd shutout of the season. Rask is now 7-4-1 with a 1.66 GAA and a .944 save percentage. Those are just amazing numbers.

Brad Marchand had a 5-point game, with 3 goals and 2 assists. He was +5 with 3 shots (all goals) and he only had 12:48 of ice time, which was the second-lowest on the team after Shawn Thornton's 11:23 of ice time.

Patrice Bergeron had 1 goal and 2 assists, was +2 and had 5 shots. He also went 10-2 in the faceoff circle.

Zdeno Chara had 2 assists and was +4.

Tyler Seguin had 2 assists and was +4 and had 3 shots.

Dennis Seidenberg had 1 goal and 1 assist, was +2 and had 2 shots.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 23-9-1 with 47 points, which is 1st in the Northeast Division and 1st in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins next game is next Wednesday, December 28th at the Phoenix Coyotes, at 9pm ET.

Happy holidays everyone!

Without Lucic, Bruins beat Habs

2011-12-20T17:58:00.000-05:00

As Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price looks on, Boston Bruins' Brad Marchand skates back to the bench after scoring during the third period of Boston's 3-2 win in an NHL hockey game in Boston Monday, Dec. 19, 2011. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

With Milan Lucic out of the lineup for the Bruins in a game where his physicality, along with his 15 points in 26 career season games against Montreal, is always good to have around, the Bruins were able to hold off Montreal and win 3-2 in a tight game where both goalies came up big for their teams.

In the first period, Benoit Pouliot scored his 6th goal of the season. A little over a minute later, Bruins killer Tomas Plekanec scored to tie the game.

In the second period, David Krejci scored his 6th goal of the season as an Andrew Ference shot/pass went off of Krejci's skate and into the net.

In the third period, Brad Marchand scored his 12th goal of the season on a great keep in at the blue line by Patrice Bergeron, then Tyler Seguin with a sweet aerial pass to Marchand who held onto the puck and went to the backhand for the game-winning goal. Later, another Bruins killer, Erik Cole, scored with 1:14 left in the game to make it 3-2. But the Bruins held on for a 3-2 win.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in faceoff wins 28-24 and hits 26-24. Montreal led the game in shots 35-31 and blocked shots 13-11.

The Bruins went 0-for-3 on the power-play while Montreal went 0-for-2.

Tim Thomas made 33 saves on 35 shots. He is now 16-5-0 with a 1.84 GAA and a .943 save percentage this season.

Zdeno Chara led the Bruins in shots with 6. Chara also led the Bruins in ice time with 26:05.

Dennis Seidenberg and Johnny Boychuk both had 3 blocked shots apiece to lead the Bruins.

Nathan Horton and Shawn Thornton led the Bruins in hits with 3 apiece.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 22-9-1 with 45 points, which is first in the Northeast Division and first in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins next game is on Friday hosting the Florida Panthers at 7pm ET. We may see a Shawn Thornton-Krys Barch rematch in that one.

Milan Lucic suspended for 1 game

2011-12-19T15:41:00.001-05:00

Bruins Milan Lucic has been suspended for 1 game for his boarding major on Satutday against the Flyers Zac Rinaldo. If you haven't seen the hit yet, watch it below.

Milan Lucic boards Zac Rinaldo

Here is the video of Brendan Shanahan and his explanation of the Lucic suspension.

"In spite of the fact that Lucic sees Rinaldo’s numbers in proximity to the boards, Lucic delivers a dangerous check from behind," Shanahan said in a video clip on the web site. "Rinaldo makes no sudden movements just prior to or simultaneous with the hit that contributes to making this an illegal check. Therefore, the onus is on Lucic to avoid this hit completely or, at the very least, minimize it to a greater degree."

"Instead, Lucic follows through with his check, driving Rinaldo high and hard into the glass. While this hit is not particularly egregious, it is illegal. However, the overriding factor in elevating this check from behind from a penalty on the ice to a suspension is his history of similar infractions, warnings and a fine. We've taken into account that Rinaldo suffered no apparent injury as a result of this hit."
Source

You can see in the video that Rinaldo turns at the last second for the hit to be shoulder-on-shoulder. If Rinaldo did not turn then it would have been a hit from behind. But we all know what this suspension is for. This is a make-up suspension for the non-suspension Lucic got for his collision with Sabres Ryan Miller. Shanahan received so much hate on him after the non-suspension that he probably felt hey I'll suspend him this time and hope to quiet down those Buffalo fans.

Even Flyers Zac Rinaldo, you know the guy who got hit, says it was a shoulder-to-shoulder hit.

"It's hockey, you hit and go into the boards, I don't think it was dirty at all," Rinaldo said. "Shoulder-to-shoulder and just momentum. He's big guy, maybe double my weight. His momentum carried him into the boards awkwardly. I don't think it was dirty at all."

He added: "Should–to-shoulder, that's fine, that's cool. I don't mind it at all."
Source

Props to Rinaldo for being honest and you know not saying he has a concussion or some type of injury just to get Lucic suspended.

Chara returns, Bruins dominate Flyers

2011-12-17T23:57:00.000-05:00

PHILADELPHIA, PA - DECEMBER 17: Zdeno Chara #33 of the Boston Bruins fights Jody Shelley #45 of the Philadelphia Flyers during their game on December 17, 2011 at The Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Bruins captain Zdeno Chara returned to the lineup this afternoon to take on the Flyers and maybe it gave the Bruins a boost as the Bruins came out flying. The Bruins got two goals in less than three minutes into the game to put the Flyers down and the Flyers couldn't get it together. When they did Tim Thomas and the Bruins defense was there to stop them.

In the first period, Benoit Pouliot scored his 5th goal of the season only 27 seconds into the game. Zdeno Chara and Jody Shelley dropped the gloves off a Bruins-defensive zone after some talking and had a quick fight with both guys not landing much. Only 2:23 after the first goal, Daniel Paille scored his 6th goal of the season to make it 2-0. Later in the period, Zdeno Chara scored his 7th goal of the season, a power-play goal to make it 3-0. The Bruins would score another power-play goal in the period, as Milan Lucic scored his 11th goal of the season to make it 4-0. Shortly after the Lucic goal, Scott Hartnell took a run at Brad Marchand who ducked the open ice hit. Johnny Boychuk got called for instigating a fight with Hartnell.

Zdeno Chara vs Jody Shelley

In the second period, Nathan Horton scored his 9th goal of the season, a power-play goal, to make it 5-0. In the period Lucic got called for a hit from behind major and game misconduct. I didn't agree that it was a hit from behind and neither did Lucic after the game. Zac Rinaldo, the guy who Lucic hit, dropped the gloves with Nathan Horton after the hit. I don't think any punches hit Horton's head area but we'll have to keep an eye on him just in case, as he probably shouldn't be fighting much anymore, with the concussion he got from year.

In the third period, Tyler Seguin scored his 14th goal of the season to make it 6-0.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 37-31, faceoff wins 34-31, and blocked shots 17-12. The Flyers led the game in hits 28-20.

The Bruins went 2-for-7 on the power-play while the Flyers went 0-for-6.

Tim Thomas stopped all 31 shots he faced and recorded his 4th shutout of the season. Thomas is now 15-5-0 with a 1.83 GAA and a .943 save percentage this season.

Zdeno Chara in his first game back, got a Gordie Howe hat trick (1 goal, 1 assist and a fight), led the Bruins in ice time with 23:39, had 4 shots and 3 hits.

Rich Peverley had 3 assists.

Tyler Seguin led the Bruins in shots with 6.

Andrew Ference led the Bruins in blocked shots with 5.

Dennis Seidenberg led the Bruins in hits with 4.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 21-9-1 with 43 points, first place in the Northeast Division and second place in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins next game is on Monday hosting the hated Montreal Canadiens in Boston. If you haven't heard yet, Montreal has fired Jacques Martin earlier today and assistant Randy Cunneyworth was appointed interim head coach.

Adam McQuaid fined for hit

2011-12-16T01:56:00.002-05:00

Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid was fined $2,500 for his skate-on-knee hit on Senators forward Nick Foligno which resulted in a 5-minute major and game misconduct for kneeing.

NEW YORK – Boston Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid has been fined $2,500, the maximum allowed under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, for kneeing Ottawa Senators forward Nick Foligno in NHL Game No. 448 in Ottawa on Wednesday, Dec. 14, the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety announced today.

The incident occurred at 17:45 of the first period. McQuaid was assessed a major penalty for kneeing and a game misconduct.

The fine money goes to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund.
Source

Bruins keep winning streak alive, beat Sens 5-2

2011-12-14T23:58:00.002-05:00

Ottawa Senators goalie Craig Anderson sprawls on the ice as Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron shoots the puck past him to score during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011, in Ottawa, Ontario. The Bruins won 5-2. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Adrian Wyld)

Tonight the Bruins kept their winning ways going, 3 wins in a row, even without captain Zdeno Chara in the lineup (2 games now without Chara). Gregory Campbell also missed this game and Zach Hamill again got into the lineup.

In the first period, Rich Peverley scored his 6th goal of the season. Also in the period, Milan Lucic and Matt Carkner had a good heavyweight fight.

In the second period, Daniel Alfredson scored for the Senators to tie the game 1-1. Later, Chris Kelly scored his 12th goal of the season to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead.

In the third period, Patrice Bergeron scored his 6th goal of the season on a breakaway, to make it 3-1 Bruins. Less than a minute later, actually 56 seconds later, Daniel Paille scored on a breakaway, his 4th goal of the season to make it 4-1. Later, Jason Spezza scored to make it 4-2. A little less than two minutes left in the game, Daniel Paille scored his second goal of the game, his 5th goal of the season to make it 5-2 Bruins.

Milan Lucic vs Matt Carkner

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in faceoff wins 33-22 and blocked shots 18-13. The Senators led the game in shots 49-29 and hits 26-22.

The Senators went 0-for-5 on the power-play while the Bruins had no power-plays.

Tim Thomas played in net for the Bruins and made 47 saves on 49 shots. Thomas is now 14-5-0 with a 1.93 GAA and a .940 save percentage.

Patrice Bergeron, Chris Kelly and Daniel Paille led the Bruins in shots with 4 apiece.

Johnny Boychuk led the Bruins in blocked shots with 4.

Adam McQuaid and Chris Kelly led the Bruins in hits with 3 apiece.

McQuaid got a 5-minute major and game misconduct for kneeing Nick Foligno. On replay it showed that McQuaid's skate hit Foligno's knee.

Andrew Ference had a big night, leading the Bruins in ice time with 27:33. He had 2 assists, was +3, had 3 shots and 2 hits.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 20-9-1 with 41 points which is 1st in the Northeast Division. The Bruins next game is on Saturday at 1pm ET at the Philadelphia Flyers.

Rask shutouts Kings 3-0

2011-12-14T23:48:00.003-05:00

Tuesday night, Tuukka Rask was great in net as the Bruins beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-0. Rask saved all 41 shots he faced, earning him his first shutout of the season. Rask is now 6-4-1 with a 1.82 GAA and a .939 save percentage this season.

In the first period, Rich Peverley scored his 5th goal of the season.

In the second period, Brad Marchand scored his 10th goal of the season.

In the third period, Brad Marchand scored his 11th goal of the season.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in faceoff wins 34-19 and blocked shots 25-8. The Kings led the game in shots 41-22 and hits 28-18.

The Bruins went 0-for-3 on the power-play, while the Kings went 0-for-4.

Zdeno Chara did not play in this game. Daniel Paille was back in the lineup. Gregory Campbell was out and Zach Hamill was in the lineup and made a great pass to Peverley for the first goal.

Patrice Bergeron had 2 assists, was +2, had 3 hits and went 13-6 in faceoffs.

Dennis Seidenberg led the Bruins in blocked shots with 6.

Milan Lucic and Patrice Bergeron led the Bruins in hits with 3 apiece.

After this game, the Bruins were 19-9-1.

Campbell hurt and Marchand fined

2011-12-13T18:51:00.001-05:00

Gregory Campbell will not play tonight as he suffered a fracture on his foot while blocking a shot in Columbus.

Brad Marchand was fined $2,500 for slew-footing Pittsburgh defenseman Matt Niskanen.

Daniel Paille skated but could be still out of the lineup.

The Bruins have recalled Zach Hamill from Providence (AHL).

Report: Zdeno Chara out 1 week

2011-12-11T22:46:00.000-05:00

A report on NHL.com says that Bruins Zdeno Chara is expected to be out a week so he'll miss the next three games. The three games are against the Los Angeles Kings, the Ottawa Senators, and the Philadelphia Flyers.

Bruins captain and top-pair defenseman Zdeno Chara is expected to miss at least the next three games after suffering a leg injury Saturday night, according to reports.

The injury occurred during the second period of Boston's 5-3 win at Columbus. Chara walked to the dressing room under his own power.

The Bruins play Los Angeles, Ottawa and Philadelphia this week. If Chara's recovery goes according to plan, there is a chance he will be available for Montreal's home game against the Canadiens on Dec. 19.
Source

Bruins end losing streak but lose Chara

2011-12-10T23:38:00.000-05:00

Boston Bruins' Brad Marchand (63), Chris Kelly (23) and Patrice Bergeron (37) celebrate Kelly's goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the third period of an NHL hockey game in Columbus, Ohio, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011. Boston won 5-3. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon)

Being down by two goals to the last place Columbus Blue Jackets only twelve minutes into the game; Zdeno Chara getting injured in the second period and not returning to the game; and with Tim Thomas getting replaced by Tuukka Rask to start the third period, you may have thought the Bruins were getting beaten badly and didn't have a chance to get back. But it was 2-2 after two periods and the Bruins are the Bruins in the third period so no worries right? This time no worries, as the Bruins scored two goals in the third period to put away the Blue Jackets and end their losing streak.

Game summary
In the first period, Shawn Thornton and Jared Boll dropped the gloves and had a re-match fight. It was a good fight with Thornton getting the decision. Thornton challenged Boll in his first shift once they both got on the ice. So you know this fight happened due to Thornton being upset with Boll from their previous fight where Boll threw two late punches at Thornton.

Rick Nash and Jeff Carter scored to make it 2-0 Columbus. With 1:34 remaining in the period, Joe Corvo scored his 1st goal of the season, which obviously was his first goal as a Bruin. Only 45 seconds later, Nathan Horton scored his 8th goal of the season to tie the game 2-2.

In the second period, Zdeno Chara scored his 6th goal of the season, a power-play goal, to make it 3-2 Bruins. R.J. Umberger scored later to tie the game 3-3. Later Chara would leave the game around the 5-minute mark of the period because of a leg injury. Maybe a possible knee injury. Claude Julien's post-game quotes about Chara are below.

Tuukka Rask started the third period and looked good through the period stopping everything Columbus threw his way. Joe Corvo scored his 2nd goal of the season and game, a power-play goal to give the Bruins a 4-3 lead. With the Bruins on a power-play with less than two minutes in the game, Chris Kelly scored his 11th goal of the season to make it 5-3 Bruins. Patrice Bergeron made a beautiful pass to Kelly, who roofed it by goalie Curtis Sanford.

Through two periods, Tim Thomas made 22 saves on 25 shots. Thomas did not get the decision in this game. Thomas is still 13-5-0, and now has a 1.92 GAA and a .938 save percentage. Tuukka Rask played the third period, made 11 saves on 11 shots and he got the win. Rask is now 5-4-1 with a 2.01 GAA and a .930 save percentage.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in faceoff wins 27-23 and blocked shots 17-10. The Blue Jackets led the game in shots 36-29 and hits 28-14.

The Bruins went 3-for-6 on the power-play while Columbus went 1-for-6.

Rich Peverley went 6-1 in the faceoff circle.

Joe Corvo with his first two goals as a Bruin, was also +1 with 5 shots and 1 blocked shot. The 5 shots led the Bruins.

David Krejci had 2 assists with 2 shots.

Milan Lucic had an odd night, recording 3 assists, 8 PIMs including a bad double-minor, 0 shots and 5 hits. The 5 hits led the Bruins.

Adam McQuaid led the Bruins with 4 blocked shots.

Bruins post-game quotes
After the game, Claude Julien talked a little about Zdeno Chara's injury status:

"We don't if it's just one or if he'll be back in next game," Julien said. "I'm not quite sure. I haven't had a chance, so it's hard to comment until I know the severity of it. Throughout the season, you're going to have some injuries, and you're going to have to live with them."

Chara was walking without noticeable discomfort after the game. Chara will travel back to Boston tonight and be re-evaluated upon the team's return.
Source

Claude Julien on his decision to pull Tim Thomas and play Tuukka Rask in the third period:

"Timmy didn't look as comfortable as we've seen him and he let couple goals go thru. It was a gut decision."
Source

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 18-9-1 with 37 points and back in 2nd place in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins next game is on Tuesday hosting the Los Angeles Kings in Boston at 7pm ET. The Kings have been struggling recently, going 4-5-1 in their last 10 games.

Daniel Paille out with mild concussion

2011-12-09T20:36:00.000-05:00

Some not so good news concerning Daniel Paille. Just when he took off the cage after recovering from taking a puck to the face, Bruins coach said that Daniel Paille has a mild concussion and will be out for the time being. Paille got the concussion from a Krys Barch hit on Thursday night.

"He's going to be out for the time being," Julien said. "They think it's a mild concussion, but again, you never know. We'll take it day by day. He's feeling a little better today, which is always good news to hear."

"It was a clean hit," Julien said Thursday. "I think it was just how he ended up going down, I guess, or whether it looked like there was almost helmet-to-helmet collision there in slow-motion."
Source

Jordan Caron will be able to get into the lineup with Paille out.

Bruins sign Dougie Hamilton to entry-level contract

2011-12-09T20:28:00.000-05:00

Somehow I missed posting about this on the blog, but on Thursday Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli announced that the Bruins have signed defenseman Dougie Hamilton to entry-level contract.

As of December 8, the 18-year-old Hamilton ranked tied for seventh amongst all Ontario Hockey League skaters in scoring, with 41 points on 11 goals and 30 assists. He currently leads all OHL defensemen in goals, assists and points. Hamilton was named the OHL's Defenseman of the Month for October and captained the Team OHL squad that took on Team Russia in the 2011 Subway Super Series.

Hamilton is also one of the 41 players invited to Team Canada's selection camp for the World Junior Championships, which will be held in Calgary on December 10. 22 players will make Team Canada's final roster for the World Junior tournament, which is scheduled for Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Calgary and Edmonton.
Source

Funny Brad Marchand commercial

2011-12-09T20:25:00.000-05:00

Bruins Brad Marchand did a commercial for PureHockey.com. Check it out below.

Surprising Panthers beat Bruins 2-0

2011-12-09T03:37:00.000-05:00

The Bruins dominated most of Thursday's game against the Florida Panthers but Jose Theodore was good and he also got lucky a few times as the Bruins hit a few posts. Theodore always seems to play well against the Bruins for whatever reason. The Panthers would get lucky in the third period scoring with Tim Thomas down and Joe Corvo not able to get to the puck before Tomas Kopecky would. And the Panthers added an empty net goal to put the game away 2-0 and end Tim Thomas' 10-game winning streak.

Game notes
In the first period, Florida's newly acquired Krys Barch got a charging penalty for hitting Daniel Paille near the boards which left Paille woozy. NESN replays later showed that it looked like Barch hits Paille head or they collided heads. Both Shawn Thornton and Gregory Campbell dropped the gloves to get at Barch, but it would end up being Thornton taking on Barch once again. These two always seem to fight, remember the Dallas game last season. Thornton would get the decision in the fight. Paille would leave the game and not return.

In the second period, Johnny Boychuk laid out a Panthers player and Jack Skille came over and bumped into Boychuk. They dropped the gloves and had a good exchange.

Tim Thomas made 28 saves on 29 shots. Thomas is now 13-5-0 with a 1.83 GAA and a .941 save percentage.

The Bruins led the game in shots 40-29 and faceoff wins 28-24. The Panthers led the game in hits 19-16 and blocked shots 16-10.

The Bruins went 0-for-4 on the power-play, while the Panthers went 0-for-1.

Tyler Seguin played but he didn't really do much out there, as some other Bruins players. Seguin had 3 shots on net. The Lucic-Krejci-Horton line were all -2.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 17-9-1 and 3rd place in the Eastern Conference (Florida moving to 2nd place). The Bruins next game is on Saturday at the Columbus Blue Jackets at 7pm ET.

Bruins lose in regulation for first time in 16 games

2011-12-07T01:56:00.000-05:00

Winnipeg Jets goaltender Ondrej Pavelec (31) makes a paddle save with Boston Bruins' Patrice Bergeron watching during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Trevor Hagan)

It was a hard fought game and in the end the Bruins couldn't tie up the game in the third period even with Tuukka Rask pulled as the Jets beat the Bruins 2-1 to stop the Bruins point streak. It was a really fast paced good game and Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec was great in net, stopping 39 of 40 shots he faced.

The biggest news wasn't that the Bruins finally lost a game in regulation, it was that Tyler Seguin was scratched from the line up due to disciplinary action because Seguin missed a mandatory team breakfast and meeting yesterday morning. It also seems this wasn't Seguin's first time doing this.

We'll see how Seguin handles this and how this may help his maturation process.

"He missed a team breakfast and a team meeting this morning," said GM Peter Chiarelli, explaining Seguin's absence from the lineup vs. the Jets. "He didn't wake up. Honest mistake. But we have team rules. We abide by them. He has to abide by them. So that’s the reason for his scratch."

"He's had a couple of instances before," said the GM. "I don't see it as a problem. I see it as a young player who sometimes forgets to set his alarm. We gave him a couple of passes (in the past). It's a young kid who's learning to be a pro — and is a heck of a player."

How did he take it?

"Not good," said Chiarelli. "But he understands there is a set of team rules and everyone plays by the rules."
Source

In the first period, Andrew Ladd scored to give the Jets a 1-0 lead on a perfect shot that beat Tuukka Rask up high over Rask's right shoulder short-side.

In the second period, no scoring happened.

In the third period, Shawn Thornton got credit for a goal, his 2nd goal of the season, as the puck deflected off his gloves from a Daniel Paille attempted pass that got redirected by former Bruin Mark Stuart. A little later Mark Stuart would get hurt as he went into the d-zone to get the puck and David Krejci went to hit him and Stuart turned his back at the last second and Krejci hit him against the boards. Stuart dropped to the ice and remained there for a little. Zach Bogosian came in and roughed up Krejci a little for the hit. Both Krejci and Bogosian got 2-minute roughing penalties. Krejci wasn't penalized for the hit, as Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley stated the refs must have seen Stuart turn his back at the last second. Stuart was able to get up and skate off the ice on his own power. On the ensuing faceoff, it was 4-on-4, and Joe Corvo made a mistake which let the Jets have a 2-on-1 and Bryan Little scored to make it 2-1. Mark Stuart would come back into the game later. The game would end 2-1.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 40-35. The Jets led the game in faceoff wins 30-29, hits 20-12 and blocked shots 22-15. Both teams went 0-for-3 on the power-play.

Tuukka Rask played in net and made 33 saves on 35 shots. Rask is now 4-4-1 with a 2.09 GAA and a .927 save percentage.

Joe Corvo had a bad game, being -2 in only 14:16 of ice time. After his mistake in the third period, I don't remember seeing him on the ice much.

Milan Lucic led the Bruins in shots with 5.

Adam McQuaid and Andrew Ference both had 4 blocked shots to lead the Bruins.

Johnny Boychuk led the Bruins in hits with 3, including a big hip check near the beginning of the game on Evander Kane.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 17-8-1 with 35 points still and in 2nd place in the Eastern Conference and 1st place in the Northeast Division. The Bruins next game is on Thursday against the SouthEast Division leading Florida Panthers, in Boston at 7pm ET. Ex-Bruin Marco Sturm should be in the Panthers lineup.

Thomas shuts down Penguins, B's win 3-1

2011-12-05T22:58:00.000-05:00

PITTSBURGH, PA - DECEMBER 5: Patrice Bergeron #37 of the Boston Bruins and Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins wait for the puck drop on a face off on December 5, 2011 at CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Boston defeated Pittsburgh 3-1. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

The two top Eastern Conference teams went at it tonight and what a game it was with the Bruins taking on the Penguins. It was a fast-action hard-nosed game with both teams going back and forth. Tim Thomas was the man for the Bruins as he held the Penguins off for a 3-1 win by the Bruins.

In the first period, no scoring happened.

In the second period, Gregory Campbell scored his 2nd goal of the season to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. Benoit Pouliot later scored his 4th goal of the season to make it 2-0 Bruins. During the period, Brad Marchand slew-footed Matt Niskanen and then they fought each other. Niskanen hits Marchand's helmet a lot with punches, Marchand would come back later with some big punches but this was mainly a draw. Watch the Marchand-Niskanen fight here.

In the third period, Tyler Seguin scored his 13th goal of the season, a power-play goal, from a sweet move by Patrice Bergeron as he schooled defenseman Matt Niskanen and then made a nice pass over to Seguin who one-timed the puck into the net. Later, Matt Cooke scored to make it 3-1. In the period, Joe Vitale bumped into Tim Thomas and Gregory Campbell and Zdeno Chara were trying to get after him. Campbell and Vitale would come out of the scrum, dropped the gloves and had a good fight. It looked like a lot of Campbell's punches didn't reach Vitale. By the end Campbell was dead tired and the fight ended after Vitale threw a left that seemed to hit Campbell's helmet and Campbell fell to the ice. Campbell was fine and got up with no problems so I think it was mostly Campbell being tired and losing his balance from the Vitale punch, not a KO punch. Watch the Campbell-Vitale fight here.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in faceoff wins 39-36 and blocked shots 9-8. The Penguins led the game in shots 46-27 and hits 24-13.

The Bruins went 1-for-5 on the power-play while the Penguins went 0-for-2 (which were 5-on-3s) on the power-play.

Tim Thomas played in net and made 45 saves on 46 shots. Thomas is now 13-4 with a 1.87 GAA and a .940 save percentage.

Rich Peverley had 2 assists.

Johnny Boychuk, David Krejci, Benoit Pouliot all had 4 shots apiece to lead the Bruins.

Milan Lucic led the Bruins in hits with 3.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 17-7-1 with 35 points, 2nd place in the Eastern Conference (1 point behind Pittsburgh but with 3 games in hand), and 1st place in the Northeast Division. The Bruins are on a 4-game winning streak now. They have not lost a game in regulation since October, going 14-0-1 in their last 15 games.

The Bruins next game is tomorrow at the Winnipeg Jets at 8:30pm ET.

Bruins continue winning streak, beating Leafs 4-1

2011-12-03T23:19:00.000-05:00

BOSTON, MA - DECEMBER 03: Tuukka Rask #40 of the Boston Bruins stops a shot in the second period against the Toronto Maple Leafs on December 3, 2011 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Tonight was the second game of a home-and-home with the Toronto Maple Leafs and again the Bruins were able to win and shut down Phil Kessel. Kessel had 0 points, was -2, with 5 shots on net. Even with James Reimer returning into net for the Leafs they weren't able to stop the Bruins. The Lucic-Krejci-Horton again was playing great and wracked up points tonight.

In the first period, no scoring happened.

In the second period, David Krejci scored his 5th goal of the season. Bruins killer Mikhail Grabovski would score less than a minute later to tie the game 1-1. Later, Chris Kelly scored his 10th goal of the season to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead.

In the third period, Johnny Boychuk let a hard slap shot go and blew by Reimer for his 3rd goal of the season to make it 3-1 Bruins. Later, Nathan Horton scored his 7th goal of the season with a hard wrist shot to make it 4-1 Bruins.

Also in the third period, Joe Corvo got his first NHL career fighting major as he dropped the gloves with Joey Crabb with a rather uneventful fight. As you can tell, Corvo is in no way a fighter. Yea it takes real balls to take on a non-fighter. I guess the decision went to Crabb as it looked like some of his punches may have landed whereas Corvo's punches didn't reach Crabb. But that's the only thing Toronto won tonight.

Joey Crabb vs Joe Corvo

Game notes
Tuukka Rask played in net for the Bruins and made 21 saves on 22 shots. Rask is now 4-3-1 with a 2.09 GAA and a .924 save percentage this season.

The Bruins led the game in shots 30-22 and domained the faceoff circle 42-20. The Leafs led the game in hits 28-23 and blocked shots 15-12.

The Bruins went 0-for-2 on the power-play and the Leafs went 0-for-4.

Patrice Bergeron was great on faceoffs, going 19-4.

Nathan Horton had a goal and an assist, was +2 with 3 shots.

David Krejci had a goal and an assist, was +2 with 2 shots.

Milan Lucic had 2 assists, was +2 with 3 shots.

Zdeno Chara and Milan Lucic both had 4 hits to lead the Bruins.

Ex-Bruins Phil Kessel and Joe Colborne didn't do much tonight. Kessel had 0 points, was -2 with 5 shots. Colborne had 0 points, was -1 with 1 shot and 4 hits.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 16-7-1 with 33 points and 1st place in the Northeast Division. The Bruins next game is on Monday at the Pittsburgh Penguins at 7pm ET.

Adam McQuaid special feature on The Hockey News

2011-12-03T18:35:00.001-05:00

The Hockey News has a special feature on Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid, "Before I Made It: Adam McQuaid" that is a good read to learn a little more about the young tough Bruins defenseman.

I got into hockey because my parents wanted to get me into something so that I could be more social. I was a bit of a shy kid so they just wanted me to play a team sport and socialize with other kids my age. My parents were awesome. They were always encouraging and never gave me any advice really - probably mainly because they were just fans of the game, but never really played too much themselves. So it wasn’t like they were ever critiquing me, they were more just there for support.

...

I watched a lot of hockey as a kid and when I was really young my favorite player was Patrick Roy. Around the time he got traded to Colorado I kind of jumped ship and became a fan of Felix Potvin and Doug Gilmour. I'm not sure why, but I kind of gravitated toward goalies.

...

I was in the American League for two-and-a-half years and I really think the trade to Boston helped me. They really worked with me and there were a lot of areas I had to improve on, including my skating and puck skills, and they were willing to give me an opportunity. That's all you can really ask for.
Source: The Hockey News (link above)

Bruins sign Krejci to 3-year extension

2011-12-01T12:23:00.000-05:00

Boston Bruins David Krejci, from the Czech Republic, celebrates after scoring a goal against the Montreal Canadiens during the first period of Game 4 of the NHL playoff hockey series on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 in Montreal. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Ryan Remiorz)

Today Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli has announced that the Bruins have signed forward David Krejci to a 3-year contract extension through the 2014-15 NHL season.

TSN is saying it's a 3-year $15.75 million deal (source). That's a $5.25 million annual cap hit.

And the contract has a limited no-trade clause in the final two years.

Krejci's deal, a three-year $15.75 million deal with a limited no-trade clause in the final two years, was actually signed prior to Wednesday's game against the Maple Leafs. Peter Chiarelli joked that he likes to think it put Krejci in the right frame of mind to go out and rack up three points in the win over Toronto.
Source

After Wednesday's game against Toronto, David Krejci was asked about the trade rumors surrounding him. Here's his response via CSNNE:

"I love the city. I love the team. Everybody really gets along well. We are winning," said Krejci when asked about the trade rumors. "I like to be on a winning team and I like to have a chance to win the Cup. This is the team, you know? I would like to have a chance to stay here."
Source

From the Bruins site:

The 25-year-old Krejci was drafted by the Bruins in the 2nd round (63rd overall) of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft. He has skated in 318 career NHL games – all with Boston – and has registered 62 goals and 165 assists for 227 points. Krejci has tied for the Bruins team lead in points in each of the last two seasons, tallying 52 points in 2009-10 and 62 points in 2010-11. He set career highs in goals, assists, points, games played and plus/minus during the 2008-09 season after tallying 22-51=73 totals in 82 games with a +37 rating.

...

During the Bruins 2010-11 Stanley Cup Championship run, Krejci finished as the NHL's playoff scoring leader with 12 goals and 11 assists for 23 points in 25 games, becoming the first Bruin to do so since Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr shared the postseason scoring title in 1972. His 12 playoff goals included four gamewinners (three of which came against the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals) and one hat trick (Game 6 loss versus Tampa in Eastern Conference Finals). He also had the primary assist on Nathan Horton's gamewinning goal against Tampa in Game Seven that propelled the Bruins to their first Cup Final since 1990.

For his playoff career, Krejci has compiled 44 points in 52 postseason contests with 19 goals and 25 assists.
Source

Bruins beat Leafs 6-3

2011-11-30T23:58:00.000-05:00

Boston Bruins' Milan Lucic, center, celebrates scoring his team's fifth goal as Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Jonas Gustavsson and defenseman Luke Schenn, right, look on during the third period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Chris Young)

The Bruins beat the Maple Leafs 6-3 in the first of a home-and-home series Wednesday night. It was a good back and forth game with a lot of scoring chances and hitting. With the Bruins win tonight against the Leafs, the Bruins finished November going 12-0-1, with zero regulation losses. Tonight's win made this month the Bruins' first month without a regulation loss since January of 1969. Wow, that is just amazing.

Here's the scoring summary of tonight's game.

In the first period, Bruins killer Mikhail Grabovski scored to make it 1-0. Later, Milan Lucic scored a power-play goal, his 9th goal of the season, to tie the game 1-1.

In the second period, David Krejci scored his 4th goal of the season to make it 2-1 Bruins. A little later, Joffrey Lupul scored to tie the game 2-2. Zdeno Chara scored his 5th goal of the season later in the period to give the Bruins a 3-2 lead.

In the third period, Benoit Pouliot scored his 3rd goal of the season to make it 4-2 Bruins. Leafs Matt Frattin scored to make it 4-3. Later, Milan Lucic scored his 10th goal of the season and second goal of the game to make it 5-3 Bruins. Brad Marchand would put the game away with 52 seconds left in the game, with an open net goal, his 9th goal of the season.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 39-37, faceoff wins 37-25 and hits 24-23. The Leafs led the game in blocked shots 19-18. The Bruins went 1-for-3 on the power-play while the Leafs went 1-for-2.

Tim Thomas played in net and made 34 saves on 37 shots. Thomas is now 12-4 with a 1.93 GAA and a .936 save percentage.

Benoit Pouliot's goal was the game-winner.

Zdeno Chara had 1 goal and 1 assist, was +2, had 6 shots (led Bruins) and 4 blocked shots (tied with Patrice Bergeron to lead the Bruins).

Nathan Horton had 2 assists, was +2 and had 2 shots.

David Krejci had 1 goal and 2 assists, was +2 and had 3 shots.

Milan Lucic had 2 goals, was +1 and had 3 shots.

Adam McQuaid led the Bruins in hits with 5.

Ex-Bruins not getting it done
Phil Kessel finished the game with 1 assist, a -3 and 3 shots. Now in his career against Boston, Kessel is -12 in 15 games with 2 goals and 5 assists.

Joe Colborne finished the game +1 with 1 hit and went 3-10 in faceoffs.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 15-7-1 and in 1st place in the Northeast Division. The Bruins next game is on Saturday against these same Toronto Maple Leafs in Boston at 7pm ET.

Bruins start a new streak, beat Jets 4-2

2011-11-27T02:23:00.000-05:00

Boston Bruins' Chris Kelly (23) celebrates his second goal of the second period with teammate Adam McQuaid during an NHL hockey game against the Winnipeg Jets in Boston, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. The Bruins won 4-2. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Saturday night old pals Mark Stuart and Blake Wheeler came to Boston with the Winnipeg Jets to take on the Bruins. The Bruins would give up two quick goals in the first period but turn it around and not allow anymore to beat the Jets 4-2.

In the first period, Evander Kane and Dustin Byfuglien scored two quick goals by mid-way through the period, to make it 2-0 Jets. Later, Zdeno Chara scored his 4th goal of the season, a power-play goal to make it 2-1.

In the second period, Chris Kelly scored two goals for the Bruins, his 8th and 9th goals of the season, to give the Bruins a 3-2 lead. The first goal was a short-handed goal.

In the third period, Brad Marchand scored an empty-net goal to put the game away 4-2 for the Bruins.

This game wasn't as intense, spirited and physical as some recent past games but there was a lot of back-and-forth action trading scoring chances. Former Bruin Blake Wheeler had an assist and was -1 in the 14:01 of ice time he got. And former Bruin Mark Stuart was +1 in 19:42 of ice time he got.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in faceoff wins 30-19 and blocked shots 11-9. The Jets led the game in shots 42-35 and hits 23-16. The Bruins went 1-for-5 on the power-play while the Jets went 0-for-4.

Tim Thomas made 40 saves on 42 shots. Thomas is now 11-4-0 with a 1.86 GAA and a .937 save percentage this season.

Zdeno Chara led the Bruins in shots with 6.

Rich Peverley had 2 assists.

Andrew Ference led the Bruins with 4 blocked shots.

Gregory Campbell and Zdeno Chara led the Bruins in hits with 3 apiece.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 14-7-1 and are 1st place in the Northeast Division (2nd place in the Eastern Conference and 4th place overall in the NHL). The Bruins next game is on Wednesday, November 30th at the Toronto Maple Leafs at 7pm ET.

Red Wings end Bruins winning streak

2011-11-27T01:32:00.000-05:00

BOSTON, MA - NOVEMBER 25: Tuukka Rask #40 of the Boston Bruins reacts after Todd Bertuzzi of the Detroit Red Wings scores the game winning goal on November 25, 2011 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Boston Bruins 3-2 in an overtime shootout. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Sorry for not posting sooner as I've been away for a few days because of the Thanksgiving holiday but here we go.

The Detroit Red Wings came into Boston on Friday, November 25th for a 1pm ET game and they ended the Bruins 10-game winning streak with a 3-2 shootout win over the Bruins.

In the first period, Detroit's Valtteri Filppula scored to make it 1-0.

In the second period, Daniel Paille scored his 3rd goal of the season to tie the game 1-1. Pavel Datsyuk would score 35 seconds later to make it 2-1 with a beautiful individual play.

In the third period, Patrice Bergeron scored his 5th goal of the season to tie the game 2-2.

The game went into overtime but nobody scored so it went to a shootout. In the shootout: Tyler Seguin did not score, Pavel Datsyuk scored, Rich Peverley did not score, Jiri Hudler did not score, Nathan Horton scored, and Todd Bertuzzi scored on a beautiful deke to win the game for the Red Wings.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 43-31 and hits 30-22. The Red Wings led the game in faceoff wins 28-27. Both teams had 16 blocked shots. Both teams went 0-for-2 on the power-play.

Tuukka Rask played in net and made 29 saves on 31 shots. Rask is now 3-3-1 with a 2.25 GAA and a .921 save percentage.

Zdeno Chara led the Bruins in shots with 6.

Patrice Bergeron led the Bruins in blocked shots with 4.

Johnny Boychuk led the Bruins in hits with 4.

Onto the next one
After this game the Bruins were 13-7-1. Their next game would be against the Winnipeg Jets in Boston on Saturday night.

Bruins beat Sabres in shootout, now 10 straight wins

2011-11-24T00:40:00.000-05:00

Buffalo Sabres' Paul Gaustad (28) and Boston Bruins' Milan Lucic (17) fight during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Derek Gee)

What a game tonight's Bruins-Sabres game was, with action throughout the game. We all knew Milan Lucic would drop the gloves with someone on Buffalo, we just weren't sure who exactly.

Only 1:23 into the first period, on Lucic's first shift of the game, the crowd booed loudly as Lucic lined up for the faceoff. Paul Gaustad came out onto the ice and lined up next to Lucic and they exchanged some words. Once the puck dropped, Lucic and Gaustad dropped the gloves and the helmets and went at it. Gaustad seemed hesitant and not sure how to go about fighting Lucic. Lucic threw more and landed more of the punches and the decision went to Lucic. Watch the fight below. Even though Lucic won the fight it gave the Sabres a big momentum boost as they would outplay the Bruins in the first period.

Milan Lucic vs Paul Gaustad, November 23, 2011

A little later there was a big scrum with all of the players included behind Tim Thomas and the Bruins net. Brad Marchand took a run at Nathan Gerbe, then Gaustad hit Marchand which brought Adam McQuaid and everybody else into the pile. Zdeno Chara and Robyn Regehr separated and had an ok fight exchanging a few punches with the decision going to Chara.

The Sabres scored two power-play goals in the first period. Ehrhoff and Bruins killer Vanek scored for the Sabres.

In the second period, the Sabres weren't as "hungry" as they were in the first period. Tyler Seguin scored his 12th goal of the season, a power-play goal, to make it 2-1. Seguin scored on a Stamkos-like one-timer on the off-wing. Sabres T.J. Brennan later scored to make it 3-1. Later, Brad Marchand scored to make it 3-2. Before the goal, Marchand was laid out by Vanek, but Marchand would score a few seconds later and then yell at the Sabres bench after the goal. Also in the second period, Drew Stafford bumped into Tim Thomas and Andrew Ference went after him right away, dropping his gloves and they went at it but not much landed by either guy. Hey Sabres, that's how you're suppose to react to those kinds of things when they happen in a game.

In the third period, again the Sabres didn't look anything like how they played in the first period. Zdeno Chara scored his 3rd goal of the season, a power-play goal from a shot from the point that looked to deflect off a Sabres player's leg or skate.

Boston Bruins' Benoit Pouliot (67) celebrates his game-winning shootout goal against the Buffalo Sabres during an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Derek Gee)

The game went into overtime but nobody scored so the game went to a shootout. Vanek didn't score, Seguin didn't score, Gerbe didn't score, Peverley didn't score, Pominville didn't score, Krejci didn't score, Roy didn't score, Bergeron didn't score, Stafford didn't score, and then of all people Benoit Pouliot scored to win the game for the Bruins as he roofed the puck into the net past Jhonas Enroth.

Tim Thomas remained perfect in the shootout this season.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 39-34, faceoff wins 40-31 and blocked shots 14-10. The Sabres led the game in hits 39-24.

The Bruins went 2 for 5 on the power-play while the Sabres went 2 for 4 on the power-play.

Tim Thomas is now 10-4 with a 1.85 GAA and a .936 save percentage this season.

Patrice Bergeron had 2 assists in the game and went 10-8 in faceoffs.

Tyler Seguin had a goal and an assist.

Brad Marchand led the Bruins in hits with 6.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now on a 10-game winning streak and are 13-7 this season and in 1st place in the Northeast Division. The Bruins next game is on Friday at 1pm ET hosting the Detroit Red Wings in Boston. The game will be on NBC.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Lucic expects Sabres response

2011-11-22T22:09:00.001-05:00

BOSTON, MA - NOVEMBER 01: Milan Lucic #17 of the Boston Bruins celebrates his goal in the first period against the Ottawa Senators on November 1, 2011 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Milan Lucic talking a little with the media about tomorrow's game against the Buffalo Sabres and if he expects some type of revenge...

Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe spoke with Bruins winger Milan Lucic today in advance of Wednesday's highly-anticipated Bruins-Sabres tilt.

Not beating around the bush, Dupont asked Lucic if he expected one of the Buffalo players to drop the mitts.

His response?

"Yes. I'm not going to lie...yes."

Not a surprise, but definitely interesting given Brendan Shanahan has spoken with both GMs — Buffalo's Darcy Regier and Boston's Peter Chiarelli — informing them that "awareness will be heightened" for the game. Lucic's honesty is admirable, even though a "no comment" might've been the smarter play.
Source

Lucic said he understands what may occur and is ready for whatever happens.

"Obviously," he said. "I mean, hitting a goalie, there's kind of a code there. No matter if it was accidental or not, you're going to have to stand up for your actions. I truly believe in that. That's why I'm not scared to stand up for it."

"They've been talking a lot about not having the right response, so who knows what'll happen? They might feel this is their time to respond. But you know how we are as a team. We're going to stand in there strong and do whatever we need to do. We'll make sure we protect ourselves and each other and try to win a game."
Source

I'm expecting either Sabres Paul Gaustad or Robyn Regehr to challenge Lucic to a fight on his first shift and then it will be over with. There's so much build up that possibly nothing will happen in the game as in the past we've seen, but who knows.

Thomas keeps streak alive, Bruins win 9th straight

2011-11-21T23:58:00.000-05:00

Boston Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference (21), center, celebrates with teammates after scoring the first goal against the Montreal Canadiens during first period National Hockey League action Monday, Nov. 21, 2011 in Montreal. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Ryan Remiorz

Tim Thomas showed tonight, and has been showing this whole season, why he's the best goalie in the NHL right now. Thomas stopped all 33 shots he faced, shutting out the Habs 1-0 in a game that went down to the final seconds as Montreal dived their way to a power-play. What a great game by Thomas. He was the reason the Bruins won as Montreal outplayed the Bruins.

Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference scored the only goal of the game, in the first period, his 2nd goal of the season.

Bruins Benoit Pouliot took two bad dumb penalties in the second period and I won't be surprised if he doesn't play the next few games and Jordan Caron plays instead. The Bruins managed to kill off the first 2-minute penalty and then the 4-minute double-minor penalty that he took.

Game notes
Montreal led the game in shots 33-18, faceoff wins 26-25 and hits 26-21. The Bruins led the game in blocked shots 17-12. The Bruins went 0 for 1 on the power-play while Montreal went 0 for 4.

Tim Thomas made 33 saves on 33 shots and got his 3rd shutout of the season. Thomas is now 9-4 with a 1.77 GAA and a .938 save percentage.

Thomas now has a 133:04 scoreless streak going on (Source: Joe Haggerty via Twitter).

Patrice Bergeron had a bad night in the faceoff circle going 6-12, while Rich Peverley went 6-1.

Johnny Boychuk and Adam McQuaid led the Bruins in blocked shots with 4 apiece.

Milan Lucic and Adam McQuaid led the Bruins in hits with 3 apiece.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 12-7 this season and in 1st place in the Northeast Division. Get ready to rumble? As the next Bruins game is on Wednesday at the Buffalo Sabres at 7pm ET. This is the rematch game following the Milan Lucic hit on Ryan Miller. Many think that the Sabres will try and get some retribution in this game. So who will it be to step up and challenge Lucic to a fight? Their tough guy, Cody McCormick, is out injured. Tyler Myers is now out injured too. That leaves Robyn Regehr, Paul Gaustad and cheapshot artist Patrick Kaleta (he's the biggest cheapshot artist in the Eastern Conference behind Matt Cooke). I doubt Kaleta would fight but he will most likely try and lay out some Bruins so they have to keep their heads up when this idiot is on the ice. Speaking of which, Kaleta was fined today for high-sticking ex-Bruin Phoenix defenseman Derek Morris during Saturday's game. The refs should be watching him closely.

Bruins dominate Islanders, win 8th straight

2011-11-20T05:00:00.000-05:00

Boston Bruins' Patrice Bergeron (37) shoots the puck past New York Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro (39) to score in the first period of an NHL hockey game on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011, in Uniondale, N.Y. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

The Bruins have now won 8 straight games since their back-to-back losses to Montreal, who they play next by the way, by beating the New York Islanders Saturday night 6-0 in a strong all-around performance. This was just a complete solid game by the Bruins. Here's the scoring summary.

In the first period, Patrice Bergeron scored his 4th goal of the season from a beautiful pass from Tyler Seguin. Later, Nathan Horton scored his 6th goal of the season, a power-play goal, on a strong wrist shot. Chris Kelly would score later, his 6th goal of the season to make it 3-0 Bruins.

In the second period, no scoring happened.

In the third period, Andrew Ference scored his 1st goal of the season to make it 4-0. Later, Chris Kelly scored his 2nd goal of the game, his 7th goal of the season, making it 5-0. Zdeno Chara would finish the scoring by scoring his 2nd goal of the season making it 6-0. Another six goal game for the Bruins and another win.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 30-23 and faceoff wins 42-26. The Islanders led the game in hits 28-18 and blocked shots 18-14. The Bruins went 1 for 4 on the power-play while the Islanders went 0 for 1.

With Johnny Boychuk back in the lineup, Steven Kampfer was a scratch.

Tim Thomas played in net and made some big saves when the Bruins needed him to. Thomas got his 2nd shutout of the season and is now 8-4 with a 1.92 GAA and a .932 save percentage this season.

Chris Kelly finished the game with 2 goals and 1 assist, +3 with 4 shots.

Joe Corvo was +4 and had 1 assist.

Gregory Campbell had a strong night in the faceoff circle going 12-2.

Brad Marchand had 2 assists and was +2.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 11-7 this season and in 3rd place in the Northeast Division. The Bruins next game is on Monday at Montreal at 7:30pm ET on Versus.

Bruins win 7th straight, beat Columbus in shootout

2011-11-18T00:28:00.000-05:00

Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask blocks a shot by Columbus Blue Jackets center Antoine Vermette during the shootout of an NHL hockey game in Boston, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011. The Bruins beat the Blue Jackets 2-1. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

The Bruins were lucky to get two points out of Thursday's game against the Columbus Blue Jackets as they did not look like they were into the game much and played really sloppy. But Tuukka Rask was the Bruins best player and played great to keep the Bruins in the game and eventually won it in the shootout. Andrew Ference returned to the Bruins lineup as Johnny Boychuk was scratched due to having flu-like symptoms. Daniel Paille also returned to the Bruins lineup, wearing a full cage, as Jordan Caron was the healthy scratch.

Here's the scoring summary.

In the first period, no scoring happened.

In the second period, Derek MacKenzie scored a power-play goal to give Columbus a 1-0 lead. Less than two minutes later, Adam McQuaid scored his 1st goal of the season to tie the game. In the period, Shawn Thornton dropped the gloves with Jared Boll and they had a good spirited bout. I would give it a draw. Thornton looked to have some red marks on his face after the fight. Thornton also looked really pissed off after the fight as if Boll broke the code in some way, maybe a late punch or something, but I didn't see anything unusual when watching. I'll have to take another look at it.

Update: Joe Haggerty via Twitter says "Shawn Thornton told me Jared Boll popped him twice with punches after the refs tried to break things up. That's what set him off afterward" Source

In the third period, no scoring happened. Benoit Pouliot did take a dumb roughing penalty in the period.

In overtime, both teams had a power-play but no one scored.

In the shootout, Tyler Seguin didn't score, Rick Nash didn't score, Rich Peverley scored, Mark Letestu scored, David Krejci scored and Antoine Vermette didn't score. Bruins win 2-1.

Game notes
The Blue Jackets led the game in shots 31-27, faceoff wins 30-24, hits 22-17 and blocked shots 18-13.

Tuukka Rask made 30 saves on 31 shots and is now 3-3 with a 2.32 GAA and a .919 save percentage.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 10-7 with 20 points and 4th in the Northeast Division. The Bruins next game is on Saturday at the New York Islanders at 7pm ET.

Zdeno Chara will not face charges

2011-11-17T20:44:00.000-05:00

This will finally be put to rest. Zdeno Chara will not face any criminal charges for his hit last season on Montreal's Max Pacioretty.

QUEBEC CITY (AP)-Quebec's prosecutor says Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara won't face criminal charges for his hit on Montreal Canadiens’ forward Max Pacioretty last spring.

Pacioretty broke a vertebra and was out for the season after being shoved into a stanchion by Boston's 6-foot-9 defenseman in March.

The provincial prosecutors' office said in a statement Thursday that it does not believe a court would find Chara guilty of a crime and it has closed the case.
Source

Bruins hold off Devils, win 6th straight game

2011-11-15T23:50:00.000-05:00

Boston Bruins left wing Brad Marchand, center, celebrates his goal against the New Jersey Devils with defenseman Zdeno Chara (33), of Slovakia, and center Patrice Bergeron, right, in the third period of an NHL hockey game in Boston, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011. The Bruins won 4-3. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

The New Jersey Devils brought it tonight against the Bruins and Johan Hedberg had a great game but the Bruins were last to score and managed to keep the lead at the end of the game to win 4-3. Tim Thomas was in net for the Bruins and played well himself.

In the first period, no scoring happened.

In the second period, Brad Marchand took a bad dumb roughing penalty and with the Devils on the power-play, David Clarkson scored to give the Devils a 1-0 lead. Marchand would find himself on the bench for the rest of the period. Later in the period, Chris Kelly would capitalize on a Hedberg puck handling mistake as Gregory Campbell chipped the puck out in front of the net while Hedberg was out of the net and Kelly came rushing in to put the puck in the back of the net to tie the game. That was Kelly's 5th goal of the season.

At the start of the third period, the Bruins had a set play that worked beautifully, as it did in Toronto with Milan Lucic-Zdeno Chara. The Bruins won the faceoff, Zdeno Chara got the puck and sent Brad Marchand in on a breakaway and Marchand would bury it behind Hedberg to make it 2-1. That was Marchand's 6th goal of the season. Palmieri for the Devils tied the game up 2-2. Shawn Thornton would score his 1st goal of the season to give the Bruins the 3-2 lead. What a great play by Gregory Campbell and Jordan Caron to make that goal happen. Palmieri would score again to tie the game 3-3. Later, Benoit Pouliot scored his 2nd goal of the season to make it 4-3. The Bruins would hold on and win the game.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 37-30, faceoff wins 41-25 and hits 30-25. The Devils led the game in blocked shots 13-10.

Tim Thomas played in net and made 27 saves on 30 shots. Thomas is now 7-4 with a 2.09 GAA and a .927 save percentage.

Patrice Bergeron had another great game in the faceoff circle going 24-9.

Gregory Campbell had 2 assists and was +2.

Tyler Seguin's point streak ended tonight. He was +1 with 1 shot.

Brad Marchand led the Bruins in hits with 5.

Andrew Ference was again out of the lineup and Steven Kampfer played.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 9-7 this season with 18 points, which is still 4th place in the Northeast Division. The Bruins next game is on Thursday taking on the league worst Columbus Blue Jackets at 7pm ET.

Claude Julien glad no suspension for Lucic

2011-11-15T14:07:00.000-05:00

Ok it's time to move on from the whole Lucic-Miller drama. Here are some quotes about the non-suspension from Claude Julien.

"From our end of it, we were convinced it wasn't deliberate," Claude Julien said. "We were hoping that was the decision that was going to be taken, and it was."

"I don't think they should be hit. Absolutely not," Julien said. "But there's a difference between a hit and a collision. That's always going to be a gray area in people's minds. Some people are going to call it a hit. Some people are going to call it a collision. As far as I'm concerned as a coach, I'll abide by any rule they want to put in there. If they say you can't touch him at all, you can't touch him at all. If they keep the rule the way it is, let's keep the rule the way it is. I know for a fact if Milan had intended on hitting him, he would have never got up. We know how hard he hits. That speaks for itself."
Source

Yesterday Brendan Shanahan also reacted to Buffalo's complaining about the non-suspension and comments that it's open season on goalies now.

"I think Buffalo's comments are irresponsible to suggest that it's open season," Shanahan said at the Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony. "I will have this warning for players: 'It's not. If you run a goalie you're going to find yourself in the same situation that Lucic was today, you're going to have to explain yourself and you don't explain it sufficiently, and if I don't buy it, you're going to be suspended.'"
Source

Jack Edwards talking about possible revenge on November 23rd.

Update: Not surprised but interesting to see Ryan Miller admitted that they announced his concussion to try and get Milan Lucic suspended.

Miller revealed that he and the team went ahead with announcing he had a concussion in a bid to make a case that Lucic should be suspended.
Source

Lucic not suspended for hit on Miller

2011-11-14T15:45:00.000-05:00

Word came today that Bruins Milan Lucic will not be suspended for his collision with Sabres goalie Ryan Miller due to lack of intent. If you haven't seen the hit yet, you can watch it in our last post.

Shanahan held a hearing with Lucic via conference call because he had specific questions he wanted to ask before making a determination on potential supplemental discipline.

"I had the hearing because I did make an initial assessment of the play as I do with all plays, but I did have some questions for Milan and I wanted to hear directly from him," Shanahan told NHL.com. "They were regarding his intent; at what point did he know there was going to be a collision; and whether or not he felt he had the time to avoid the collision. I was satisfied with his answers."

Shanahan said the minor penalty for charging was the proper call in this case because it follows Rule 42.1, which reads "a goalkeeper is not fair game just because he is outside the goal crease area."

"The minor penalty called on the ice was the correct call," Shanahan said. "And, while it's unfortunate that Miller was hurt I saw nothing egregious about this hit that would elevate it to supplemental discipline."
Source

Earlier today Lucic talked with the media before the hearing:

"(The hearing) is something I have to go through and just state my case and whatever happens, happens. It's out of my control," said Lucic. "It's exactly the same thing I said after the game. I blocked a shot and pushed the puck a little too far ahead of me and I skated after the puck as fast as I possibly could. I looked up and he was still in his net. I looked down at the puck and was continuing on and the next thing I knew, I looked up and he’s coming out full speed at me. Obviously it was a hard collision and I did everything I could just to brace myself. Like he said, I have 50 pounds on him and that’s why maybe he got the worst of it. Even if you look at the video, I was cringing after the play, too, because I was winded and because it was such a hard collision. And he got a good piece of me as well."

...

"I've looked at the hit 100 times and they said that he got a concussion. His shoulder hit my chest, so there was no hit to his head. His helmet came flying off but his head didn't hit the ice. And later in the period, someone lifted (Tyler Seguin's) stick and threw him into the net as well, so who knows what it was. It's obviously unfortunate that he got hurt on the play," said Lucic.

"Was I surprised? Yeah. Because with the new protocol and the concussion stuff, I know the last three NHLPA meetings that I've been a part of and their clarifying of concussions and head injuries, the main thing that they've talked about is there's no such thing as getting your bell rung or seeing stars anymore. That's considered a concussion and if you're in that position, you have to do whatever you can do to take yourself out of play. Obviously, Ryan plays a big in the NHLPA and I respect what he does there. That’s pretty much it."

Coach Claude Julien said he saw the play the way Lucic did and added that it's not the first time an unfortunate soul got in front of the determined, though not exactly agile, skater.

"It certainly wasn't our plan to run him over, and for what it's worth, Looch has done the same thing to one of our coaches last year," said Julien. "He buries his head when he chases a puck and when he lifts it up, somebody's there. Last year it was a coach, this year it was Miller."...
Source

In other Bruins news, Tyler Seguin has been named the NHL's First Star of the Week, for the week ending November 13th. In 3 games during the week, Seguin had 4 goals, 2 assists and was +4.

Bruins smack around Miller, beat Sabres 6-2

2011-11-13T23:56:00.000-05:00

I was away Saturday so I'm late with this post but here we go. Saturday night the Bruins beat the Buffalo Sabres 6-2 and all the talk after has been about the Milan Lucic collision with Sabres goalie Ryan Miller. First let's get to the game summary.

In the first period, Bruins killer Thomas Vanek scored to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead. That was all of the scoring in the period, but we did have some rough stuff. Milan Lucic passed the puck to himself to far ahead to catch up to it and Ryan Miller went out of his net to the defensive zone faceoff dot and Lucic collided into him sending Miller down to the ice on his butt. Miller swung his stick at Lucic trying to slash him but failed. Everyone joined in a scrum but there was nothing to come of it. No one did squat to Lucic, including Paul Gaustad or the 6'8" Tyler Myers. Lucic and Miller exchanged some words after the scrum as Lucic headed to the penalty box. Yes Lucic did not try to get out of the way and with Miller way out of the net and Lucic skating hard he couldn't stop in time. It was a shoulder on shoulder hit and not a hit to the head. A few minutes later in the game Robyn Regehr had a chance to go with Lucic as they exchanged shoves but he wanted nothing to do with Lucic. This whole Sabres not sticking up for a fallen teammate reminds me of the soft Bruins back in 2007 when Sabres Adam Mair took out David Krejci with a cheap high hit which gave Krejci a concussion. Karma anyone?

Milan Lucic collides with Ryan Miller

In the second period, Rich Peverley scored his 4th goal of the season to make it 1-1. Later, Tyler Seguin scored his 10th goal of the season to make it 2-1. 16 seconds later Nathan Horton scored his 5th goal of the season to make it 3-1.

In the third period, Jhonas Enroth started in net for the Sabres. Chris Kelly scored his 4th goal of the season to make it 4-1. Tyler Seguin scored his 11th goal of the season, his 2nd of the game, to make it 5-1. Later, Brad Marchand scored his 5th goal of the season to make it 6-1. Later, Marc-Andre Gragnani scored a power-play goal for the Sabres making it 6-2.

With the game out of reach, Sabres moron Patrick Kaleta then decides to run around and try for big hits. Referees gave both Kaleta and Shawn Thornton 2 and 10-minute penalties to make sure they were off the ice for the rest of the game.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 35-23, faceoff wins 44-25 and hits 26-14. The Sabres led the game in blocked shots 14-11.

Tim Thomas played in net and made 21 saves on 23 shots. Thomas is now 6-4 with a 2.00 GAA and a .930 save percentage this season.

Patrice Bergeron finished the game with 1 assist, +3, going 16-4 in faceoffs.

Brad Marchand finished the game with 1 goal and 2 assists and was +3.

Tyler Seguin finished the game with 2 goals and 1 assist and was +3.

Andrew Ference did not play and Steven Kampfer took his place in the lineup. Pouliot was out and Hamill was in. Hamill was sent down to Providence (AHL) on Sunday.

Ryan Miller cries to media, wants his tires pumped, Shanny obliges
Sabres goalie Ryan Miller wasn't happy after the game and made sure to talk with the media and had some comments about Milan Lucic and the collision.

Ryan Miller on the collision with Milan Lucic:

"I just stuck around because I just wanted to say what a piece of [expletive] I think Lucic is," said Miller. "Fifty pounds on me, and he runs me like that? It's unbelievable. Everyone in this city sees him as a big, tough, solid player."

"I respected him for how hard he played. That was gutless. Gutless, piece of [expletive]."
Source

Here's the video with Ryan Miller saying the above comments

Miller wants Lucic to be the best skater in the world and stop on a dime. But in reality Lucic is not the best skater in the world or in hockey and braced himself for contact and collided with Miller. The Sabres are one of the teams in the NHL that dive a lot and watch Miller after he is hit. He swings his goalie stick at Lucic, doesn't hit him, then lays back and down onto the ice. Then he sits up and gets up quickly and exchanges words with Lucic. What's with the laying down on the ice?

Milan Lucic on the collision with Ryan Miller:

"Well I blocked a shot, and it's a race for the puck," said Lucic. "I just put my head down and tried to get to it first. Next thing I looked up, he was out of his net and it was a collision."

"Obviously, going into the situation like that, I'm gonna brace myself. I was going full speed so it's pretty hard for me to put on the breaks."
Source

With Miller complaining and crying to the media, and the Sabres announcing that Miller is out indefinitely with a concussion, well NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan is having a hearing with Lucic tomorrow at 1pm. Miller is not new to complaining to the media, he's getting to be an expert on it.

The Bruins and Sabres next play each other November 23rd in Buffalo and some are already saying Buffalo will try and get some revenge in that game. The only guy you have to watch out for on Buffalo is Kaleta as he likes taking cheap shots at anyone.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 8-7 this season and still in 4th place in the Northeast Division. The Bruins next game is on Tuesday, hosting the New Jersey Devils at 7pm ET.

Hot Bruins beat hot Oilers 6-3

2011-11-11T00:33:00.000-05:00

Thursday night the Bruins beat the young hot Edmonton Oilers 6-3 and are now on a 4-game winning streak. Tuukka Rask played in net, his first back-to-back action of the season and got his 2nd win of the season. Rich Peverley again did not play and Zach Hamill got into the game and played well as he finished +2 with 1 assist and had 2 shots. Hamill played on a line with Chris Kelly and Jordan Caron.

Here's the scoring summary:

In the first period, Edmonton native Johnny Boychuk scored his 2nd goal of the season to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. 1:44 later Jordan Caron scored his 1st goal of the season, from a nice pass from Zach Hamill. The Oilers would score twice to tie the game 2-2.

In the second period, Brad Marchand scored his 3rd goal of the season. It was a power-play goal. Later Tyler Seguin scored his 9th goal of the season off a weird bounce to make it 4-2.

In the third period, Oilers Ryan Smyth scored his 2nd goal of the game to make it 4-3. Milan Lucic scored his 8th goal of the season, a power-play goal making it 5-3. Nice pass from Joe Corvo to Lucic for that goal. 44 seconds later, Marchand scored his 2nd goal of the game and 4th goal of the season making it 6-3 with a nice hard wrist shot that beat Devan Dubnyk.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in faceoff wins 34-25 and blocked shots 13-12. The Oilers led the game in shots 30-28 and hits 17-15. The Bruins went 2-for-5 on the power-play while the Oilers went 1-for-5.

Tuukka Rask made 27 saves on 30 shots and is now 2-3 with a 2.63 GAA and a .908 save percentage.

Defenseman Andrew Ference only played 9:22 in the game as he left in the second period and did not return. After the game Claude Julien said it's a lower-body injury.

"Only that it's a lower-body injury right now," Julien said. "I don't know the severity of it, so that's all I can give you."
Source

Johnny Boychuk led the Bruins with 5 blocked shots.

Milan Lucic led the Bruins with 3 hits.

Joe Corvo finished the game with 3 assists, was +1 and had 1 shot.

Nathan Horton finished the game with 2 assists.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 7-7 this season, in 4th place in the Northeast Division ahead of Montreal (both are tied with 14 points but Montreal has played 1 more game). The Bruins next game is on Saturday taking on the Buffalo Sabres at 7pm ET in Boston.

Bruins recall Zach Hamill

2011-11-10T14:43:00.001-05:00

Last night Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli announced that the Bruins have recalled forward Zach Hamill from Providence (AHL) o an emergency basis.

So Hamill may play in tonight's game against the Edmonton Oilers if Rich Peverley can't play or instead of playing Benoit Pouliot.

Through 14 AHL games this season, Hamill leads the P-Bruins in goals (5), points (10) and plus/minus (+2) and is second on the team in assists (5). Last season, Hamill spent the majority of the year in Providence and finished second on the team in scoring with 9-34=43 totals. He was recalled once to Boston from February 3 – 13, 2011 and tallied one assist in three NHL games.

Hamill has skated in four career NHL games with 0-2=2 totals. He made his NHL debut on April 11, 2010 against Washington and recorded his first career NHL assist/point in that game.

He was originally drafted by the Bruins in the first round (8th overall) of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.
Source

Daniel Paille injury update

2011-11-09T11:27:00.005-05:00

Yesterday Boston Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli had some news about Daniel Paille's injury:

"Daniel Paille has been diagnosed with a broken nose and facial lacerations after the injury he sustained in our game Monday night. He will undergo surgery on Wednesday, November 9 at Mass General Hospital in Boston to repair the injury. Dr. Thomas Dodson will conduct the procedure. Following the surgery, he is expected to be listed as day-to-day."
Source

Bruins get quick goals, beat Isles 6-2

2011-11-08T02:02:00.002-05:00

BOSTON, MA - NOVEMBER 07: Tuukka Rask #40 of the Boston Bruins stops a shot in the first period against the New York Islanders on November 7, 2011 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Tuukka Rask played in net against the New York Islanders and finally got some goal support as the Bruins beat the Islanders Monday night 6-2. With Rich Peverley out of the lineup with a minor undisclosed injury, Benoit Pouliot came in the lineup and played on the 3rd line. Pouliot managed to score a goal, really a freebie, but he didn't play well, and was benched for some time as he only got 8:39 of ice time. Pierre McGuire on Versus also pointed out one of Pouliot's defensive lapses and I don't remember seeing him on the ice after that. The first line of David Krejci-Milan Lucic-Nathan Horton looks to be returning to form as they combined for 8 points total.

Here's the game's scoring summary:

In the first period, Benoit Pouliot scored his 1st goal of the season to make it 1-0. Jordan Caron threw the puck at the net into Evgeni Nabokov's feet and Nabokov looked like he was trying to find the puck in his feet and Pouliot jammed the puck into the net. After the goal, Adam McQuaid squared off with Matt Martin in a spirited fight. After the fight McQuaid had a cut on his chin with some blood. It was good to see McQuaid drop the gloves and he looks like he is fully back. That fight gave the Islanders energy as later Matt Moulson would tie the game 1-1. Later in the period with the Bruins on the power-play, Nathan Horton picked up a rebound to the right of Nabokov and moved near the slot area and fired the puck past Nabokov to make it 2-1 Bruins. It was Horton's 3rd goal of the season. 29 seconds later Tyler Seguin scored his 8th goal of the season from a beautiful pass from Patrice Bergeron making it a 3-1 Bruins lead. Nabokov was pulled after the goal and Al Montoya came in to play in net. Michael Grabner would later score to make it a 3-2 game.

In the second period, no scoring happened. Montoya made some big saves in the period though.

In the third period, Milan Lucic scored his 7th goal of the season making it 4-2. 49 seconds later, Horton scored his 4th goal of the season and 2nd goal of the game making it 5-2. With less than three minutes in the game, the Islanders had pulled their goalie and David Krejci scored his 3rd goal of the season, an empty net goal to end the scoring.

Game notes
Scary moment in the third period as Daniel Paille took a puck in the face from a Steve Staios slap shot. Paille would go down and was hurt as blood was seen on the ice. He was able to get up and go to the dressing room. Bruins coach Claude Julien on Paille's condition:

“He’s going to be seen by a specialist tonight,” Julien said. Obviously a puck hit him in the face, and in the nose area. We’ll probably know more tomorrow, once he’s seen by a specialist.”
Source

Another scary moment in the third period as Milan Lucic took a skate to his neck of the player he tripped up and luckily it only resulted in a small cut. Lucic was bleeding but he continued to play.

Congrats to Chris Kelly as he played in his 500th career NHL game Monday.

The Bruins led the game in shots 36-26, faceoff wins 29-20 and blocked shots 12-8. The Islanders led the game in hits 17-16. The Bruins went 1 for 1 on the power-play while the Islanders went 0 for 4.

Tuukka Rask made 24 saves on 26 shots and is now 1-3 with a 2.53 GAA and a .910 save percentage this season.

Nathan Horton finished the game with 2 goals and 1 assist, +1 and had 2 shots.

David Krejci finished the game with 1 goal and 2 assists, was +1 and had 4 shots.

Milan Lucic finished the game with 1 goal and 1 assist, was +1 and had 2 shots.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 6-7 with 12 points taking them out of last place in the Eastern Conference but still last in the Northeast Division. The Bruins next game is on Thursday hosting the hot Edmonton Oilers at 7pm ET. I'm sure the media will be coming up with all kinds of Tyler Seguin vs Taylor Hall stories until the game.

Bruins spank Leafs, Seguin nets hat trick

2011-11-05T23:39:00.000-04:00

Boston Bruins centre Tyler Seguin celebrates his third goal for a hat trick with teammate Joe Corvo during second-period NHL hockey game action against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto, Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn)

What a game tonight by the Bruins as they spanked the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-0. The Leafs looked like they didn't have much emotion or anything in this game, somewhat like the Bruins earlier in the season. Tyler Seguin netted his first career NHL hat trick scoring 3 goals. Thank you Kessel! Speaking of Kessel, he finished the game -1 with 2 shots on net. Tim Thomas played in net for the Bruins and got his first shutout of the season. Here's the scoring summary of the game.

In the first period, Tyler Seguin scored his 5th goal of the season, a power-play goal, from a sweet pass across the ice from Rich Peverley which Seguin one-timed into the net past rookie goalie Ben Scrivens.

In the second period, Seguin scored his 6th goal of the season only 34 seconds into the period as he hit a deflected pass from Patrice Bergeron out of mid-air and into the net. 8 seconds later Milan Lucic scored his 5th goal of the season to make it 3-0. Later in the period Seguin scored his 7th goal of the season, giving him his first hat trick and made it 4-0. 14 seconds later David Krejci scored his 2nd goal of the season to make it 5-0.

In the third period, Lucic scored his 6th goal of the season to make it 6-0. 28 seconds later Gregory Campbell scored his 1st goal of the season, as Shawn Thornton shot the puck at the net and it went off of Campbell and into the net. In the late part of the game Dion Phaneuf finally awoke and laid out Chris Kelly with a big clean hit. Both Campbell and Thornton challenged him a few shifts later but he would back down and made sure to stay away and finish the game -3. The game would end 7-0.

Game notes
The Leafs led the game in shots 25-20, faceoff wins 29-24, hits 26-23 and blocked shots 24-21.

The Bruins went 1 for 2 on the power-play while the Leafs went 0 for 4.

Tim Thomas made 25 saves and got his first shutout of the season. Thomas is now 5-4 with a 2.00 GAA and a .931 save percentage.

Patrice Bergeron had 3 assists and was +3.

Zdeno Chara had 2 assists and was +2.

David Krejci had 1 goal, 2 assists and was +3.

Milan Lucic had 2 goals, 1 assist and was +3.

Tyler Seguin had 3 goals, was +2, 3 shots and 1 hit.

Funny how Jay Rosehill had chances all game to drop the gloves with Shawn Thornton to spark some life into his team but he tried to get at Jordan Caron late in the game. Lame just like the Leafs performance.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 5-7 (10 points) this season and still in last place in the division but they look much better and they start a 5-game home stand on Monday, taking on the New York Islanders.

Nathan Horton doesn't feel 100 percent

2011-11-03T01:08:00.000-04:00

Bruins Nathan Horton talked with the media yesterday answering questions about his play and how he feels out there on the ice. Make sure to check out the entire blog post on WEEI.com.

“I’m still trying to get my game back,” Horton said. “I obviously don’t feel 100 percent out there. I’m not myself, you know? I’m just trying to get that back. Last game, I thought we played better. Hopefully we can build off it.”

Asked specifically whether he was dealing with anything physical, Horton replied, “No, no.”

“Obviously I just need to get my timing and stuff,” he said. “I still don’t feel like I’m myself out there. Like, I’m fine, but I just need to be better obviously. That’s it. I just need to be better.”

...

On whether he thinks about his concussion when he plays:

“I’m only human. I do think of it. I think anybody else, anybody would that was in my situation. It’s not easy, obviously, but again, I’m still trying. I want to be better, and I think that’s what matters.”

On opening up about his concussion:

“Whenever it’s brought up, I try to forget about it. I definitely want to move on, and it seems like it’s just kind of dragging on. People keep asking about it, so I’m going to talk about it, but obviously I don’t want to talk about it. I want to forget about it, and that’s it. I feel fine. Now I just want to be better.”

On avoiding the media:

“I’m not giving an excuse or anything. I’m just saying obviously I want to be better and that’s it. I just think I haven’t been around. I don’t know.”

On whether he is dealing with a lack of motivation:

“I actually feel like I’m trying. I’m backchecking. I think it’s all about when I get the puck, or when I don’t have the puck, I’m just thinking too much. When you think too much, it doesn’t go the way you want it too. When you’re not thinking too much, it just falls into place, and good things happen. Definitely, that’s what I want to get back to here.”
Source

Report: Chris Clark to report to Providence Bruins

2011-11-02T12:52:00.002-04:00

Fluto Shinzawa over at the Bruins Blog posted that veteran Chris Clark, who tried out with the Boston Bruins during training camp, has signed a professional tryout agreement (PTO) with the Bruins and will report to Providence (AHL).

Clark will most likely play a few games in Providence, getting his legs and timing back and then maybe brought up by the Bruins. Jordan Caron and Benoit Pouliot haven't done much in the games they've played. Caron has shown more, in my opinion, than Pouliot has, and Caron also hasn't taken any dumb penalties. Clark is a hard-nosed veteran that can provide grit and experience. It's good to see him back with the Bruins.

Tim Thomas Discover commercial

2011-11-02T02:24:00.002-04:00

Tim Thomas is in a new Discover "Peggy" commercial. Check it out below.

Bruins find their game, beat Sens 5-3

2011-11-01T23:46:00.001-04:00

Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara (33) of Slovakia celebrates with goalie Tim Thomas (30), as Tyler Seguin (19)and Brad Marchand (63) look on, after their 5-3 win over the Ottawa Senators in an NHL hockey game in Boston Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011. The Bruins ended a three-game losing streak with the victory. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Tonight the Bruins played their best hockey of the season and beat the Ottawa Senators, who weren't playing too bad lately but they showed they're a young team that is rebuilding.

Ottawa scored the first goal of the game as it looked to go off of Adam McQuaid and into the net. Off the ensuing faceoff after the goal, Shawn Thornton challenged Zenon Konopka and they dropped the gloves and had an even fight. Boston would answer a little less than two minutes later with Milan Lucic scoring his 4th goal of the season, a power-play goal. Chara shot the puck at the net which produced a rebound and Lucic put the rebound up and over a sprawling Craig Anderson to tie the game. But Ottawa came right back, scoring sixteen seconds later to make it 2-1 Senators.

In the second period, Patrice Bergeron scored his 3rd goal of the season to tie the game 2-2. Later in the period, Chris Kelly scored his 3rd goal of the season to make it 3-2 Bruins.

In the third period, Jared Cowen scored his first NHL goal to tie the game up 3-3, as a screened Tim Thomas had no chance. Less than two minutes later, Johnny Boychuk scored his 1st goal of the season to make it 4-3 Bruins. 37 seconds later Daniel Paille scored on a breakaway, his 2nd goal of the season, from a nice chip pass from Shawn Thornton, to put the Bruins up 5-3. Yes Paille actually scored on a breakaway. Gregory Campbell got into a fight with Zack Smith and Smith looked to have the edge in that one. The Bruins held on and ended their winless streak.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 41-26 and faceoff wins 34-31. The Senators led the game in hits 16-15 and blocked shots 16-10.

The Bruins went 1 for 5 on the power-play while the Senators went 0 for 3.

Tim Thomas made 23 saves on 26 shots. Thomas is now 4-4 with a 2.25 GAA and a .924 save percentage.

Zdeno Chara had a big game, besides laying out players everywhere, had 2 assists, was +2, had 5 shots and 4 hits.

Chris Kelly had a goal and an assist.

Rich Peverley had 2 assists.

Dennis Seidenberg was -2 and is now a team-worst -6 so far this season (tied with Joe Corvo and David Krejci).

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 4-7 this season and sitting in last place in the division and tied for last place in the conference with the New York Islanders with 8 points (Bruins have played 2 more games than the Islanders). The Bruins next game is on Saturday at the Toronto Maple Leafs, a 7pm ET game. It's another long layoff for the Bruins, hopefully they don't lose this momentum they have going after tonight's win.

Bruins lose another game to Montreal

2011-10-29T23:58:00.000-04:00

In the second game of a home-and-home with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal beat the Bruins again, this time the final score was 4-2. The Bruins had spurts where they played with energy and played smart, mainly in the third period, but there were other times where they just let Montreal control the play and took dumb penalties. Yea there were some weak calls on the Bruins but they also took some dumb ones, referring to Milan Lucic, Nathan Horton and Andrew Ference. Again Tuukka Rask got no support in front of him and still remains winless this season as the Bruins remain in last place in the Northeast Division. Even the awful Ottawa Senators have more points than the Bruins. This may be a long season if the Bruins don't wake up soon. Here's the scoring summary of the game.

In the first period, Montreal scored twice, one of them being a power-play goal.

In the second period, Montreal scored another power-play goal making it 3-0. Later Milan Lucic scored his 3rd goal of the season to make it 3-1. Shawn Thornton got into a fight with Travis Moen but not much happened in the fight as both guys didn't really land anything. Moen made sure to get Thornton's jersey over his head so the linesmen could break it up quick.

In the third period, with Tuukka Rask pulled, Tyler Seguin scored his team-leading 4th goal of the season with 55 seconds left in the game to make it 3-2. Tomas Plekanec would seal the game as he scored an empty net goal to make it 4-2.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 28-26 and hits 27-19. Montreal led the game in faceoff wins 30-26 and blocked shots 29-12. Montreal went 2 for 5 on the power-play while the Bruins went 0 for 1.

Tuukka Rask made 23 saves on 26 shots. Rask is now 0-3 with a 2.71 GAA and a .906 save percentage.

Patrice Bergeron led the Bruins in shots with 5 and in hits with 5.

Dennis Seidenberg led the Bruins in blocked shots with 4.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 3-7 this season with 6 points and are in last place in the Northeast Division. The Bruins next game is on Tuesday, November 1st against the Ottawa Senators in Boston. If the Bruins lose against Ottawa on Tuesday, well then all hell may break loose.

Report: Tyler Seguin has congenital hip condition

2011-10-29T01:39:00.002-04:00

There's a report out on Friday saying that Boston Bruins forward Tyler Seguin has a congenital hip condition that makes him more suspect to a injury. Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli would not say much but said there are other Bruins players who have the same condition or something similar.

The condition could lead to an injury that requires surgery and potentially shorten his career, the sources said, but is not a concern for the short-term, nor is it affecting him presently.

The condition increases the likelihood that the 19-year-old Seguin suffers a type of repetitive-stress degenerative hip injury if he isn't proactive about building and maintaining his strength in that area.

"The worst-case scenario is they start to develop recurring symptoms consistent of a groin pull, hip flexor strains, difficulty getting their hips in certain positions, reduced rotation, increase in pain and reduced levels of performance," renown hip expert and surgeon Dr. Bryan Kelly, who has not examined Seguin, said in describing a worst-case scenario for a hockey player who is battling a congenital hip condition.

...

"I'm not going to comment whether it's congenital or not," Chiarelli said. "I don't want to get into details what we think it is or isn't and I don't want any alarm bells going off. Like I said, you can go through our roster and there are probably 12 or 13 guys with something similar or the same thing."

"I'm not going to comment on any of our players' medical conditions that aren't really an issue," added Chiarelli. "We have guys with sore ankles and they play through it, so it's not something I'm going to comment on."

When asked whether he was concerned about Seguin's hip, Chiarelli was clear.

"No, I'm not," he said.

...

Seguin would not confirm the exact nature of his congenital hip condition -- "I don't think I've really said anything to the media about a hip or anything," he said recently. "I don't have anything to say about that" -- but acknowledged he knows he needs to keep up his work in strengthening the area to avoid problems down the road.
Source

Flat Bruins lose to Montreal 2-1

2011-10-27T23:16:00.000-04:00

Boston Bruins left wing Shawn Thornton, right, checks Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban in the third period of an NHL hockey game in Boston,Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

With a game built up by so many members of the media, mainly talking about Max Pacioretty's first game against Zdeno Chara and the Boston Bruins since he was injured last season from the Chara hit, this game was a total letdown. The Bruins took the play to Montreal in the first period, controlling the play but Carey Price made some great saves to keep Montreal in the game. After the first period it was all downhill for the Bruins as they looked slow, tired and without energy. I'm not sure how that happens when you haven't played a game since Saturday. The only Bruins players who played with some emotion and energy was Shawn Thornton, Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, Rich Peverley, Tyler Seguin, Tim Thomas and at times Milan Lucic. Zdeno Chara looked lost out there and afraid to hit anyone and have Montreal call the cops. He looked awful out there on the ice. The crowd wasn't into the game at all either, except during and after the Marchand-Subban fight.

In the first period, Patrice Bergeron was credited with his 2nd goal of the season, as Tomas Plekanec won the faceoff in the Montreal end and the puck went through Carey Price's legs and into the net. It was a power-play goal.

In the second period, Erik Cole scored to tie the game for Montreal. It always seems Cole scores when he plays against the Bruins. Also in the second period, Brad Marchand and P.K. Subban tried to fight each other twice but the linesmen kept breaking them up, so the third time they came out of the penalty box and dropped the gloves and the linesmen finally let them go. It was a spirited fight with not many punches landing and lots of ducking by Marchand to avoid Subban's wild rights. Looks like Subban finally learned how to keep his balance during fights.

P.K. Subban vs Brad Marchand

In the third period, Tomas Plekanec scored to make it 2-1.

Some Claude Julien quotes after the game

"Our team is not playing the way it should be or can (play) over the 60 minutes...the execution is not there."

"The inability to focus for 60 minutes is pretty obvious and apparent. You're either focused or you're not...if I had the answer, trust me, I'd correct it."
Source

Game notes
Montreal led the game in shots 35-30, hits 18-17 and blocked shots 21-7. The Bruins led the game in faceoff wins 30-29.

The Bruins went 1 for 6 on the power-play. Montreal went 0 for 1 on the power-play.

Tim Thomas played in net and made 33 saves on 35 shots. Thomas is now 3-4 with a 2.14 GAA and a .929 save percentage.

Adam McQuaid returned to the lineup and was -2 in his 14:52 of ice time. Steven Kampfer was scratched.

Tyler Seguin, Rich Peverley and Johnny Boychuk led the Bruins in shots with 4 apiece.

Milan Lucic led the Bruins in hits with 4.

Onto the next one
This was an ugly sloppy game for the Bruins. The good news is that it was only 2-1 and they play Montreal again in two days. Bad news is that Montreal is feeling that they're out of their slump now and Saturday's game is going to be big. Yes, the Bruins next game is on Saturday against these same Montreal Canadiens at 7pm ET in Montreal. We all know it's going to be crazy up there in Montreal with the return of Zdeno Chara so the Bruins got to be ready and wake up.

Bruins recall Jordan Caron from AHL

2011-10-24T13:30:00.002-04:00

Today the Bruins announced that they have recalled forward Jordan Caron from Providence (AHL).

He will skate at the team’s practice on Monday, October 24 at 10:30 a.m. at Ristuccia Arena in Wilmington, MA.

Caron was assigned to Providence on Saturday, October 22 and played in the P-Bruins 3-2 loss to Albany on Sunday, October 23, registering one assist. Sunday’s game was Caron’s first appearance in Providence this year.
Source

Bruins send Jordan Caron down

2011-10-23T13:34:00.000-04:00

The Bruins have assigned forward Jordan Caron down to Providence (AHL). Caron hasn't played in the last few games and the Bruins don't play again until Thursday so sending Caron down is probably mainly to get him some playing time. Or it could be that the Bruins are sticking with Benoit Pouliot for that last open forward spot. Caron has played in 4 games and has 0 points, is -2 and had 2 shots.

Bruins outplay Sharks but lose 4-2

2011-10-22T23:34:00.001-04:00

San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton prepares to take a face-off against Boston Bruins center Gregory Campbell during the first period of their 4-2 win in a NHL hockey game in Boston, Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

The Sharks came out taking the play to the Bruins as they scored only 1:12 into the game. Pavelski scored for the Sharks to make it 1-0 with a great shot that got by goalie Tim Thomas. The Bruins had better chances in the first period but couldn't get one past Antti Niemi.

In the second period, Logan Couture scored to make it 2-0 Sharks. Again the Bruins seemed to have better chances but just couldn't get one past Niemi in the period. Shawn Thornton dropped the gloves with Jim Vandermeer and had a good fight with Thornton throwing most of the punches. Decision to Thornton.

In the third period, it broke more open as Milan Lucic scored his 2nd goal of the season to make it 2-1. Only 29 seconds later, Milan Lucic would set up Tyler Seguin for an easy goal as they went in on a 2-on-0 to tie up the game. That was Seguin's 3rd goal of the season. Later in the period, Benn Ferriero scored for the Sharks to make it 3-2. With a minute left in the game the Bruins pulled Thomas and with 5 seconds left Patrick Marleau scored on the empty net to put the game away 4-2.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 39-29, faceoffs won 34-25 and hits 22-16. The Sharks led the game in blocked shots 21-9.

The Bruins went 0 for 2 on the power-play while the Sharks went 0 for 1.

Tim Thomas played in net and made 26 saves on 29 shots. Thomas is now 3-3 with a 2.15 GAA and a .926 save percentage.

Patrice Bergeron, Joe Corvo and Tyler Seguin had 5 shots apiece to lead the Bruins.

Shawn Thornton led the Bruins in hits with 4.

David Krejci was -2 in the game.

Ex-Bruin Joe Thornton had an assist and was +1.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 3-5 this season. Next up for the Bruins is a home-and-home with the 1-5-1 struggling hated Montreal Canadiens. The Bruins host Montreal in Boston on Thursday at 7pm ET. Then on Saturday the Bruins go to Montreal at 7pm ET. It will be interesting to see Zdeno Chara and Max Pacioretty on the ice at the same time. Montreal fans may call the police again if Chara hits Pacioretty in any way. Montreal police department be ready!

Bruins power-play awakes, dominate Leafs

2011-10-20T22:51:00.002-04:00

BOSTON, MA - OCTOBER 20: Tim Thomas #30 of the Boston Bruins celebrates the win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on October 20, 2011 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Bruins defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-2. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

What a difference the way the Bruins played tonight compared to their meltdown against the Hurricanes. Tonight the Bruins changed up the forward lines and worked the power-play well going 2 for 5 in the game. David Krejci returned to the lineup which provided a boost and Steven Kampfer was inserted into the lineup. They were also able to shutdown Phil Kessel again. Kessel had 0 points, was -1 and had 1 shot on net. And we got to hear the "Thank you Kessel" chant which is priceless.

Less than two minutes into the game, Shawn Thornton dropped the gloves with tough guy Colton Orr in a good even fight which really got the crowd going. This was Orr's first fight since his fight against George Parros last season where he sustained a concussion and missed the rest of the season. The Leafs would score first as Dave Steckel scored to make it 1-0 Leafs. Later, on the power-play, off a faceoff, Andrew Ference retrieved the puck passed over to Zdeno Chara who took a big shot, Nathan Horton came in and got the rebound and put it past Jonas Gustavsson to tie the game 1-1. That was Horton's 2nd goal of the season. Less than six minutes later, the Bruins were on the power-play again, and Chara one-timed a Ference pass and put it up and by Gustavsson to make it 2-1 Bruins. What a shot that was by Chara as he scored his 1st goal of the season. Less than two minutes later, Chris Kelly scored his 2nd goal of the season as he stayed with the puck and on his third shot on the play he got it in the net to make it 3-1.

In the second period, no scoring happened.

In the third period, Milan Lucic scored his 1st goal of the season from a beautiful pass from Tyler Seguin, to make it 4-1. Later in the period, Patrice Bergeron scored his 1st goal of the season on a wrist shot that beat Gustavsson's glove side, to make it 5-1. Later Lucic returned the favor to Seguin with a sweet pass in the slot to Seguin who roofed the puck over Gustavsson's glove side to make it 6-1. That was Seguin's 2nd goal of the season. A little later the Bruins defense broke down and Mikhail Grabovski scored to make it 6-2. Grabovski had a lot of chances in the game and finally buried one of them.

Again in this game there were a lot of questionable penalties to both teams. The Bruins killed all three penalties they took.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 43-28 and faceoff wins 38-29. The Leafs led the game in hits 27-18 and blocked shots 20-19.

Tim Thomas played in net and made 26 saves on 28 shots. Thomas is now 3-2 with a 1.98 GAA and a .932 save percentage.

The Bruins had 4 players with 3 points apiece tonight. Zdeno Chara had 1 goal and 2 assists. Andrew Ference had 3 assists. Milan Lucic had 1 goal and 2 assists. Tyler Seguin had his first ever 3-point game, getting 1 goal and 2 assists.

Patrice Bergeron led the Bruins with 9 shots on net.

Andrew Ference led the Bruins with 4 blocked shots.

Gregory Campbell led the Bruins with 3 hits.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 3-4 this season. The Bruins next game is on Saturday against the struggling San Jose Sharks who are 1-3 this season. The game is at 7pm ET in Boston. Joe Thornton will be back in Boston. If you remember last season, Thornton had some comments about Boston and how the Bruins don't get disciplined.

Lucic and Horton face media

2011-10-20T16:37:00.005-04:00

Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton both did not face the media after the awful game on Tuesday night. Today they did and told why they didn't want to face the media after the loss against Carolina.

As the media circled around Horton, a clearly frustrated Lucic took time to explain himself as well and admitted that he didn’t want to face the media Tuesday night for fear his temper and frustration would cause him to say something stupid or that he may regret.

“Yeah, that was basically it and nothing more than that,” Lucic told ESPNBoston.com.

Lucic has scored only five goals in his past 40 games (including playoffs) since March 22, when he scored his 30th goal of 2010-11 season. Lucic, who hasn't lit the lamp in six games this season, acknowledged frustration has settled in, but was still willing to accept blame for his poor start this season. Lucic knows he isn’t doing what he needs to do to be the player he can be.

“It’s not fun when you’re not helping your team and not producing and I think that’s the frustrating point from my side,” Lucic said. “I think it’s not even about goals and assists right now. You just look at shots on net and I think I only have 12 or something like that, which is an average of two per game and that’s just the first part I should look at. I need to work harder to get myself more opportunities. Get shots and scoring opportunities. It all starts with moving my feet and it kind of feels watching video of my game that there’s a bit of hesitation in my game and I just need to look at that and completely get that out, getting back to that north-south type of game that I find success with.”

...

“I think having a little more confidence with the puck and wanting the puck and holding onto it,” Horton told ESPNBoston.com. “That’s how you make plays and that gets me more involved in the game.”

...

“I do obviously," Horton said when asked if regretted losing his cool at that point, "and I didn’t want to take a 4-minute penalty but when I got slashed from behind and I turned around, I thought he wanted to fight me.

"But again that was probably the wrong time to do it and out of frustration I did do it. If I could change it now, I would, but unfortunately I can’t and I really put my team in a hole.”

Horton's frustration was still seething after the game Tuesday night and, like Lucic, he chose not to let that cause him to say something he would regret.

“It was a frustrating night for a lot of people and I just wanted to turn page and forget about it,” Horton said. “I don’t want to be out there hurting my team like that, I just got to get back to playing the way I can and help my team.”
Source

Matt Bartkowski sent to AHL

2011-10-20T16:31:00.003-04:00

Today it was announced that defenseman Matt Bartkowski was sent down to Providence (AHL). Bartkowski played in 3 games this season, averaged 6:07 of ice time and was a -2. He definitely looked like he wasn't ready for the NHL, to me at least. This move means that Steven Kampfer should be ready to play tonight against the Leafs, while Adam McQuaid is still not 100%.

Bruins frustrated and lose control

2011-10-18T23:51:00.000-04:00

BOSTON, MA - OCTOBER 18: Nathan Horton #18 of the Boston Bruins and Tim Gleason #6 of the Carolina Hurricanes fight in the third period on October 18, 2011 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Boston Bruins 4-1. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

If you read this blog at all then you know I love the rough side of hockey, the hits and hockey fights. But what we watched tonight with the Bruins was frustration and it was very frustrating to watch them tonight. The refs didn't help either with some questionable calls but you can't blame them for the Bruins mistakes and the bad penalties they took. The frustration boiled over tonight and the Bruins took it out on the soft Hurricanes. The Canes would beat the Bruins 4-1 and the Bruins have a lot of work ahead of them.

In the first period, Anthony Stewart scored to make it 1-0 Canes.

In the second period, Joni Pitkanen scored to make it 2-0 Canes. With less than six minutes in the period, Nathan Horton and Jay Harrison were shoving and pushing each other in front of the Canes net. Zdeno Chara came flying in and instigated a fight with Harrison. He would be the only one to throw punches and he some good uppercuts in as Harrison hung on for dear life. After the fight, goalie Cam Ward skated over to Chara and had some words for him. You could see Chara say "huh?" and lean in to hear Ward, and then Chara had some words for him too. Then everyone was grabbing onto each other, Lucic grabbing two Canes players who wanted nothing to do with Lucic. If you see the replay watch Alexei Ponikarovsky. The guy is 6'4" and gets out of there as fast as possible and leaves a smaller Canes player there to deal with Lucic. What a teammate. Tuukka Rask came down the ice to have a word with Ward and they exchanged some words but it seemed like calm words.

In the third period, Rich Peverley scored a power-play goal for the Bruins to make 2-1. A little later, Milan Lucic would try and get at Tim Gleason but Gleason wouldn't want anything to do with Lucic. Bryan Allen came over and hugged on Lucic, who also didn't want to fight Lucic. Chris Kelly and Brett Sutter would drop the gloves and have a good fight with Kelly knocking down Sutter with a punch. One minute after all of this, Nathan Horton would just lose it and he went after Gleason. Gleason turtled and Horton tried to get at him with a linesman between them while Gleason stayed down and covered up. Watching the replay it just looked like Gleason pushed Horton, nothing too serious, but Horton lost his cool and took a bad double-minor and also got a 10-minute misconduct for not stopping when the linesmen got in there. After the Horton-Gleason incident, the refs started calling everything on the Bruins that they thought would cause more scrums. Chara would get called for high-sticking because of a good sell-job by Skinner. Brad Marchand would get a 10-minute misconduct and gone from the game for a little jab at Skinner. Dennis Seidenberg got called for boarding. Later, Lucic would get a 10-minute misconduct for pushing Gleason. Bruins coach Claude Julien would also get thrown out of the game, apparently for shaking his head at the ref after the Lucic misconduct. Eric Staal and Tuomo Ruutu would score power-play goals to make it 4-1. Staal had an "Ovechkin moment" as after his goal he skated to the glass screaming at Bruins fans and then slamming the glass with his hands. Stay classy Staal.

*Update: You can watch all of the rough stuff and Bruins penalties in this video.

After the game
More on the Cam Ward talking to Zdeno Chara and Tuukka Rask "chats" as after the game Ward was talking more.

"The guy's 8 feet tall, and he's jumping a player. That doesn't translate as being very tough in my eyes," Ward told reporters after the game. "I'm emotional just like everybody else. When you see that happening to your own players, you wanna ... you know, I had some choice words, too, but it is what it is."

...

"I was surprised, but I didn't take it as a serious threat, so you know, it is what it is. I don't even know what was said. My heart rate didn't get up or anything. Basically, I told him to get down and back into his own net ... and he did."

Those weren't even Ward's most eye-catching quotes, either. According to Hurricanes.com writer Michael Smith, Ward had a pretty stern assessment of the situation when talking to FS Carolina's Bob Harwood.

"I'm not gonna waste my time with Tuukka Rask," Ward reportedly said to Harwood.
Source

So according to Cam Ward, if one of your star scorers who is returning from a concussion, is being pushed around and almost getting into a fight with someone you just let him fight and possibly risk another concussion or possible injury? Maybe that is "Canes hockey."

Cam Ward must be use to soft Canes hockey. If another goalie tries to mess with your teammates, you go down the ice and have a chat with him and maybe knock some sense into him. Gleason taught Ward well. Keep talking and turtle when you have to.

Unlike Ward, Tuukka Rask showed some class when answering questions about the "chat" he had with Ward.

@MurphysLaw74: When asked what he said to Cam Ward, Tuukka Rask said "I asked why he jumped my guys?"

@bizjacobs: To Tuukka: "Have you ever talked with [Ward] before?" Tuukka: "No, no....but he's a nice guy though."

Claude Julien couldn't say it any better.

"We have to take responsibility for our own actions here," Julien said. "The easy thing is to point out at everybody. And I think what I saw from tonight is that we start off the game well. In the first period we had some great chances, but we're not capitalizing. And what I see is frustration setting in and the minute we start getting frustrated we lose focus on our game and then it gets worse and worse. And that's been a bit of a pattern this year."

"I would rather we look at ourselves and take the responsibility and fix that because the referees didn't lose the game for us tonight," Julien added. "We lost the game ourselves. We got ourselves back in the game and then we end up with a four-minute penalty and other penalties followed after that, and it just got worse."
Source

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 34-23, faceoff wins 35-32 and hits 29-18. The Hurricanes led the game in blocked shots 16-14. The Bruins went 1 for 4 on the power-play while the Hurricanes went 2 for 5.

Tuukka Rask played in net and got little support again. Rask made 19 saves on 23 shots. Rask is now 0-2 with a 2.52 GAA and a .915 save percentage.

Matt Bartkowski played in place of Adam McQuaid again and again he looked like he needs more time in the AHL. Hopefully Steven Kampfer is ready soon for game action.

Joe Corvo and Andrew Ference both led the Bruins with 5 shots on net.

Milan Lucic and Johnny Boychuk both led the Bruins with 6 hits each.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 2-4 this season. The Bruins next game is on Thursday, hosting Phil Kessel and the Toronto Maple Leafs at 7pm ET in Boston. It should be a good one.

Bruins beat Blackhawks in shootout

2011-10-16T01:12:00.003-04:00

Boston Bruins' Gregory Campbell (11) fights with Chicago Blackhawks' Jamal Mayers (22) during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Chicago, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

The Bruins were trailing 2-1 to the Blackhawks entering the third period but they would tie the game up and send it into overtime. Overtime would end without anyone scoring and then the shootout came. Tim Thomas would stop Jonathan Toews, Tyler Seguin would score by going five-hole on Corey Crawford, Thomas would stop Patrick Kane, Patrice Bergeron would lose the puck when he started his deke and not get a shot on net and Thomas would stop Patrick Sharp to win it for the Bruins.

In the first period, Bryan Bickell scored to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead. Bickell had a breakaway from stealing a bad Andrew Ference pass out of the defensive zone. Gregory Campbell dropped the gloves with Jamal Mayers in the first period as well. It was the first Bruins fighting major this season. Both guys looked to land a few but no real damage. I would give this one a draw.

In the second period, Chris Kelly scored a shorthanded goal, his 1st goal of the season, on a two-on-one from a beautiful pass by Rich Peverley to tie the game 1-1. Later, Patrick Kane scored to make it 2-1 Blackhawks.

In the third period, Nathan Horton scored his 1st goal of the season. The play was actually offside but the refs didn't catch it and the Bruins got lucky on that one. The whole play was created by Johnny Boychuk, who dumped the puck in, chased it down and retrieved it, came around the net and passed to Horton who was crashing the net and Horton put it behind Crawford.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 37-29, faceoff wins 36-34 and hits 40-34. Both teams went 0 for 3 on the power-play.

Tim Thomas played in net and made 27 saves on 29 shots. Thomas is now 2-2 with a 1.98 GAA and a .932 save percentage.

Matt Bartkowski played in place of Adam McQuaid and looked a little shaky at times in only 5:32 of ice time. He was also -1.

Patrice Bergeron went 17-11 in the faceoff circle.

The first line of Tyler Seguin-Milan Lucic-Nathan Horton looked really good tonight as they had many scoring chances.

Dennis Seidenberg led the Bruins in shots with 5.

Zdeno Chara and Seidenberg both had 5 blocked shots to lead the Bruins.

Johnny Boychuk led the Bruins in hits with 6.

Tonight's victory gives Claude Julien his 300th NHL career victory.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 2-3 this season. The Bruins next game is on Tuesday at 7pm ET, hosting the Carolina Hurricanes in Boston.

Adam McQuaid update

2011-10-14T22:35:00.003-04:00

There's some not so good news on Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid. McQuaid is suffering from headaches and has neck pain from his injury in the game against Carolina where he fell awkwardly into the boards hitting his head. So the Bruins are treating his situation as if it's a concussion just to be safe. McQuaid will not play tomorrow against the Chicago Blackhawks. Defenseman Matt Bartkowski will get into the lineup and replace McQuaid.

"He's still day to day and we're taking a cautious route," Bruins coach Claude Julien told reporters after the club's practice Friday afternoon in Chicago. "We're handling as if it was a concussion, but he's feeling better every day, and if it is [a concussion] it's probably just a mild one. We're more concerned about his neck right now."

...

"He's still suffering some headaches," Julien said. "Right now a lot of it is neck pain, so it's hard to diagnose whether it's definitely a concussion or whether it's just a neck strain he suffered on that fall."
Source

Bruins fall 3-2 to Canes

2011-10-12T23:48:00.000-04:00

Boston Bruins' Nathan Horton (18) tries to score against Carolina Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward and Carolina's Jay Harrison (44) during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Another slow start. Another third period comeback attempt. Another loss for the Bruins as they fell 3-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes tonight.

With David Krejci out of the lineup with a "core" injury, Tyler Seguin moved to the first line at center with Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton. That line got better as the game went on and Seguin is looking comfortable out there on the ice. It's good to see him with confidence. The Bruins power-play would not help them tonight as it looked like the power-play from late last season, not getting it done.

No scoring happened in the first period. The Bruins went 0 for 2 on the power-play.

In the second period, Joni Pitkanen scored a power-play goal to make it 1-0 Hurricanes. The Bruins went 0 for 3 on the power-play.

In the third period, Anthony Stewart scored to make it 2-0 Hurricanes. Only 25 seconds after the Stewart goal, Seguin went to the outside with speed and roofed one past Cam Ward high glove short side to make it 2-1. What a shot that was by Seguin. You'll see that one on the highlight shows. That goal seemed to energize the Bruins and they would get some good chances after that goal. But Jiri Tlusty would score for Carolina to make it 3-1. Later, Brad Marchand scored his 2nd goal of the season to make it 3-2, one-timing a deflected pass from Patrice Bergeron off a Canes player's skate and past Ward. The Bruins would not be able to tie the game in the final minutes.

Scary moment in the third period, as Adam McQuaid lost his footing and fell awkwardly into the boards hitting the right side of his head. He wasn't able to get up for a few seconds and he crawled back towards the net to get back into the play, as the referee watched and didn't blow the whistle. When he did get to his feet, it looked like McQuaid was hooking Andrew Ference, possibly thinking Ference was a Hurricane player. When play stopped the Versus announcers said that McQuaid stood by Tim Thomas for a little bit before Zdeno Chara had to come by and help him to the bench. McQuaid would eventually go to the dressing room and not return to the game. We hope McQuaid is ok.

Game notes
The Hurricanes led the game in shots 34-28, faceoff wins 31-30 and in hits 15-12.

The Bruins power-play went 0 for 5 tonight.

Tim Thomas played in net and made 31 saves on 34 shots. Thomas is now 1-2 with a 2.02 GAA and a .933 save percentage.

Bergeron went 16-7 in the faceoff circle. Seguin went 7-9 in the faceoff circle.

Seguin led the Bruins in shots with 4.

Benoit Pouliot led the Bruins in hits with 4. I am not a fan of Pouliot at all but you got to give him credit as he's doing everything he can to help the team.

Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton both had 0 hits.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 1-3 this season. The Bruins next game is on Saturday at 8:30pm ET, at the Chicago Blackhawks.

David Krejci injured in practice

2011-10-11T21:10:00.001-04:00

Bruins forward David Krejci was injured in practice today and will not make the trip to Carolina for the game on Wednesday. Nobody is saying what the injury is but if he's not making the trip to get checked out about it, then it must not be minor.

My guess would be Tyler Seguin moving up onto the first line with Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton to try and get those two wingers going. You may also see Patrice Bergeron move up to the first line but I don't know if Claude Julien wants to break up that line of Bergeron-Brad Marchand-Rich Peverley because of the great hockey they've been playing together.

Update: Ty Anderson over at HockeyBuzz is saying that Krejci is out indefinitely with a knee injury. If that's true, that's really bad news for the Bruins.

Bruins sign Rich Peverley to 3-year extension

2011-10-11T21:05:00.003-04:00

Today the Bruins announced that they have re-signed forward Rich Peverley to a 3-year contract extension through the 2014-15 NHL season.

Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli on Peverley and the contract extension:

"Maybe we waited a little bit longer in signing some guys who are potential UFAs, but he's got speed, a good shot and he's still relatively young in the grander schemes. He's just a guy we wanted to have in our mix for the next four years.

Sometimes there's a fine line between the top six or seven or eight. We always felt he was in that mix before we got him. We liked the way he fit into our group. It doesn't necessarily mean he'll be in that top six for the rest of the year, but I like to think of our top three lines as three equal lines.

But I like his speed and I like his grit for his skill package, I like the way his speed backs up the D and I think he's made us a faster team.''
Source

Update: Ty Anderson over at HockeyBuzz is saying that a no-trade clause was included with this contract extension. I don't know how I feel about that. I can see giving one to Bergeron and Chara but hopefully Peverley continues to impress.

Bruins lose Columbus Day matinee

2011-10-10T17:17:00.002-04:00

Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask (40) of Finland keeps his eye on the puck as he protects the net against the Colorado Avalanche during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Boston, Monday, Oct. 10, 2011. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

These matinee games always seem to be bad for the Bruins. Similar to last season, this afternoon the Bruins didn't look like themselves in a 1pm early game taking on the Colorado Avalanche.

The Bruins started out slow and the young fast Avalanche took it to the Bruins but Tuukka Rask, in his first game action this season, looked strong and kept the Bruins in the game. The Bruins line of Patrice Bergeron-Brad Marchand-Rich Peverley looked like the best Bruins line out there and had the best chances to score. The first line of David Krejci-Milan Lucic-Nathan Horton woke up in the third period but it was too little too late.

No scoring would happen in the first and second periods. In the third period, veteran Milan Hejduk scored as he got inside position on David Krejci and put one by Rask. That was all of the scoring that would happen as the Bruins lose 1-0 to the Avs.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in faceoff wins 30-19 and hits 32-24. The Avalanche led the game in shots 36-30.

The Bruins had the same lineup as the last game against the Lightning.

Tuukka Rask played in net for the first time this season, made 35 saves on 36 shots and was the Bruins best player today.

Patrice Bergeron led the Bruins in shots with 5.

Benoit Pouliot led the Bruins in hits with 5.

Gregory Campbell was the best Bruin player in the faceoff circle going 7-2.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 1-2 this season. The Bruins next game is on Wednesday at 7:30pm ET at the Carolina Hurricanes. Carolina is 0-2-1 after today's loss to the New Jersey Devils.

What to watch for against Carolina
Jussi Jokinen has already been called for 2 diving (unsportsmanlike conduct) penalties this season in only 3 games. Will he be flopping around? Probably. Too bad the game is on Versus because I would want to hear Jack Edwards yell "Get up!" after Jokinen dives. Keep your head up when Tuomo Ruutu is on the ice as he's the most likely Hurricane player to get Shanabanned/suspended for an illegal hit. Cam Ward has given up 8 goals in 2 games and backup Brian Boucher has given up 4 goals in 1 game. Jeff Skinner is not having a sophomore slump as he has started the season on fire, with 1 goal and 4 assists to lead the team with 5 points, but he is a -4. Will we see Milan Lucic vs Jay Harrison round 3?

Bruins and Stanley Cup go to Gillette Stadium

2011-10-10T00:08:00.001-04:00

On Sunday, members of the Boston Bruins spent their last day with the Stanley Cup by taking it to the Patriots-Jets game at Gillette Stadium for the coin flip before the game. Watch the video of their trip to Gillette Stadium.

Bruins 2011-12 player salaries

2011-10-09T02:51:00.002-04:00

I meant to post about this before the season started but here we go now. Here's a list of the Bruins players this season and the salary they'll be making this season. The players are listed alphabetically. To get more info and a better look at the Bruins salary cap, take a look on CapGeek.com. The below numbers are from CapGeek.com.

Forwards
Bergeron, Patrice - $5.9M
Campbell, Gregory - $1.2M
Caron, Jordan - $900K (eligible for bonuses so this could be higher)
Horton, Nathan - $4.5M
Kelly, Chris - $2M
Krejci, David - $4M
Lucic, Milan - $4M
Marchand, Brad - $2M
Paille, Daniel - $1.15M
Peverley, Rich - $1.4M
Pouliot, Benoit - $1.1M
Seguin, Tyler - $900K (eligible for bonuses so this could be higher)
Thornton, Shawn - $800K

Defenseman
Bartkowski, Matt - $685K (eligible for bonuses so this could be higher)
Boychuk, Johnny - $2M
Chara, Zdeno - $8.5M
Corvo, Joe - $2.5M
Ference, Andrew - $2.25M
McQuaid, Adam - $600K
Seidenberg, Dennis - $3.25M

Goalies
Rask, Tuukka - $1.5M
Thomas, Tim - $5M

On Injured Reserve
Kampfer, Steven - $687,500
Savard, Marc - $7M

Buyouts
Eaves, Patrick - $258,333 (yea Eaves is still being bought out, seems like he's been getting paid by the Bruins for awhile now)

Bruins beat Lightning 4-1

2011-10-08T22:06:00.004-04:00

BOSTON, MA - OCTOBER 8: Players of the Boston Bruins celebrate a goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning at the TD Garden on October 8, 2011 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Bruins rebounded from Thursday night's loss to the Flyers and beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1. Dwayne Roloson was not in net tonight as he played last night, so the Bruins faced backup Mathieu Garon who allowed some juicy rebounds. The Bruins made one mistake which cost them a goal but overall a much better game than the first one. Below is the scoring breakdown of the game.

No scoring happened in the first period.

In the second period, Rich Peverley scored his 1st goal of the season giving the Bruins a 1-0 lead. The Lightning came back only 1:16 later as Martin St. Louis scored on a breakaway on his friend Tim Thomas to tie the game. Then 1:38 later Bruins Daniel Paille scored his 1st goal of the season to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead.

In the third period, David Krejci scored his 1st goal of the season making it a 3-1 Bruins lead. Later, Peverley scored his 2nd goal of the game/season to make it 4-1.

Game notes
The Bruins led the game in shots 42-26 and hits 18-14. The Lightning led the game in faceoff wins 33-32. The Bruins went 0 for 5 on the power-play.

Jordan Caron and Matt Bartkowski were scratched and Benoit Pouliot and Adam McQuaid replaced them in the lineup.

Tim Thomas played in net and made 25 saves on 26 shots. Thomas is now 1-1 with a 1.51 GAA and a .945 save percentage.

Zdeno Chara, Rich Peverley and Tyler Seguin all had 5 shots on net apiece to lead the Bruins.

Brad Marchand and Seguin both had 2 assists apiece. Marchand and Seguin are both tied for the team lead in points with 3. Seguin has 3 assists, while Marchand has a goal and 2 assists so far this season.

Chara and Milan Lucic both led the Bruins with 3 hits apiece.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 1-1 this season. The Bruins next game is on Monday at 1pm ET, hosting the Colorado Avalanche in Boston. Colorado is playing their first game of the season tonight against the Detroit Red Wings.

Bruins raise banner, lose season opener

2011-10-06T23:55:00.001-04:00

Boston Bruins pose with the Stanley Cup and championship banner prior to facing the Philadelphia Flyers on opening night in an NHL hockey game in Boston, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Tonight was a special night that Bruins fans will not forget as another Stanley Cup championship banner was raised before the game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Before the game the Bruins players passed around the Stanley Cup to each other holding it up to the fans, something we couldn't see in Boston but watch on television from Vancouver so I thought that was cool. Later in the ceremony, Andrew Ference presented Mark Recchi the old Bruins jacket from last season. They would then bring out former Bruins to help the current Bruins raise the Stanley Cup banner.

The game would eventually start and the Bruins started strong. Brad Marchand would score the first goal of the season and give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. Tyler Seguin made a beautiful long pass and Marchand broke in and slipped one past goalie Bryzgalov. It was a power-play goal. The Flyers came back strong though and dominated late in the period and scored two quick goals before the end of the first period.

That would be all of the scoring in the game as the game would end 2-1.

Game notes
The Flyers led the game in shots 29-23. The Bruins led the game in faceoff wins 32-16 and hits 19-17.

The Bruins first line of Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton didn't look too good but it's only the first game. Marchand and Seguin both looked great and were the Bruins best players tonight.

Patrice Bergeron had a strong game in the faceoff circle going 10-2.

Tim Thomas made 27 saves on 29 shots.

Adam McQuaid and Benoit Pouliot were scratched for the game. Matt Bartkowski and Jordan Caron were in the lineup.

Onto the next one
The Bruins next game is on Saturday when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning at 7pm ET.

BOSTON, MA - OCTOBER 06: The Boston Bruins raise their 2011-11 Stanley Cup Championship Banner before the start of the home opener against the Philadelphia Flyers on October 6, 2011 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Bruins Bear makes a Cup

2011-10-06T14:19:00.003-04:00

The Bruins Bear has a new commercial out with him making his own Cup and Brad Marchand drops by.

Bruins 2011-12 season starts tonight!

2011-10-06T13:53:00.003-04:00

If you aren't already pumped up for the start of hockey season and seeing the banner go up tonight in Boston, then these two videos will help you get pumped up and ready for the start of the 2011-2012 Bruins season. Props to Ty Anderson over at HockeyBuzz.com as he posted the first video in his blog post and I had to post it here as it's a great video and well put together.

Boston Bruins - "We got a team that's together"

NESN's 2011-12 Bruins Season Trailer

Bruins roster set for Thursday

2011-10-06T00:44:00.002-04:00

The Bruins roster is now set and ready for Thursday night when they open the season against the Philadelphia Flyers. This won't be the same Flyers team that the Bruins swept in the playoffs as the Flyers have made numerous changes including acquiring a new starting goalie in Ilya Bryzgalov, trading away captain Mike Richards and sniper Jeff Carter. Now for the Bruins there haven't been many changes and they have their opening night roster set. Here's how the Bruins roster looks right now:

Forwards: Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Rich Peverley, David Krejci, Nathan Horton, Milan Lucic, Chris Kelly, Tyler Seguin, Gregory Campbell, Daniel Paille, Shawn Thornton, Jordan Caron and Benoit Pouliot.

Defenseman: Zdeno Chara, Dennis Seidenberg, Andrew Ference, Joe Corvo, Johnny Boychuk, Adam McQuaid and Matt Bartkowski.

Goalies: Tim Thomas and Tuukka Rask

There is a report that training camp invitee forward veteran Chris Clark will not make the team. Defenseman Steven Kampfer was placed on injured reserve with a sprained MCL.

Bruins get Stanley Cup rings

2011-10-06T00:32:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday the players from the 2010-11 Boston Bruins Stanley Cup championship team got their rings and wow those are some nice rings. Check out the pictures below and NESN video of interviews with a few players and management.

Pictures

Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand talking with the media with their rings, AP photo

A closeup look at Patrice Bergeron with his ring, AP photo

Cam Neely showing his ring close to the camera, AP photo

Closeup look at the 2010-2011 Boston Bruins Stanley Cup champions ring

A front view of the 2010-2011 Boston Bruins Stanley Cup champions ring

A side-view of the 2010-2011 Boston Bruins Stanley Cup champions ring, which has all of the years that the Bruins have won the Stanley Cup

A side-view of Mark Recchi's Stanley Cup champions ring

NESN Video

Bruins best fights from last season

2011-09-28T22:50:00.001-04:00

Taking a look back at last season's best Bruins fights. I selected fights where guys were throwing bombs at each other. If I had to choose one fight it would be the Shawn Thornton vs Darcy Hordichuk fight. It was a really good one that left Thornton with a bloody nose and Hordichuk with a nasty cut under his left eye. Let me know what fights you think were the best from last season.

Bruins release 7 from training camp

2011-09-28T22:14:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday, Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli announced that they have released seven players from training camp. Forwards Zach Hamill and Trent Whitfield were placed on waivers and expected to be assigned to Providence (AHL). The others include: Jamie Arniel, Colby Cohen, Michael Hutchinson, Zach McKelvie, and David Warsofsky, and they will all be assigned to Providence (AHL).

Bruins beat Montreal 7-3

2011-09-26T14:24:00.002-04:00

Last night the Bruins played against the Montreal Canadiens and beat them 7-3. Joe Corvo, Brad Marchand, Daniel Paille, Zdeno Chara, Tyler Seguin and Jordan Caron all scored a goal in the game.

Nathan Horton played in his first game since the Aaron Rome hit and played well.

Horton: “I was a little nervous coming in, just from what happened. I was just trying not to think too much - just work hard and do the little things. I didn’t feel too bad, to tell you the truth. It felt a little bit different being on the ice, but it felt OK.”

Joe Haggerty: “Good first test run for Nathan Horton tonight. Got a few bumps and bruises, but didn’t seem hesitant or jumpy with the puck at all. Horton also looked very good with Seguin skating on the line with him both in practice and in tonight’s game.”
Source

Speaking of Aaron Rome, Rome got a broken hand in a preseason game. Karma.

In the game Shawn Thornton took on Alex Henry in a good back and forth fight.

Bruins lose preseason opener to Ottawa

2011-09-22T02:20:00.002-04:00

On Wednesday night the Bruins played a preseason game at the Ottawa Senators and the Senators won in overtime 2-1. Tough guy Lane Macdermid scored the only goal for the Bruins and Tuukka Rask played well in net. Rask made 34 saves on 36 shots. Watch the NESN game summary video with Jack Edwards below.

The next Bruins preseason game is on Friday against the New York Islanders. Then the Bruins play Montreal on Sunday and Monday.

Bruins camp roster

2011-09-15T19:10:00.000-04:00

Today the Boston Bruins announced today their 2011-12 full training camp roster and groupings. There are a total of 54 players. Here are the two groups:

Group A
Forwards: Arniel, Bergeron, Campbell, Horton, Khokhlachev, MacDermid, MacDonald, MacKinnon, Paille, Pouliot, Ridderwall, Riendeau, Seguin, Tardif, Thornton, Whitfield
Defensemen: Bartkowski, Boychuk, Cohen, Ference, Kampfer, McIver, McKelvie, Seidenberg
Goaltenders: Khudobin, Thomas

Group B
Forwards: Camara, Camper, Caron, Chaput, Clark, Cunningham, Hamill, Hennessy, Kelly, Knight, Krejci, Lucic, Marchand, Peverley, Randell, Sauve, Spooner
Defensemen: Bodnarchuk, Button, Cantin, Chara, Corvo, Hamilton, McQuaid, Miller, Warsofsky
Goaltenders: Hutchinson, Rask
Source

Bruins Ice Girls video

2011-09-15T17:54:00.001-04:00

Here's a video of the Bruins holding Ice Girls auditions at the TD Garden and now have five new members joining their squad.