Bruins-Canucks war continues

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.