While I hadn't realized the eerie similarities between these past two seasons, I don't think I'll take Dupont's doomsday approach. He seems to smell a giant collapse coming, while I won't go that far. This team certainly is in trouble, as they cannot seem to string together much offense on a nightly basis. Their defense is strong, but they sometimes rely too much on defense, and let offense fall by the wayside. The team needs some offensive help, that much is certain. Where has Peter Schaefer been? Marco Sturm? Glen Murray, one of the hottest scorers as of late, has fallen off of the map as well. The B's need these guys to step up, and better pray that Chuck Kobasew and Marc Savard continue to produce. If not, it'll be "deja vu all over again".
As far as this game goes, the B's looked OK, but seemed to be one step behind the Sens all night. The 4 minute power play was the nail in the coffin, and the B's actually did a fairly respectable job killing it. However, it takes a lot more energy to kill a penalty than to run a power-play, and eventually, something's got to give. In this case, it was a goal for the Senators' Jason Spezza, who got two chances to smack it home after a laser of a pass from Daniel Alfredsson.
Alex Auld didn't play all that poorly, either, though he will likely get a rest against the Penguins on Thursday. The 3rd goal came as he had lost his stick in a desperate dive to cover the puck, trying to get the B's a much needed line change. Who knows, if he has his stick, maybe he can poke check the puck before Spezza gets that second whack at it. The first goal was a rocket from about 10 feet away, with the puck on edge. No goalie can be faulted for not stopping a 90 mile an hour knucklepuck. The middle goal may have some room for blame, as Auld got himself out of position, allowing Luke Richardson the easy tap-in. Overall, however, Auld made some spectacular saves and was generally solid. However, with Tim Thomas healthy again, it appears that the dream-run of Auld the Bald may be on hold for a while.
Other than that, what else can be said? This was a disappointing showing all around: the defense was lacking, the offense was, to say the VERY least, lacking, and the goaltending was less than stellar. A lackluster effort isn't going to get the job done against the defending Eastern Conference champions. It's back to the drawing board for the B's, who must now look for new ways to produce goals while staying strong defensively.
If not, it could be (as it continues to snow here in Boston) another loooooooooooooooong winter.
GOALS
Boston- Chuck Kobasew (13), Milan Lucic (3)
Ottawa- Jason Spezza (9,10), Luke Richardson (1)
SAVES
Boston- Alex Auld, 24 saves on 27 shots
Ottawa- Martin Gerber, 26 saves on 28 shots
NEXT GAME: Thursday, December 20 vs. Pittsburgh Penguins, 7:00 PM EST
The Bruins made their first trip to the "Dirty South", and managed to get their first win against the Thrashers since March of 2006. This was a big game for the B's, as Ottawa won tonight also, so the B's remain 4 points out of the top spot in the Northeast Division.
This was a pretty good game, as the Bruins looked like they were overwhelming Atlanta early on. They managed to take a two goal lead early into the second. Petteri Nokelainen got rewarded for his hard work with the first goal, and Peter Schaefer got himself into good position in front of the net to tip home the second goal.
However, the B's began to fall apart a bit towards the end of the second, thanks mainly to Mark Recchi. His first goal seemed like it could have been saved by Auld the Bald, but in Auld's defense, it was a pretty nice snap shot. The second goal was a beauty, a great tip by Recchi, and there was nothing Auld could have done.
It was good to see the referees try and take control of this game with their ridiculous penalty call on Mark Stuart. Please, Kovalchuk deserved an Oscar for that acting performance. The fact that there was an actual penalty called on that play is ridiculous. The definition of kneeing was read on the air, and it was the act of a player positioning his knee in order to cause harm. Uh...that didn't happen. If you see the replay, Stuart never moved his knee, never turned his foot. He was coming across the ice to play the puck, and collided with Kovalchuk. He was in as much danger of injury there as Kovalchuk was, but because he went down faster than a sack of bricks and leads the league in goals, he got the call. Not only was the penalty a little ridiculous, but a game misconduct? Please, that entire sequence was ridiculous.
That led to a complete momentum shift, and eventually gave Atlanta the lead. The B's penalty kill is absolutely abysmal, and really needs some work. In their defense, it's hard to kill penalties with Wideman and Alberts in the box, and Stuart kicked out of the game, but it still needs a complete overhaul.
Remarkably, Kovalchuk was healthy enough to play on the entire power play! And, wouldn't you know it, he scored the goal! Hooray, another point for the NHL's leading goal man. Thanks, refs.
The B's showed resilience in this one, and answered with the tying goal fairly quickly. Glen Murray continued to put up points after a great pass by Milan Lucic, who just continues to get better with each game.
Speaking of the hulking teenager, Lucic scored the winning goal for his team on a great individual effort. He was knocked down by Bobby Holik, and drew a penalty on the play. He got the puck into the Thrashers' zone, however, and hustled towards the net. On the delayed penalty, Phil Kessel worked hard and got the puck right into the crease, where Lucic tapped it in while falling backwards into the net. A great play from the youngster, and he deserved the goal after working so hard for it.
After that, this game was the Bruins, and they held on down the stretch. There were a couple of close calls with Johan Hedberg on the bench for the extra attacker, but Auld and the defense held their ground, and Marc Savard iced it with his behind the back, no look, empty net goal.
This was Auld's third straight win, and he did have a little trouble with this one. A couple of shaky saves, and maybe a goal that should have been saved, but Auld did his job. He's going to be needed for a while, because Manny Fernandez had surgery and is out for the year. Hopefully, this surgery will be what Fernandez needs, and he won't turn out to be a high-investment bust. Either way, with a trio of Thomas-Auld-Rask (who will be sent to Providence when Thomas returns in 5-7 days), the B's should be in good shape. They are playing great hockey right now (penalty kill excluded). Hopefully, they can carry their play home, and get a win against the Devils tomorrow. It's going to be rough traveling, but their pros. Let's keep the wins coming, boys.
GOALS
Boston- Petteri Nokelainen (2), Peter Schaefer (6), Glen Murray (10), Milan Lucic (2), Marc Savard (ENG) (7)
Atlanta- Mark Recchi (3,4), Ilya Kovalchuk (24)
SAVES
Boston- Alex Auld, 23 saves on 26 shots
Atlanta- Johan Hedberg, 29 saves on 33 shots
NEXT GAME: Thursday, December 13 vs. New Jersey Devils, 7:00 PM EST
Needing a win to get back on track, the Bruins turned to...Alex Auld?
The former Coyote was acquired by the B's on Thursday, in exchange for minor league forward Nate DiCasmirro and a fifth round draft pick in 2009. This must mean that Tim Thomas' injury is a little more serious than originally let on, or that Manny Fernandez will continue to be a $4+ million waste of space. Either way, Auld was in Toronto, and was ready to start.
Both goalies, Auld and Toronto's Vesa Toskala, probably wish they had their first goals back. Auld let a Jason Blake wrister go five-hole, and Toskala was beat by Chuck Kobasew's wrister while streaking in from the left wing. In any case, both teams clamped down, and played a very tight game the rest of the way. It was called "boring" by fans on TSN's message boards, and was very similar to the team's last game a few weeks back (Rask's debut, a 4-2 win), which was also quite boring. However, just like that game, the Bruins won, this time on a slap shot from Dennis Wideman that proved to be the difference maker. Both teams play a stifling defensive style that does, admittedly, lead to some pretty boring play at times. But hey, boring is great when it gets you a win, and that's what it did for the B's tonight.
Dennis Wideman has been, IMHO, the B's best defenseman of late. He has been ripped apart by B's fans since coming here, mainly because he was traded for Brad Boyes, who has been tearing it up in St. Louis. However, Wideman's game has improved, and likewise has his playing time. Claude Julien has been rewarding Wideman for his great play, and let's hope B's fans can get over Boyes' departure (finally).
Also, Auld played admirably in his Boston debut, slamming the door multiple times during flurries of pressure from the Leafs in the closing seconds. It's safe to say that the B's "held on" to win this one, and a lot of the credit should be given to Auld. The credit SHOULDN'T be given to Glen Murray, who made his goalie's life difficult by taking FOUR penalties in this game but, hey, a win's a win. Had they lost, I'd be ripping Murray apart. But they won, so keep up the good work, Muzz.
GOALS
Boston- Chuck Kobasew (12), Dennis Wideman (3)
Toronto- Jason Blake (4)
SAVES
Boston- Alex Auld, 25 saves on 26 shots
Toronto- Vesa Toskala, 18 saves on 20 shots
NEXT GAME: Monday, December 10 @ Buffalo Sabres, 7 PM EST
The Devils were one of hockey's hottest teams coming into this game, having won 7 straight before welcoming the Bruins to "the Rock" for the first time this season. Martin Brodeur had regained his true form, and had been playing some of his best hockey of the season. This looked like it may be a tough one for the B's to pull out, but they came out flying, taking a 3-0 lead into the first intermission.
I was feeling good about this team at this point, actually surprised at how well they were playing. Of course, all good things must come to an end, and this good thing came crashing down in a hurry. The Devils came roaring back in the second, and had the deficit cut to one at 3-2 after two periods. The Bruins spent most of that second frame desperately trying to stay afloat, very rarely (if ever) getting any legitimate pressure on Brodeur. The Devils had rush after rush up the ice, and it seemed like this one was getting away from the B's.
Sure enough, it got away, and the Devils tied it up with a little under six minutes to go in the third. So what happened? It's been said that a 2 goal lead is the hardest to defend in hockey, which must mean that a 3 goal lead is all the more difficult. Did the Bruins get complacent? Maybe, or maybe the Devils woke up. They played a pretty crappy first period, and seemed to turn it on for the rest of the game.
As if the collapse wasn't enough, the Bruins rock in net went down as well. Tim Thomas left the game with what was termed a "lower body injury" (sounds like the Patriots injury report, doesn't it?), and from what I saw on the replay it looks like a knee sprain, or possibly a hamstring or groin pull. Either way, he was out, and Tuukka Rask came on in relief. There was no way that this was going to end well, and I said to my friend who was watching the game with me that it felt like it was only a matter of time before the Devils scored again. Voila, Patrik Elias pots the winner with under two minutes left in overtime. Game over, and the B's let one get away.
This would have been a good win, a momentum win to carry home against the Canadiens. However, in true optimist fashion, the B's did get a point from a very good Devils team. It was also good to see some offense from Zdeno Chara and Dennis Wideman, and to see Glen Murray continue to produce. Hopefully, the B's can carry some positives from this game into tomorrow night's contest, and leave the collapse behind.
GOALS
Boston- Zdeno Chara (4), Glen Murray (9), Dennis Wideman (2)
New Jersey- Patrik Elias (5,6), Zach Parise (13,14)
SAVES
Boston- Tim Thomas, 28 saves on 31 shots; Tuukka Rask, 2 saves on 3 shots
New Jersey- Martin Brodeur, 23 saves on 26 shots
NEXT GAME: Thursday, December 6 vs. Montreal Canadiens, 7 PM EST
The B's headed out to Long Island for another match-up with Ted Nolan's bunch, and got out of there with their first win on the island in over 5 years. It was good to see Milan Lucic get back on the ice and play decently well, though he didn't get on the scoresheet at all. Petteri Nokelainen was flying around the ice for the entire game, and has looked really good in his last couple of games. He scored on a bad play by the Isles' d-man, but he still had to put it past DiPietro.
Glen Murray continued his hot streak with the first goal on the power play, and Chuck Kobasew added his team leading 11th goal. Tim Thomas played another good game, and was only 2 minutes away from a shutout when he gave up a goal on the penalty kill. The B's still need to work hard at their penalty kill, which has been an Achilles' heel all season. They killed four out of five, however, so hopefully improvement is on the way.
Overall, this team is playing well, and may be playing its best hockey of the year so far. Marc Savard has a 10 game point streak, and the offense shows signs of coming to life. Thomas continues to play well in net, and Rask has shown that he can shoulder some of the load as well, and will likely start one of the next three games. The game tomorrow against New Jersey should be interesting, as Jersey is always a tough place to play. If the B's don't beat Montreal on Thursday, I'm going to go nuts. But, they are playing good hockey, and are 4 points behind Ottawa for first in the Northeast.
This was another game that I didn't see much of, and I wish I had missed what I did see. From what I heard on the broadcast, the B's came out horribly flat, and trailed after the first on two goals from Vincent Lecavalier, who is quickly becoming the premier player in the game (if not at the top already). They came out pretty slow again in the second, but managed to cut the lead in half on a power play strike from the still-streaking Glen Murray. However, any momentum was killed on a goal from Tampa's Mathieu Darche with under a minute to go in the second. That was, essentially the game right there. The B's climbed back in it, only to let Tampa take the game but with seconds to go in the middle period.
I'm not really sure what to attribute this poor performance to, as it shouldn't be fatigue. Every team has off nights, and maybe this was the Bruins. In some of the pregame notes by the Boston Globe's Fluto Shinzawa, he said that this Tampa team had lost 6 in a row, and was bound to bust out soon. Unfortunately, they did it against the B's, led by Lecavalier's 4 point night (though, to be an optimist, Lecavalier is on my Fantasy Hockey team. The glass is half full.)
This would have been a big win for the B's, as they are surely in for another tough game against the men from Long Island tomorrow. As of the time I write this (Sunday night), the B's have 28 points, and sit at 6th place in the East. They are 6 points behind the plummeting Ottawa Senators in the Northeast Division, but are also only 4 points from 14th place in the conference. The East is packed tight right now, and should make for an interesting season.
As far as this coming week, we should see Tuukka Rask again at some point. The B's have a full slate this week, with games Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. I'm going to the Thursday game against Montreal, and would love to see a Tuukka-Cary Price matchup. It'd also be cool to be at Rask's first home start, but we'll have to wait and see.
Hopefully the B's can get back on track Monday night, as they have a big week coming up. We'll know a lot more about this team a week from now.
GOALS
Boston- Glen Murray (7)
Tampa Bay- Vincent Lecavalier (17,18), Mathieu Darche (3), Martin St. Louis (9)
SAVES
Boston- Tim Thomas, 24 saves on 28 shots
Tampa Bay- Johan Holmqvist, 28 saves on 29 shots
NEXT GAME: Monday, December 3rd @ NY Islanders, 7:00 PM
With a noon start on the day after Thanksgiving, one had to expect this one to be a little slow in the early going. That's exactly what happened, but both teams began to pick up their play as the game went on, and the Bruins, overall, played a pretty good game, powered by some offense from "the Glens". In some ways, it almost seemed like they stole a win in this game, as the Islanders hit the post with the net wide open at least twice, and Glen Metropolit's goal, which proved to be the game winner, was a shot that Rick DiPietro will stop most of the time. But hey, a win is a win, and it just so happened to be the B's first over the Islanders in regulation since before the Lockout.
Overall, Tim Thomas played well again. The goal that Mike Sillinger scored on him was perfect, there isn't a goalie in the league who would have stopped it. Other than that, he was consistent, making big saves when necessary. He did, however, give up a few pretty bad rebounds that led to wide open nets for Islander forwards. Thankfully for the Bruins, the Isles failed to capitalize on these mistakes, and Thomas emerged with another victory.
Milan Lucic got rocked early on by Bryan Berard on a hit that was clean but somewhat questionable. There was nothing dirty about the intent, just that the follow through was a little high. Lucic played another shift after the hit, and actually created a pretty good scoring chance, but never returned and isn't playing tomorrow. To take his place, the B's called up Vladimir Sobotka from Providence, who will make his NHL debut tonight.
It's also a good sign to see Glen Murray continue to find the net, as he now has 6 points in his last 4 games. The B's have won 3 of those 4, and need Murray to stay hot, especially in the absence of Patrice Bergeron.
With these two teams meeting again in about an hour, it'll be interesting to see if there is any carryover from yesterday afternoon. The game got chippy at times, but players seemed to hold back due to the tightness of the game. I don't know of any outstanding animosity between the teams, but playing 2 games in two nights can probably create some pretty quick. Hopefully, the B's can get a win tonight, and go into Philly on a roll on Monday.
GOALS
Boston- Glen Murray (4), Glen Metropolit (4)
New York- Mike Sillinger (3)
SAVES
Boston- Tim Thomas, 25 saves on 26 shots
New York- Rick DiPietro, 23 saves on 25 shots
NEXT GAME: Saturday, November 24 @ NY Islanders, 7:00 PM EST
This was honestly probably the happiest I've ever been after a Bruins loss. Sure, they lost the game, but they handed Montreal a beating as well. "Ehhhhh, ze penalty minutes vill not get you into ze playoffs!" Shut it, Frenchie. I don't care. The Bruins beat the #### out of the Canadiens, and showed that they wouldn't go down without a fight. Or two. Or three.
As far as the game itself went, it was pretty obvious that the Canadiens were the more skilled team. They have smaller, faster players who are more skilled with the puck. Does this mean that they are a better team than the Bruins? Not necessarily, just that they are a different kind of team. To their credit, they kept up the pressure even after allowing the Bruins to tie the game on three separate occasions. However, the Bruins were also able to come back, which speaks to the character of their team as well.
It was good to see Glen Murray get his offense going, as in the last game against the Leafs, he had about 2 or 3 chances that just hopped over his stick or were just wide. It must have been getting pretty frustrating for him, so let's hope he can keep the production going, and get the offense going in the right direction. As far as the offense goes, the B's were able to put up 4 goals again, so hopefully whatever Claude's been telling them is going to stick, as they have 9 goals in the last two games.
Defensively, this team is still somewhat suspect. Andrew Ference missed this game with another injury, but Matt Hunwick filled in admirably, playing a pretty solid game. Dennis Wideman had a bit of a rough game, making a few turnovers or ill-advised passes, but he has been the B's best defenseman for the past three weeks. Everyone's going to have "one of those games". Speaking of "good to see them getting on the board", Zdeno Chara got his first goal of the season on a laser from just beyond the faceoff dot. He needs to start using that powerful shot of his more, as it's going to take some real courage from the opponent to get down and block that missile.
Tim Thomas played fairly well again, but I thought the goal by "Gui Unit", Guillaume Latendresse, was a little soft. Unfortunately, that got the momentum going for Montreal, and they never looked back. Timmy may need a night off, so hopefully they get him one soon. Tuukka Rask will likely be back up, but Providence needs him as well. P.B's starting goalie Jordan Sigalet, who has multiple sclerosis, had an MS related episode during a game last week, and was face down on the ice and taken off on a stretcher. Needless to say, it was a scary episode, and best wishes to Jordan on a quick recovery.
However, my main interest in this game was the fight that the Bruins showed towards the end. After Montreal went up 6-3, my friend Billy, who is one of the biggest Bruins fans out there, and I both agreed that this game was all but salted away, and that we just wanted to see this team show some fight. Show some pride that they were losing. To put it plainly, we were looking for some balls from this team. Something to show us that they actually cared that they were losing.
Well, needless to say, we got it. Andrew Alberts, who is big but doesn't usually fight, took down Tom Kostopoulos it what was honestly probably the closest to an even fight that night. About a minute later, Mark Stuart, who is quickly becoming a fan favorite because of his willingness to take the body, beat the #### out of Andrei Kostitsyn. I'm sick of hearing people say how Stuart baited him into it, and how Kostitsyn isn't a fighter. Bull. If you don't want to fight a guy, don't slash and spear him a few seconds prior. This fight was one of the most lopsided I've seen in a while, and was just a complete beatdown for Kostitsyn. Needless to say, it'll be a while before he fights again.
Then, the head turtle of them all, Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau, started yelling at Claude Julien through the glass. Claude didn't back down, and Carbonneau ended up walking the other way, or supposedly being "restrained" by his assistant coach. Please. If there were ever coach fights, Guy Carbonneau vs. Anyone would be a pretty easy fight for the "Anyone" coach.
After this fight, we saw what a little fighting momentum can do, as Murray wired home his second of the night off of a faceoff to make it 6-4. Suddenly, it seemed like the B's may still have a chance, but Montreal was able to hold on, mainly because of Zdeno Chara's penalties. He took an elbowing penalty after he hit Alexei Kovalev, who is one of my least favorite players, after Mike Ribeiro, then charged right after Guillaume Latendresse and quickly dropped him with three right hands to the face. I'm honestly not quite sure why this fight occurred, but it was good to see Chara show some anger. However, the Habs scored easily on the ensuing 5-3, which isn't a surprise considering they have arguably the best power play in the league, and that was the end of the game for all intents and purposes.
However, Tom Kostopoulos decided he hadn't had enough of a beating yet, and decided to go after Mark Stuart. Thankfully for the B's, Kostopoulos started the fight, so he got the instigator, the suspension, and Carbonneau got the fine of $10,000. Oh, and Kostopoulos got another beat down. Good choice, Tom.
Overall, as I said at the beginning, I was thrilled with the result of this game, and it only could have been better if they had won. If any hockey fans actually came on these blogs, I'd expect plenty of backlash from Habs fans, who say that this was goonery and has no place in the league. However, I'm pretty sure I speak for most hockey fans, especially American ones, when I say that this is what the league needs. It needs the Bruins-Canadiens rivalry to be intense again, and needs some rough stuff to bring fans back. I'm in no way that disappointed with how the league is now, but I wouldn't be opposed to more roughhousing.
Needless to say, I'm all ready to go get my tickets to the B's-Habs game at the Garden on December 6th. It should be a good one.
GOALS:
Boston- Glen Murray (2,3), Zdeno Chara (1), Marco Sturm (9)
Montreal- Saku Koivu (5), Tom Kostopoulos (2), Andrei Kostitsyn (3), Guillaume Latendresse (3), Roman Hamrlik (2), Mike Komisarek (3), Alexei Kovalev (10)
SAVES:
Boston- Tim Thomas, 45 saves on 52 shots
Montreal- Cary Price, 32 saves on 36 shots
NEXT GAME: Tuesday, November 20 @ Toronto, 7:00 PM EST
I'm a 20 year old kid from Dorchester, MA, who one day hopes to be a sportswriter for a big time newspaper, and figure this is a good place to start. I'm in college at Suffolk in downtown Boston now, and it's awesome. I love all sports, with the Bruins and Red Sox being my favorite teams, thought I'm also a big Patriots and Celtics fan. I think it's ridiculous how no one in this town cares about the Bruins anymore. I like college sports too, no particular teams, especially any big bowl games and March Madness. I hate fairweather fans, especially everyone who jumped on the Sox bandwagon in 2004. The "pink hats" and "OMG Varitek's so hot!!" drive me crazy, just like anyone else who's a real baseball fan. Pick a team, know the players, stay loyal and be a real fan- in good times and in bad.
