Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Bruins rake the Leafs 4-1

Goaltending was hot, defense was on top of their game, and the Bruins once again beat the leafs by more than a one goal margin. For the second game this season and the second game in a row, the B's out scored an opponent by more than a goal.
Goaltending was on with 45 saves, easily Tim Thomas's best effort and maybe the start of Thomas fighting for his job. Everyone knows that Boston is in the market for a goalie and I am sure no one knows it more than Thomas. (well maybe Hannu). When his job is on the line, it seems that Thomas is at his best. I still do not feel that Thomas is an NHL #1 goalie, a solid backup yes but he has shown signs in the past that he can not play ten or so games in a row without a let down due in part to fatigue. Thursday will be the real test as this will be Thomas's fourth game in seven nights.
Glen Murray had the goal of the night when he ripped a slapper from the top of the circle over Razor's shoulder on the short side. It was a thing of beauty!
The goal gave Murray 12 goals (putting him just five goals of the league lead) in 22 games putting him on pace to score 45 goals for the season. Not bad numbers seeing that we have yet to reach the halfway point. Muzz seems to have found his nitch again after having a dismal season last year with just 24 goals. We all know that this was a direct result of moving Joe, but that was then and this is now. Muzz seems to have found comfort in the form of Marc Savard who has a team leading 21 assists, 6th best in the league.

The power play was once again a disappointment going 0-3 with only six power play shots on goal, most of those coming on the second power play where the B's did everything right in the second minute getting four quality shots off from various angles.
The penalty killing was on shutting down the leafs on 6 man advantages, to include a 5-3 for more than a minute and a half. The Bruins best penalty killer was Thomas, even though he needed to control his rebounds a little better, he still made the first save and that is all you can ask of your goalie.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Yes I am Alive

Sorry folks, the updates have been missing for the past week, I was away for the holiday and believe it or not had no time to myself. Hell I did not even get a chance to talk to March and, March's mom was actually in the same house I was and I still did not see her.

Any hooo, the B's won one and lost one (badly) while I was at home. The handled Toronto pretty well after getting booed out of the rink by the vault faithful on the classic Friday after Thanksgiving noon time game. Which was likely their worst game of the year, which speaks volumes for how they rebounded against the leafs. I will say it again (I think I have said this at least twice before in this space) MAYBE we have turned the corner.

We will see tomorrow night how they react to the win, with a return trip to Toronto to have a grudge match against the Leafs.

Friday, November 17, 2006

TWO in a ROW???????

Holy SHNIKIES! The boys have put together THREE in a row and are now actually .500
Yes you should be excited, at least that is what the gents from the Boston Globe think. I pefer to take the it is about dam time approach. After all we are ONLY .500 (first time since game 2 of this mess we are calling a season).
It is funny how last week everyone in town was ready for Tim Thomas to be hung from the Tobin bridge, and now they are talking about how great he played in the last two games. I give Tim "let em in" Thomas credit for playing fairly well against the Caps and making some solid saves lastnight, but the goal he let in was simply aweful, yes it was on the power play, but it went five hole and SHOULD have been stopped. What is the first thing every coach tells their youngsters? "Stick on the ice" If Timmy had just listened to that first coach, he would have had his stick on the ice and MAYBE even a shut out (highly unlikely, but MAYBE).

The rest of the team on the other hand played very well. They skated hard, moved the puck well and played both ends of the ice, beating Toronto to loose pucks.
The kids (Kessel, Tenkrat, Chistov) played well lastnight, they where flying and had a scoring chance on almost every shift. Why Dave Lewis decided to sit them out for the last eight minutes of the game, we will never know. I am sure he will use the pressure excuse, but that is getting old. Cutting the last few minutes down to two lines (Boyes, Bergeron, Strum and Muzz, Savy, and Axe) was not something I wanted to see. It nearly cost us as both lines looked like they had lead weights on their feet and the Bruins where definitely hanging on to that 1-1 tie. I personally thought that OT was going to get ugly, but needless to say the boys pulled it out and we walked away with two points.
Overall pretty well played game. Was it our best? Not by a long shot. Was the coaching still making questionable moves? Who knows, we won didn't we.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Bruins Make a Move

To me our top priority is not scoring, however I will accept the addition of Stanislav Chistov for a 2008 third-round pick, that actually belongs to the Phoenix Coyotes (came over in the Mara for Boynton deal) So if you want to make the Mara deal even better than getting rid of good old hook 'em, hold 'em, Clothesline 'em Boynton we added another player who at one time was a fifth overall pick. Of Course Chistov has been a wash out West with our feathered friends, but who know's look a Joe Thornton. He sucked here and then went to San "JO"se and was a superstar.... (Now if you believe that, go into your bathroom, kneel in front of your commode and raise the seat all the way up. Place your big ass head full of shit on the rim and slam the cover on your noodle repeatedly until you knock all the shit out from between your ears, or you pass out. Which ever comes first.)
Any hooo, we gave up little and got what potentially could be a solid first or second line player. I think we may like to see him out their with Phil the thrill, the two of them both have that extra gear that one of these days will make them a force in this league. Once Phil settles in and finds his groove I think we will be looking at least a 30 or 40 goal scorer on a consistent basis. He sure can shoot, hitting the net has been an issue, but let's not forget that the boy is just that, a boy... 19 is hardly NHL ready.

Keep an eye on the trade wire, I have a feeling you will see a goalie headed to Bean town by weeks end, which means the exit of either Boyes, Sturm, Brad Sturt or PJ Axelson.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Goaltending takes another hit

Hannu Toivonen went tumbling down the other night, al the way down to the Providence Bruins, where he continued to slide deeper into non-existance. Hannu turned an ankle in the baby b's loss and is likely out for a couple of weeks. Sound familiar? Thank goodness it was not his bad ankle that he hurt, it was his good ankle..... Hmmmmm so now we have a struggling goalie who has to take a couple of weeks off to heal a sprained ankle, the sam injury that kept him out for the entire campaign last year. Sounds like Peter C will be working the phones overtime this week. So now the Bruins have some ECHL kid listed as the second goalie, Hell why not put him in there and see if he can do it. What have we got to loose, the other three have gotten their taste of what no defense if like why not this kid. Baptism by fire is always a good welcome to the NHL.

Well now onto the positive, we took another win against Ottowa, good thing they are one of the teams we play eight times, we may actually get a chance to have double digits in the win column before the All-Star break.
The Bruins played with some heart, Muzz netted two, the rookie Petr Tenkrat made his first appearence rememberable as he netted a nice goal.
I liked the line of Tenkrat, Kessel and Primeau, seemed that Peter and Phil actually fed off one another and I even saw Kessel hit someone in the corner.
This week should be interesting as we have games Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Monday. Win all four of those and we are right back in it. Anyone who thinks that this is going to happen, is on crack and I would like to talk to you about some property I have for sale!

Friday, November 10, 2006

U-G-L-Y!

Usual poor showing in net
Got beat to every loose puck
Lack of energy
You know the result.

That pretty much sums up the game last night. Thank goodness Razor had to leave the game, otherwise the score may not have been as close as it was.
I give credit to the B's for not giving up after getting shelled in the first period, not that 10 shots is being shelled, that would be shelled as in the leafs leading 3-0. So does this mean that now Thomas is going to be sent to Providence? Brian Finley came in for the second and third period and unfortunately absorbed the loss that Thomas dam well earned. Finley stopped all but two of the shots he faced, although he did not look very comfortable in the net and at times looked scared. I hope Peter C is working the phones today in search of a goaltender. The price the B's will have to pay went up last night for sure, any GM who has half a clue will be sure to ask for something solid from a team who is desperate and I believe we now qualify as such.
If I had to guess, I would say that Marco Sturm may likey be the trade bait, as he is in his last year of his contract and if he had a clue he would not resign with this bunch.
Stay tuned for trade updates!

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Going Down?

This could be the new hub cap of hockey moto, however it refers to the demotion of Hannu to the broken spoked P. Hannu Toivonen was sent packing, as if a stint in Providence will actually help him improve his game. What he needs is some solid play in front of him. The issue here is not goaltending alone, it is an issue but from my eyes it appears that total team defense is in need of an overhaul, not just the keepers.
This is pretty ironic seeing that Hannu was thought to be the answer as shown in the early part of last season before he suffered a season ending injury. Hannu's performance last year prompted the B's to ship Andrew Raycroft to Toronto where he has been a big part of the Leaf's early success this season, Raycroft's numbers look like this, (8-4-2, 2.73 GAA, .911 save percentage) .
Toivonen will be replaced on the roster with Brian Finley who was chosen No. 6 overall (by Nashville) in the '99 draft. An injury kept him out of the 2001-'02 Nashville lineup, coupled with the lost year, is liekly what has kept him from fulfilling the high-end potential that Nashville and others saw in him.
Finley had a decent camp, but obviously something was not quite right as he was sent to Providence and not given the chance to show what he had, hind sight now says that Peter C should have stuck with three goalies on the roster, at least for the first part of October.

Latest word out of wilmington is that Finley may get the start against the leafs.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

THRASHED!

That's all there is to say about the game last night. Out shot in the opening frame 21-8 leaving them down 2-0 was not where the Bruins needed to be. Thomas played well in the second half of the period but got caught twice by the Atlanta power play (4 for 11 on the night) in the opening minutes, and with Boston not being the best comeback team in the NHL, that turned out to be a back breaker. The Bruins where determined to see if they could beat the team with the second best record in the East (Behind only Buffalo, who is just simply RED HOT) playing short handed. This was an attempt to show all of the nay sayers that they actually did have a better team than last season. (note to management: You changed some names, and added some talent but when it comes down to it you have the same poor product.) When you are ranked 30th (OUT OF 30 DAM IT!) in the penalty kill it is likely not a good idea to take 11 penalties in a game, even if your Buffalo!

Here is a little comaprison of what we had last year and what we have this year.

We lost Joe Thorton (this still to this day PISSES ME OFF)
We gained Marc Savard (no Joe but he is a decent set up man)
Advantage 05-06 Bruins

We lost Samsinov
We gained two guys who are no longer here
Advantage 05-06

We lost Andrew Raycroft
We gained Tuukka Rask (19 and supposed to be DAM Good, but has yet to play in the NHL)
Advantage Dead even Raycroft bit the big one last year, but may be better than what we have now)

We lost Hal Gil (THANK GOD!)
We gained Zdeno Chara
Advantage 06-07 BY FAR!

We lost Nick Boyton
We gained Paul Mara
Advantage Dead even, both players get dumb penalties.

We lost David Tanabe
We gained Shean Donovan (This is who we signed with the money we saved)
Advantage 05-06 (land slide there)

We lsot Brian Leetch
We gained Jason York (This is who we signed with the money we saved)
Advantage 05-06

We lost Brad Isbister
We gained Mark Mowers
Advantave (this one looks even)

There are a few other player whom we parted ways with, Zhamnov (we all know who one on this one); Mariusz Czerkawski, Fitgerald, Green, Slegr, Moran. We did not really replace any of these guys with anyone, we went with younger blood that was already in the system. Based on the play of Dempsey and Lashoff I will give it to the 06-07 crew.
Advantage 06-07

Bottom line is that our roster last year looked much better than this year's squad. Just because the names have changed does not mean that the team has. We brought in the same caliber players for the most part and lost some key parts of a franchise in the process. It will take YEARS for this team to overcome the mess that MOC left. Anyone know if the Bruins have drug testing for management? They should!

Look for Peter Chairelli to pull the trigger on a goalie in the coming weeks. Anyone else wonder why Atlanta played Hedberg against the Bruins, meaning he got his third straight start in front of Kari Lehtonen (who you could argue is the best goalie in the league?) Maybe they are showing Hedberg off as trade bait?

Monday, November 06, 2006

Mery Go-Round Lines again tonight?

Will coach Lewis change his line-up tonight or will he go with what seemed to work for the most part over the last two games?

The lines in yesterday's practice showed no difference, other than the absence of Jason York who will undergo surgery today on a balky knee. The Bruins are not saying when or how he hurt his knee, other than it just needs to be cleaned up.

No word on what we will see for defense pairings tonight, with Yourk out, we will likely see Jurcina in the line up again tonight.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

B's Grab a Roller Coaster Win

The Bruin's fueled by a Marc Savard 4 point night beat Tampabay 6-5 in OT. It was not a win they or anyone else expected to pull off after a dismall start by Hannu Toivanin. Hannu let in 5 goals on 21 shots and two of them where of the extremely soft variety, and where what you call back breakers, coming just seconds after the Bruin's rallied to tie the game TWICE!

Thomas came in for Hannu in the third and stopped the seven shots he faced. It should be a matter of days before we see a deal in Beantown for legit starting goalie. At this point we will likely see Thomas get shipped out if the deal includes a goalie. Not to much stock around the league in a goalie who has been pulled for poor performance in his last two starts.

Kudos goes out to the whole team on this one as they never gave up and kept pushing forward.
The line of Muzz, Savvy and Axelson has really seemed to take off of late. They had a combined ten points against Buffalo and last night was pretty much the same thing. Muzz with the game winner, Savvy with two and two and Axelson with one and a couple of assists.
The "FORMER" top line of Sturm, Bergeron and Boyes was a no show last night as far as offense goes. Strum and Boyes had one shot each and Bergy has two. Can't score if you don't shoot. Someone on that line needs to pull the trigger.

Phil Kessel finally got a real goal, being set up in the slot by Mowers for a quick wrister through Dennis five hole. It is only a matter of time before this kid's confidence is there and he starts showing the Hub Cap of Hockey why he was thought to be the #1 overall pick for a good part of last year. Yes his defensive game needs work, but hell if he can score 30-40 goals then we will take the lapses in D, after all is that not why he is skating with Premaue and Mowers? They certainly are not out there for the great offense abilities they have.

Next game is against Atlanta on Monday.
The Bruins finished their six game home stand 3-1-2* (which if you think about it is not all that bad, unless you remeber that the two OT or Shoot out losses should have been wins!)

Friday, November 03, 2006

In case your wondering YES there are 60 Minutes in a hockey game... Bruins Please take note

That's right kiddies, once again the Bruins failed to play a full game and it cost them. For the first forty minutes the Bruins fooled us all into believing that they had actually turned the corner and where about to hand the red hot Sabres their first regulation loss of the season. I personally could not believe what I was seeing, less than 6 minutes left in the game and the Bruins where dominating the Sabres at every level, the score was 4-1, they where out shooting them, they where even out skating them. Then out of no where, the wheels fell of the bus and it came screaching to a hault.
What happened? They just stopped skating, coaches stopped coaching. The final five minutes of the third period turned what was Boston's best performance of the season into one of their worst let downs in team history. (Of course nothing will surpass blwoing a 3-0 series lead against the Habs, but this was dam close)

The Bruins remain adimant that they did not sit back, simple fact is that they just lost their control of the game... Hmmm the following is a quote off the Bruins blog that to me says, WE SAT BACK AND TRIED TO WIN BUT DID NOT.

I don’t think we were sitting back…we ended up chasing the puck a lot and they got a hold of those pucks and they scored on those [chances]. We should prevent those…it’s definitely a tough way to lose like that…we earned a point, but it could have been two…it’s always tough when you are leading the whole game and in the end the [other] team puts pressure on you and you are protecting the lead. We’ve got to learn to be more poised and patient with those times. We made some mistakes in our zone and didn’t get those pucks out. When you make one, two, three mistakes in a row, usually that is not good. That’s how they earned…two points.”
Captain, Zdeno Chara, after the Sabres game
To me the sentences above contridict one another... where you sitting back or where you not? Protecting the lead to me reads "sitting back" they got away from the style of game that won them two periods of hockey and that is what cost them. They simply stopped skating and tried to defend the lead with pure defense and with Thomas or Hannu in net, you can NOT let any team build up shots, let alone the Sabres.

Kudos to Marc Savard on a three point night. He played one hell of a game, shame on Kessel, he had a chance to end it in OT and he missed the net, granted the ice was likely bad and the pressure was high, but this is one aspect of the game this kid is suppose to bring. He'll bounce back but it would have been nice to see him finish it. I know time... it takes time, not sure the Bruins have much time left.

The power play looked much better, scoring twice on four tries. They jumped to 19th overall. penalty killing was better, however they remain at the bottom of the original 30 on that one.

More to post after today's practice at NOOOOON TIME.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Tonights line break down

The lines for this evening according to what was seen at practice today are as follows:

Sturm-Bergeron-Boyes (first time this season we see this trio)
Axelsson-Savard-Murray (not sure that Axlesson should be there)
Primeau-Kessel-Donovan (like to see Phil in the middle but third line center? not much ice time there)
Hoggan-Mowers-Brookbank (what can I say, I like this line, they work hard and add energy)

Lashoff-Chara
Alberts-Mara
York-Dempsey

Thomas

New and Improved

I have made some changes to the blog, the sidebar now has some stats and a bunch of hockey links. Most of them are Canadian folks so it is genuine hockey stuff and not someone spewing garbage like ME!

Less than twelve hours until we see if the shuffle works.

Some interesting trade talk is going on according to the Canadian press. Seems the Bruin's are not afraid to toss Hannu into trade talks, as they feel that Tuukka Rask may be their real goaltending future (Tuukka was aquired in the deal with Toronto for Raycroft, which left many Toronto fans up in arms). Teams the B's are looking at dealing with are Philly, San Jose (not sure if Muzz would end up there as that may cause an issue with Cheecho, who is very happy to be Joe's go to guy and would likely not be happy with any change to their chemistry) The Sens, of course this would be tough to do inside the division, but because of Peter C's past you have to count them in.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Barnum and Bailey pulled out of town two weeks ago but left the JUGGLER behind

Seems that the circus left town and forgot to pack the juggler. Yup the cure all for the Bruin's is going to be to start juggling lines on a nightly basis. Not that I do not agree with mixing it up (both line wise and in the corners that is) But Dave Lewis has got to give his forwards a chance to gel. The team had a solid effort against the Sens last week, and I would have liked to see them go at it with the same line up and see if they can not produce another couple of goals. Boston had several chances that missed which could easily be chalked up as timing issues. You will never get your timing down if you don't play with the same guys. But then again I'm not the coach, nor am I even qualified to act as such.

Thursdays line up will include Kessel centering Axelson and Murray. The second line will see Savard on the left wing with Bergeron in the middle and Boyes on the right. There seems to be no change in the third and fourth lines from Saturday, and the defensive pairings will be a game day decision based on Alberts return or not. (I would go with not, Dempsey seems to be playing well above managements expectations and should be given another chance to show what he's got under the hood)

My next post will follow the game on Thursday.
Have I mentioned that I HATE THIS TWO GAMES PER WEEK AND ALWAYS ON THURSDAY AND SATURDAY! GOD DAM IT THOSE TV NIGHTS ARE USUALLY GOOD! WHY THE HELL NOT HAVE A TUESDAY NIGHT GAME WHEN THERE ISN'T SHIT ON TV!
Not to mention the fact that this will be the second time we see the Sabres this season and we still have not played everyone in our division. Who the hell makes this schedule anyway? GOOD LORD PEOPLE IT AINT ROCKET SCIENCE! (If it was we could always give the job to Joe Junuea.