B Squad Comes Up Empty

The Bruin's B team came up short against the Devils last night, lossing what was surely an emotional game for coach Julien 3-0.
Manny Fernandez made his Bruins debut giving way to Tuuka Rask at the halfway point. Fernandez gave up one goal on 15 shots, Rask allowed 2 goals on 19 shots.

The highlight of the night for Bruin's fans was the Jeremy Reich / David Clarkson street brawl. Clarkson took an early upper hand landing several hard shots, but Reich remained on his skates, landed some heavy punches and ended up sending Clarkson to the dressing room bleeding from his temple.

It's only Pre-Season, we sure seem to be carrying on with the we may loose the game but your going to bleed to win attitude that has been dormant in Boston for years, worst case scenario for this year is we go down swinging.

Pre-Season Starts off with a win

The Bruin's started the preseason off with a 3-1 win over the NY Islanders in Newfoundland Canada last night.
The squad was split, with this group having a little more muscle meaning the likes of Murray, Kessel, Bergeron were left in Beantown.
The boys threw down four times last night in an attempt to show the fans that they refuse to be walked on as they did last year.
Hat's off to the Big Z for throwing down for the first time as a Bruin. He looked as if he wanted to throw down with the Isles resident weassel Chris Simon, but Simon knew better and ensured he jawed from a distance until Isle new commer Kip Brennan. Chara left the game after the fight with a cut on his right hand.... nothing like breaking your hand on someone's face (OK so it was his helmet, but face sounds so much better.)

Bruins Hail to the Chief with a shutout

Tim Thomas played well, earning his third career shutout, and new comer Brandon Bochenski added a goal and two assists to power the Bruins past the Oilers. Bochenski, scored for the fourth time in four games since he was traded to Boston, and now has six points in his four games with the Bruins.
Another new comer added some desperately needed edge to the Bruins defensive corps, Andrew Ference was throwing his weight around, all 195 pounds of it. For a little guy he sure does like to hit, and his speed allows him to line you up and drop you before you have a chance to see it coming. I loved the style this kid was playing. If it moves, hit it. If it stays still, hit it harder. He reminded me of pre-shoulder surgery Don Sweeney. Never going to get the nod as an all-star, but a guy who went out there and gave 100% every night and rarely spoke a word, he simply let his play do the talking for him.
The Bruins suffered what could turn out to be the toughest loss of the season, as Bergeron went out in the second period with a lower body injury. Could have been a grion, or his hip which is reportedly been bothering him all season. The Bruins are not giving up any details other than, it is a lower body injury and Patrice is day to day.
No word on Muzz playing tonight, if he does not, he will likely be in uniform this weekend. Muzz is in NY for tonights game and will make a decision with the staff after the morning skate.
If Muzz is back in the line up it will be interesting to see what the lines will look like.
Muzz, Savy, (Sturm, Axelson, or Kessel)
Boyes, Bochenski, (Strum, Axelson or Kessel)
Chistov, Mowers, (Sturm, Axleson or Kessel)

I personally would go with
Muzz, Savy, Sturm
Kessel, Boyes, Bochenski
Axleson, Riech, Chistov
Mowers (Savy and Boyes) Donovan

With Bergerons injury the Bruins only have four centers, and I would leave Kessel out there as a winger as he seems to play better on the wing.
We shall see, should he interesting to see what Lewis does with the mix he has.

Two Down One to Go

Well two of the players we got for Joe Thornton are gone, and it is expected that the third will soon follow (that is if anyone wants him)

The Bruins pulled the trigger on a trade, sending defenceman Brad Stuart, and forward Wayne Primeau to the Flames on Saturday for defenceman Andrew Ference and forward Chuck Kobasew.
Was this a good trade? Only time will tell, we got two young players, we now haev two players on the roster who are a plus 7, (how long they stay that way is another question) the next closest player to being a plus is Brian Bochenski who is a minus one.

Taking into account that Stuart is on his way back to San Jose come July first, and that Primeau is a third line center at best, who takes dumb penalties, this trade may not seem to bad. Ference however is small 5-10 / 196 for a defensman and Kobasew has been hurt. (which I thought meant he could not be traded.) Anyhoo we now have him, and maybe there was wording in the deal in respect to draft picks or other players if Kobasew could not play. He will likely be out another 2-3 weeks according to the Boston Globe.

Is this what we needed? Not in my opinion, we needed a goalie. With the free agent market loking thin on goalies, Stuart may have been our only hope to landing a number one backstop.
Chairelli did free up a nice chunk of cap space, as the trade off is worth 2.4 million in cap space. Put that together with what we have in space now and the Bruins are looking at 2 million worth of room right now and if the cap increases next year to the projected 47 million, we will have 5.1 million to play with in the free agent market. This does not include the 4 million worth for Zhamnov, so in total we could have almost ten million in cap space. That would put Boston in the front running for anyone who was looking to get paid big (4-5 million a year) now are there any free agents out there worth that? The only two listed in the TSN (Cannadian ESPN, not the sporting news) power rankings are Hasek 2.08 GAA and .908 save Pct. But he is OLD and not likely to come to Boston, as he is not in need of the money and may even call it a career (for the third time) The other is Ray Emery, who may just be worth going after. He has stolen the show from Martin Gerber (who is making 3.7 million this year and we all know Ottowa has little cap space.) Emery is only making $925K so we could wave three million at him and he should come running. Chairelli knows Emery well, as he was in the mix when Ottowa drafted him, he has taken a Free agent with him already, when Boston signed Chara (even though he "officially" had nothing to do with it) So is this Chairelli's master plan? Could be, he keeps talking about cap space and moving players for little or nothing in return, only to come back and say we now have more room to move financially. Only time will tell, in fact only about four months and three weeks until the frre agent market opens up.

Are you kdding me... Ray Whitney?

Tim Thomas left us last night with this quote… "I'm not saying we didn't try [to hit Whitney]," said Thomas. "I'm just mad one guy beat us, that one guy was able to win the game. Whether that's my fault, or everyone's fault . . . it's more of an anger situation."

The first goal, was due to poor defense, the second goal was a combination of poor defense and poor goal tending. The third goal was just plain SOFT and after watching the replay at some point today, Thomas should issue a rebuttal to his statement that says…..

“Hey I have never been a starting goalie, and I have never been expected to play as many games as I have this season. The blame should go on the coaching staff and the management for not getting a real goalie, like Andrew Raycroft….. Oh wait we had him didn’t we.”

I will tell you, after watching the first few minutes of last nights game, I thought we where going to see the Bruins hand the Canes another loss. The line of Bergeron, Boyes and Kessel was flying, they nearly scored on their first shift, and at one point held the puck in the Canes end cycling for over two minutes, allowing the Canes to clear the puck, only after generating four shots (one off the post, so I guess three shots) and needing a change themselves due to exhaustion. I have not seen that much dominance from a Boston line in a long time and was actually excited to see what they would do next.

Well what they did next was nothing, they did play well throughout the game, but they could not find the back of the net, not for a lack of chances, they just could not catch a break. This line was one of two bright spots last night, the other being the new comer Brian Bochenski, and his pair of goals, giving him three goals in his first two games as a Bruin. Neither of Bochenski’s goals where very pretty they where the type of goal that a true goal scorer gets, the puck lands on his stick and he shoots it. Does he pick a corner, deke the goalie? No he gets the puck and he puts it in the back of the net. I saw flashes of Glenn Murray in the kid last night, just being a solid guy in the slot, who if you get him the puck will put it in the net.

Speaking of Muzz, he decided to give it a go last night bad groin and all. Muzz nearly put Boston ahead in the first when he ripped a puck through Cam Ward, only for Brent Hedican to scoop up just prior to it crossing the goal line. What a rocket that shot was, classic Muzz, crossed the blue line and ripped it. Muzz’s groin was evident late in the third with the Canes up 4-1, Lewis got smart and sat Muzz down to rest his groin. Then Lewis got stupid again and put him back out there for a last ditch effort on the power play. Why the hell would you sit a guy with a muscle injury let his body start to cool down and then put him back out there? We will be lucky if we do not hear today that Muzz’s groin injury has gotten worse.

The powerless play sucked last night, and continues to spiral downward, hoping someday to meet the penalty kill (which did much better last night and actually showed a little spunk.) at the bottom of the NHL standings. At one point the Hurricanes had two shots on goal to our 0 and this was during a Bruins power play. Of course this was on the fourth power play of the night and the Bruins where already 0-3 with a measly 4 shots. Not sure what Lewis was thinking last night (well I am not sure what he is thinking any night for that matter) but why would you put Marco Strum, who just came back from a thumping to his noggin, on the power play? At least it was not PJ Axelson, but come on. Was he not watching how Bergeron, Boyes, Kessel combination was playing? Why not toss them out there on the power play for a chance or two and see what happens? It is the little things like this that are keeping the team down, Lewis is all about riding the hot hand in net (not that we have one) but he is not thinking that way with his forwards, at least not on a consistent basis.
Hannu better get the start Saturday, Thomas surely has not earned his fourth in a row.

Boston Finds Their "Closer"

That's right kiddies, Boston has found its closer. No, not the Sox, the Bruins. Phil Kessel slammed the door shut on the Caps last night in the shoot out with a slick backhander over the shoulder of a down and out Olaf Kolzig. This was Kessel’s third chance in the shoot out and for the third time he has finished it off in style. This kid is a natural goal scorer, and obviously someone who handles pressure pretty dam well.
Kudos also go out to the big Z as he shut down Alexander Ovechkin all night long, holding the flashy muscovite to only two shots, neither being of great quality. Z was on, laying Ovechkin out in the first period, lining him up from the opposite side of the rink waiting for the drop pass and timing the hit perfectly. That hit set the tone and had Ovechkin on his toes for the rest of the night, allowing Chara to create space enough for some great poke checking during the second and third periods.
Tim Thomas played well (32 saves, and stuffing Ovechkin in the shoot out) the second Caps goal may have caught Thomas out of position, however the puck took a bad hop and barely made it under a diving Chara and just past the stick of a sprawling Thomas.

New comers Brandon Bochenski and Jeremy Reich both played well , Reich getting things started with a nice little tussle in the first, and Bochenski scored on a quick writster right off the face off, showing his teammates that all you have to do is shoot, and eventually the puck will go in. Bochenski was also given a chance to shine in the shoot out, where he ripped one past Kolzig but was robbed by the corner of the post and cross bar.

Funny thing about the shoot out, the replay of Kessel’s winner showed the reaction on the bench, and not surprisingly the coach who now says he had all the confidence in the world in Kessel being able to finish off, was not even watching. He had his hand on his head and was bent down as if he was praying (“Please God, let the kid score, I need to keep my J-O-B”).

Overall First period was not so good offensively (two shots) but the team stayed tough and battled back for a badly needed two points.

The penalty killing was on last night, and the power play was a dismal 1-5 with one of those being a 4 minute power play. At least the one the connected on was one that they needed, as it tied the game and forced the OT and shoot out.

Way to go Phil, nice move, nice goal, just plain nice.

THE WAITING GAME

Well it appears that the Bruins plan to take the wait and see approach to the upcoming trade deadline. Less the blockbuster trades of Milan Jurcina and Kris Versteeg, Peter Chairelli has decided to sit an wait for the market to play out.
Reading between the lines, this says, No one is interested in paying the asking price that has been offered for the rental of Stuart or Sturm.
Unless a deal can be made with LA or San Jose, we will likely see Stuart traded away for a draft pick or two, seeing as Stuart has all but said he will play no where but the West Coast, what team in their right mind would trade for him, knowing he was going to exit come July 1st.
Sturm, on the other hand simply is not producing the numbers that he did last season, and teams are not going to give up much for his services.
The one thing the Bruins have going for them is the fact that there are not to many teams out there dangling players of either Stuart or Sturms caliber. Both have shown bits of brillance in the last two seasons, but both have also shown that they have a lot of growning to do, particularly Stuart who someday will be a dominant presence on some teams Blue line (Unforetunately not ours).
We have all been preparing for this moment since the wheels fell of our roller coaster back in December, and the time is near... less than three weeks until the deadline hits.

Same old song and lack of Dancing

Once again, “coach” (I use this term very loosely) Lewis thought it best to muster up some offense with the likes of Jeff Hogan (30 games, 2 Pts, shooting a whopping .000 %) Sean Donovan (47 Games, 12 Pts, shooting .060%) Mark Mowers (45 Games, 10 Pts, shooting .056%) and the best one of all is Stanislav Chistov (31 Games, 7 Pts, .091 %) All four of these guys have seen more ice time than Phil Kessel this season and there is nothing to explain why. Phil has 35 Games, 12 Pts, and is shooting .100 %. Looks to me like the kid has decent shot selection (those of you wondering Muzz shoots .135%, and we all know he can shoot) I know some of you are using the same excuse that Lewis has been ramming down the throat of the media, Phil is weak on D. Hmmm he was NOT drafted for his defensive abilities now was he. Yes he is a minus 12, however Donovan is a minus 11, Hogan is a minus 3 Chistov is a minus 7. Hell Marco Sturm is a minus 16, Bergeron is a minus 17, Boyes is minus 14. So lets drop that now, in fact there is ONLY one player that is not a minus on the Bruins and that is Bobby Allen, give the kid a couple of games (he has only played in 4) and I am sure he will be just like the rest of the team, MINUS something.
Back to the “coach”, he has a kid who battles back from having cancer, ok so you say it was minor, just a little lump, a quick snip, snip and no Chemo. Umm Hello this was CANCER, I don’t care what form, how it is treated, it drains you physically and emotionally, not to mention being 19 and having one of your nuts chopped off! So if your thinking along those lines do us all a favor and put your head in the toilet, flush repeatedly while slamming the seat down on the back of your head, repeat as many times as needed until all the shit between your ears is gone. Anyway he beat cancer, comes back plays six games has four points, including the game winning shootout goal against Pittsburgh where his ice time hit a career high of 14:32 (still in the bottom five for the game) and is given a chance to play on the second line with Bergeron and Sturm. Then comes the all-star break where the kid is invited to the young stars game (they must have needed a roster filler, because we all know he sucks, and defensively he is a liability.) He goes out, nets a hat-trick, confidence goes up, he is excited to get back to work in Boston, and what happens? He gets 10 minutes of ice time, most of that coming in the third period when Lewis decides that Hogan and Mowers are not providing the offensive punch he hoped for, and Kessel sets Primeau up for what should have been the game tying goal (Nice one Primeau, you choke artist) even after sitting for the majority of the first two periods. Is anyone else seeing this? What the hell is Lewis thinking? I know Defense wins championships, well we have little to work with there, and in hockey, GOALTENDING wins championships, but only when someone scores a couple of goals. YOU CAN’T WIN 0-0 but you can win 10-9, so OFFENSE just simply WINS!
Oh by the way, the Bruins lost if you have not figured that one out.

Someone is in the shoot...

According to the Boston Globe, Peter Charelli and company are ready to pull the trigger on at least one deal that would move a player or two.
When asked about a trade being made here in Beantown, Peter Chiarelli said:
"I would expect so," Chiarelli said when reached by telephone late yesterday afternoon, "and within the next one or two weeks."
When asked if the answer was with the baby B's Chiarelli replied:
"Right now, I think we would have to look at other [NHL] teams [to deal with]," said Chiarelli, "if we are going to improve significantly in the areas we have identified."


Both of these comments sure sound like a trade is looming to me. The better question is who will get moved and for what? The Globe reports that Chiarelli and company met in Vegas (great place to hold a little meeting of the minds, after all what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.) and came up with a short list of players they wanted to make a move for. Believe it or not, but that list does not include any goaltending, thanks to Hannu’s performance in his last two starts, Chiareli now sees Hannu as being where they had projected him to be….. I thought he was projected as the next coming of Christ? Maybe not, maybe they had figured he was a quick fix until Rask completes his military tour of duty (Mandatory military service in Finland, maybe something we should look at here in the U.S. might do some of these punks kids around here some good to see what it is like to actually stand up for your country.) This short list contains names of gritty forwards and hard hitting defensemen. I would think that the emphasis will be on a forward, seeing that our defense seems to have been given a jolt over the past two games with the arrival of Bobby Allen, shaking up those who have become accustom to getting ice time even when they play badly.
So who is on that list? Good question. Here is a list of possible candidates that I have been collecting for the past few days. They are all set to become free agents and will likely need cap room to sign, or they have not performed up to snuff at their current address.

Martin Straka
Keith Tkachuk
Bill Guerin
Ruslan Fedotenko
Scott Gomez
Darren McCarty
Anson Carter
Todd Bertuzzi
Chris Drury
Dan Briere
Raffi Torres
Michael Ryder
Pavel Datsyuk
Teemu Selanne

Hannu to sue for lack of support

Hannu showed up tonight for the game, it is too bad that the rest of the squad decided to make an early departure for the all-star break.
To put it simply, they sucked. Hannu stood on his head for the entire night and the rest of the team let him down. The Bruins had as many shots on net as the Senators did powerplay shots.
I can not wait to hear what Lewis has to say. He had better give Hannu another start after that one. Hannu ended the night with a 3-0 loss however he made 36 saves which should have been good enough for a win. However when the team gets only 18 shots all night, that usually spells disater.
Boston went 0-6 on the power play with only 3 shots. The power play looked like a bunch of pee-wee's trying to play against a team from Hockey East. The Senators dominated the game at all levels. They beat the Bruins to every loose puck, when Boston was on the power play you had a tough time noticing, as the Sens seemed to still match man for man.
I hope every single guy on the team(minus Hannu and Thomas) is told to be at the rink Monday morning for practice. I hope it ruins their vacation plans, pisses them off, and makes them want some blood, because something has to give here. They took the night off tonight and made their goalie pay for it.

Hannu to get the start

The Bruins announced that Hannu will get the start again this evening when Ottowa comes to town. This will be Hannu's first back to back start since mid October.

Entertainment

That is the one word that describes the Bruins game last night. It had it all, a little drama (Sid the kid for some reason thinks that he is untouchable and actually tried to get in Chara's face, well chest, after being ruffed up by the big man in the first period) a little controversy, (The Bruins appeared to score a goal that the referee called back saying the play was over.... yet no whistle blew, the Bruins player was pushed into the crease, and the puck certainly went in before the net came off) and a whole lot of flair by Phil Kessel in the shootout.
This game had everything but a fight, which Malone tried to get started with Chara, but then found himself looking face down at the ice after a Chara open glove to the back of the head.
Hannu started the game off on shaky ground, giving up two goals on 12 shots in the first. The first goal was a tic-tac-toe pass that caught Hannu leaning a little to far left, although he nearly made the save as he dove head first across his crease in an attempt to block the gaping net.
The second goal was pure error on Hannu's part, as he misplayed the angle something terrible as Malkin beat Stuart along the boards and Malkin made him pay with a wrister in the top corner of the net.
The Bruins showed a ton of character in the second by battling back with three unanswered goals (Muz, Strum, Stewart) not to mention the fourth no goal, goal that still has this viewer baffled?
All looked lost, when the Bruins where handed two back to back penalties resulting in a 5 on 3 for nearly a full two minutes, but the penalty killing, which has been anything but respectful this far this season, stepped up and killed it of, sparking the Bruins to push the tie and overtime.
The OT period was all Boston, out shooting the Pens 9-2 and if not for some incredible goaltenting by Fluery late in the OT they would have sent the Garden faithful home with a smile. But the Lords of the Boards decided this one would be even that much more entertaining if it included a shootout.
Hannu looked shaky on the first shooter, (can't say I blame him , after all he has not been able to buy a win for his team) letting in a goal that looked as if he didn't even see it. Marco Strum, who is over 40% in the shootout this season buried Bostons first chance high glove side on Fluery, bringing the Garden crowd to their feet, where they would stay, as Hannu turned back both Malkin and Sid the kid, setting the stage for Rookie Phil "The Thrill" Kessel, and that he did, slipping a perfectly placed shot between the sprawling Fluery and the post, making him 2 for 2 in shootout chances. (Hmmm I think somewhere in here I asked why he did not shoot in the last shootout... thanks for reading Dave..... You still need to be fired)
I will take a day off from my fire you campaign, as you actually coached last night and used players and combinations that seemed to actually provide some scoring and some entertainment. Have no fear, you get a chance tomorrow to blow it again.

What you expected 2 in a Row?

It seems to be the norm here in Boston, we can't seem to find a way to play two solid games in a row. The Bruins where dominated last night by the Sabres in a lop sided 6-3 loss. The boys came out of the gate fairly well and Phil Kessel scored early on a breakaway (hellow Dave Lewis, please take note the kid is good one on one.) The Bruins quickly gave up the lead and found themselves down 2-1. It looked as if the Bruins would battle back, after Muzz tied the game at two with just over two minutes left in the first frame, but much like Boston did on Monday, Buffalo slipped one past Thomas with just six ticks left on the clock to make it 3-2 after one.

The second period was back and forth, with the Sabres holdign most of the play, but generating little offense out of it.
The Bruins looked ready at the start of the third period when Savard slipped a cross ice pass to Kessel who buried a one timer high under the cross bar for his second goal of the night. But instead of building off the momentum, the Bruins let the wheels fall off. They quickly found themselves down 5-3 with less than two minutes left. Lewis called a time out (which is a GIANT step forward for him) and put out his best players. Bergeron, Muzz, Savard, AXELSON?? Chara and Allen? What the %@#!$ is this gut a moron or what. He has a kid on the bench who scored two goals (I would think this meant he was hot) and he put out the HUGE offensive threat of PJ Axelson. Are you kidding me? Not to mention the fact that Brad Stuart was on the bench in favor of a kid who is playing in his second NHL game in two years, and who has only played one other NHL before lastnight.
Good lord, who are we trying to kid with Lewis behind the bench, hell I'm not a coach, and have never claimed to be (well once but that was the Newton MA hockey directors fault) but any idiot would be able to tell you that if your down by two with less than two minutes left, you don't put out the one guy who is known in the league for his penalty killing ability.

Hannu gets the start tonight, he will be wearing a new mask that pay tribute to Boston sports. We shall see if the boys show up to play in front of him this time.

Kessels final ice time total was 13:33 with two shots and two goals and a plus two on the night.
Allens final total was 14:05 plus one with three shots.

Kessel declined comment on his two goal night.... sound like a happy player to you?

You do the math.....

Day twelve of FIRE DAVE LEWIS!

Bruins Move Stastny

The Bruins sent Yan Stastny to the Blues for a used puck pag.... I mean a fifth round draft pick.
They also called up Bobby Allen, who has NHL experience ONE WHOLE GAME two years ago. Allen was drafted in 98 by the Bruins, who quickly parted ways with him, and then resigned him (of course, because he is a Hull native, and that may actually bring one or two more fans to the rink) during the off season.
This move seems a little strange, as they sent Matt Lashoff down, and Lashoff has been playing fairly well. It could be a sign that Lashoff is on his way somewhere, but it could also be that the muppet man does not like rookies on his NHL squad. Could also be that Lewis is on CRACK, which is something I have felt more than once this year.

Day 11 of the good old FIRE DAVE LEWIS campaign. (send the Bruins an email telling them to fire Lewis, and see what you get for a response. The political correctness in the Bruins media office is going strong!)

WIN Leaves us Wondering

The Bruin’s squeaked out a win in a shootout yesterday, however they left the Garden faithful still asking questions. For example why was Glen Murray given another chance in the shootout after going 1-7 life time (1-8 after yesterday) O.K. maybe because Murray leads the team in goals right? Well no, everyone knows that Glen Murray has a cannon for a shot, and his quick release, and nose for gathering up the loose puck in the slot is top notch. That however does not mean he can score on a breakaway, Murray is not that kind of goal scorer. Why not let Bergeron, Boyes, Donovan (who has shown great potential lately), Kessel, hell even P.J. Axelson, any one of them has more finesse than Muzz.
Another question is what team are we going to see? Are we going to see the team who outplayed Buffalo, who in my opinion is one of the best rounded teams I have seen in years, or are we going to get the team who posts a 2-0 lead only to blow it in the third, or maybe the team that comes out fires in two quick ones then lets in eight straight to get blown out by the largest margin in years?
Anyther question to ponder for today, is what will Dave Lewis do about Wayne Premaue who was lost in the opening minutes of the second to a separated shoulder. Will he bring up someone from Providence? Will he utilize Jeff Hogan, who seems to be sitting in the stands and gaining nothing by doing so, or will he actually use one of the other centers he has available who have been playing wing for the majority of the season? No one knows, and for the most part I think that includes Lewis.
Anyone notice how well Brad Boyes played in the middle yesterday? He was 6 for 17 on the face off which is great for his first time in three years in the middle. You may not have noticed how well Boyes played, because his shifts where cut drastically, after all when your put on a line with Phil Kessel you are just about guaranteed to get short changed in your ice time. The line ofBoyes, Kessel and Tenkrat seemed to be flying yesterday. Kessel had four shots and two of them where milimeters away from being goals. But we did not get to see the kids play much as Lewis continued his anti-Kessel streak, shuting him out on the shootout and cutting his ice time once again. Kessel has played in 31 games, he averages only sixteen shifts a game and only twelve minutes. In comparison, we will use third line player Sean Donovan as an example of how Lewis is screwing up our future. Donovan over 43 games is averaging twenty shifts and fourteen minutes of ice time. Looks like Kessel is being shorted about five or six shifts per game and at least two minutes. I won’t get into the fact that his numbers are even worse because the game total is off by twelve games and who the hell knows how many of those would have seen Kessel on the short end of the bench.
If you’re going to keep him on the bench, for almost a whole period (played two shifts in the third yesterday and ZERO in OT.) Why not send him down where he can play every night, build his confidence, and actually mold him into the elite level player he has the potential to be.

This is day ten of my fire Dave Lewis campaign. Dam I thought MOC was bad, this guy has been given talent and he can’t seem to make it work. Anyone think Mike Sullivan would come back to honor the last few months of his contract? After all we are still paying him, maybe between the two of them, we can actually get our asses out of the cellar.

Third Period Melt Down

Once again we watched the Bruins aquander a 2-0 lead to a Northeast opponnent. With their top two defense men out of the line, the Bruins limped into Ottowa with two rookie defensemen (Sigalet and Lashoff) in the line up and slotted to skate together, another solid coaching move by Dave Lewis. Lashoff, looked good through two periods and arguably could replace the aging and ailing Jason York on a regular basis. His partener, Jon Sigalet should be shuttled bussed back to Providence first thing this morining. He was out of his element and everyone in the building could tell. Chalk it up to nerves, but this kid was bad, makes you wonder why he found himself with a contract. Was it to keep an eye on Brother Jordan, who is a goalie in the Bruins organization?
The forwards started off with a decent effort forchecking well and stacking up at the blue line, making a first period Ottowa threat almost non-existant. The B's however where out shot by Ottowa 11-10, but the boys had the two goal advantage, on a penalty shot by Sturm and a goal by Paul Mara off a deflection in front of Ray Emery (25 Saves .920% Save percentage).
The writting was on the wall at the start of the second period, when the Bruins came out flat, they could not muster any offense and certainly where not controlling the play. The Bruins held Ottowa to only six shots in the second period, which sounds great for team defense, until you see that the Bruins only had 3 shots during that same period.
The third period was scary for the first three plus minutes, with Thomas standing on his head much of that time. The Bruins gave up six shots in the first three minutes and we all knew that we where about to witness yet another third period meltdown.
Sure enough, it officially started at 17:38 when Mike Comrie slipped a backhander through the five hole of Thomas to cut the lead in half. Seven minutes later, the game was tide and five minutes after that Ottowa took the lead for good, the salt was added less than a minute latter and the desert was an empty netter with one minute remaining.
On the positive side, Phil Kessel returned from his Cancer treatment and had one shot on goal in ten minutes of ice time (I hope the lack of ice time was to ease him back in). Another positive was that Muppet Man actually called a time out when his team final gave up the lead. Unforetunately he need to kick them in the ass between the second and third period, which he obviosly either did to hard or not at all., when they decided that one period of good hockey was all they had in them.
Once again we blow a lead, Lewis will say he knows they can do it, and the rest of the league looks forward to playing us.

OOOOOOOOps!

O.K. I was screwing around at work and I messed up my Dream Weaver HTML. Hoepfully I will get some time to fix it tonight. If not SCREW YOU! Sorry had to be mad at someone other than me.... After all it can't be my fault, I didn't do nutttin wrong.

Bruins Rebound..... and win

With a little hard work and the arrival of the only team in the NHL that is struggling worst that the Bruins, the boys in black and gold where able to pull off a 4-3 victory of the Flyers.
Marc Savard continued to prove he was worth the doughnuts he is getting, with a four point night, two goals and two assists.
There where not many highlight plays in this one, in fact it was rather boring, with a lot of neutral zone play. Thomas play fairly well, some sketchy rebounds, but for the most part a solid effort.
The Bruins played with out Chara, his injury only described as a lower body injury that would not keep him out of the line up long.
Rookie Phil Kessel will rejoin the team today for practice after a short stint in Providence where Kessel played three games and had one goal. Kessel’s last appearance with the big club was on December 9th (a loss to the Devils 5-1). Kessel is expected in the line up Tuesday when the Bruins take on the Senators in Ottowa. No word on whether or not Chara will play, he is listed day to day.

Tic Tac Toe 3 in a Row.... SOMETHING STINKS! and it isn't my B.O.

Holy shit, I guess that is all I can muster at this point. What an absolute embarrassment, for the team, the coach, the management, the owner, and most of all the suckers who paid to see it happen (all 14,560 of you).
I hate to say it, but we are now looking like the Bruins team of old, this same implosion happened last year at just about the same time. We fell apart just prior to the All-Star break and there was no chance of return.
Well it has been three straight losses for the Bruins, 5-0, 5-1, and 10-2. Do the math kiddies that is a 20-3 goal differential. Sounds like we are missing two things here, scoring and goaltending. I know there are a couple of you out there who are Tim Thomas fans, but he is definitely not the answer to our goaltending issues. He is inconsistent at best, last nights cluster fuck saw Thomas allow 8 goals on 31 shots. What happened to the days when a goalie on average allowed on goal every ten shots?
Once again the Bruins where out shot, out hustled, out.... well just plain out, like out to lunch, out to dinner, hell they may as well gone out for breakfast too.
When asked, the Muppet man simply said that he could not question the teams will to win because he has seen them do it. Well jackass, have you seen the last three games? There was some effort against Nashville (not much in my book) little effort against the leafs in the 5-1 loss and ZERO effort last night in the blow out.
If you can not motivate a team to come out and put an ass whooping on a team who just slapped you around 5-1 a few night previously, how the hell do you convince them that they can rebound from a 10-2 loss. The time is near where we stop asking, who are we going to trade, what players can we call up, and we just face the fact that we are still missing some large pieces to the puzzle and that the puzzle master may just be the issue. Again I will say, I do not know what the man is like in the locker room, but behind the bench and on the street, Dave Lewis is a joke. Maybe we can get Bill Cowher to come and put a fire under someones ass, not that he has retired from football, I mean look at that guy, hell you have to wear a rain coat when he is talking to you, forget about when he is pissed off.
As March has said, hold Kessel out for a home game and the place will go nuts, well Saturday's game may just be the time. The team needs a boost, and Phil can provide that. After all he is no longer the team leader in the minus category.

Kessel Upgraded to Day-to-Day

Bruins Officials have upgraded Phil "The Thrill" Kessel to day-to-day. This is the first sign that Phil will be off the the IR and moved back into the lineup. The Bruins said Phil will participate in this morning skate and will not suit up against Toronto tonight. However they did not rule out a possible return to the line up on Saturday and instead said that Phil will not play until the medical staff clears him to play. Phil was held out of any contact drills yesterday and was sportign the classic red jersey, meaning he was off limits to physical play.
Phil has declared himself cured and ready to play, however the Bruins staff said he has not been given a target date for his return and will not play until he is given the OK from the medical staff.

Update on Phil the thrill

The Boston Globe is reporting that Phil Kessel is back on the ice practicing with the team. No word on his eventual return to the line up, but things seem to be progressing in a rapid manner. Stay tuned for more details as they come available.

Two games, Two losses, Too many goals against

The Bruins started and ended the year on the same note. A poor effort, resulting in two absolute blow outs. OK so the Nashville game was not an absolute blow out if you look at shots on goal. The Bruins fired 38 shots on goal, however looking at where those shots came from will make you think that the Bruins where trying to give goalie Chris Mason a shut out. Only 15 out of the 38 shots where from below the face off circles. That is absolutely unacceptable, unless of course our name is Dave Lewis who told the Boston Globe "I thought we played a heck of a hockey game," said Lewis. "I thought we played one of the better games of the year." How the hell do you loose 5-0 and say you played one of your better games this year? I guess all five goals where one players fault right? (read: Hannu goes to Providence, Lewis should have gone with him) That is a hard pill to swallow seeing that he has gotten one start in the last month (a loss to the Habs, where he played his ass off and the team let him down) and he had three goals deflected in on him. Anyway they played like pee-wee's and the result was a shut out, and the assignment of what was once our goaltending future to the baby B's (We will likely not see Hannu in the Garden again, unless of course it is for some other team.)

Game TWO:
So teh Bruins took one of their "best efforts of the year" and went to Toronto. What better place for the B's to get out of a funk than Toronto. They where 4-0 and dominated the Leafs all year. Plus the Leafs had some key injuries and where pretty banged up. Monday's game should have been a cake walk. Well someone should have told the Bruins that. They once again got shelled being out scored 5-1 and getting out shot 35 - 28. Tim Thomas played like his normal self, doign everything possible to loose this one. The third goal was a back breaker, as Thomas somehow missed a rolling puck that came out of the corner, and from teh replay may have even knocked it into his own net. I thought for sure we would see Hannu in the third period, but that was prior to knowing that he was going to be sent down.
So if the 5-0 game was one of the best of the year then 5-1 must have been even better, after all we did score a goal.
Not sure what is going on in Bean Town today, but I sure hope we are back in the market for a goalie. Thomas's bubble may have burst and we could be sitting at the bottom of the Northeast division for some time now.