Bruins Nation

Scratch what I said on Thursday. The last Bruins pre-season game is Tomorrow, not Sunday. It's on at 4:00 PM on NESN! It's New York Rangers at Boston Bruins. Even though it's a pre-season game, it should be fun to watch.

This is the first of my new friday blogging. Along with any normal posts, on Friday's I am going to pay a little Bruins Nation style tribute to the Boston Bruins players. Each Friday will be dedicated to a different Bruins player.

Friday September 28th, 2006: Brad Stuart

picture from www.nhl.com

go #6!

I know it's only the pre-season but things are looking pretty good.

The Bruins are now 4-1 in pre-season play after they, led by a 23 save performance by goalie Hannu Toivonen, defeated the Islanders 3-2 in Halifax. All three Bruins goals were in the first period. Tyler Redenbach scored the first goal only two minutes into the game. Glen Murray, who was playing in his home town, scored the second goal, and defenseman Jonathan Sigalet, who's brother was recently cut from the team (sent to Providence), scored the third goal.

Also as all of you know, I have always kept the faith when it comes to the Red Sox. So today I raise my glass and say, "here's to next year". Yesterday the Boston Red Sox were officially eliminated from the playoffs after they lost to the Blue Jays and Minnesota beat Baltimore. It was a great season, until the trading deadline when we decided to get nobody. Then everything fell apart. Everyone got hurt and we started losing games fast!

Also, to the Boston College defense, **** you! You couldn't even execute a damn 'prevent'. For All of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Boston College was winning 15-10 yesterday, then with about 13 seconds left, North Carolina State's quarterback basically threw up a hail Mary pass that was caught in the endzone with 8 seconds left and NC State won the game. Say good-bye to the top 25 Eagles.

Also, UNH won, Northeastern won, Umass won, and Harvard won yesterday.

I got an email today from John Bishop!!! Earlier in the week I made fun of him in the blog for not responding to my emails, but he finally responded at 2:02 today. My original question to him was how he thought the Bruins would do against the Canadiens. He had this to say:

I watched a lot of the Habs last year and if the Habs team that was playing pre saku injury shows up, well, it will be a real battle. However, I really like our boys and think B's nation is in for quite a suprise.

Thanks for the reply John. (Bish's Blog is officially on the Bruins Nation Blogroll)

We're 3-1 in the Pre Season so far!

Tim Thomas stepped up big tonight, making 30 saves while allowing only one goal. It was a true team win tonight as all five goals were scored by different players! Those scoring goals for the Bruins were Nate Thompson, Brad Stuart, Pascal Pelletier, Martins Karsums, and Marc Savard. All those goals coming off 7 assits from the Bruins. The Bruins play the Islanders again tomorrow night (Sunday the 23rd) at 7:00 PM in Halifax.

Also, to all the Jews in Bruins Nation, Happy New Year!

X-rays came back negative, he just has a bone bruise. He is perfectly okay and did practice today. Thank you hockey gods for that save.

Also the Boston Bruins have sent some players to providence. (A weak way of telling a player they've he's* been cut.) Here's the list via John Bishop of Bish's Blog.
Forward, Jeremy Reich
Forward, Wacey Rabbit
Forward, Chris Collins
Forward, Nate DiCasmirro
Forward, T.J. Trevelyan
Forward, Dennis Packard
Goalie, Jordan Sigalet
Goalie, Mike Brown

* Wow I made an obvious gramatical mistake and didn't catch it. (For the gramatically challenged members of Bruins nation "they've" is incorrect because "player" is singular)

Sorry but I have to make this quick. The Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1. Chara scored a goal, Hoggan scored a goal, and Brad Boyes scored an empty net goal with 2 seconds left. I read that Chara limped off the ice after being hit with a puck in the leg. I don't know if he's seriously injured or just a little bruised.

Also to anyone that cares, this is the 50th entry. I am proud of this blog and I think 50 entries in two months is outstanding.

Sorry this is a little late but I haven't had time to blog about yesterday's game.

Anyway The Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-2! Marco Sturm was the first star because of his two goals. Paul Mara, Zdeno Chara, and Mark Mowers had goals as well. Tim Thomas played the first 40 minutes of the game and had 18 saves while allowing only one goal. Phil Kessel also had a pretty good game, (especially considering that this is his first pro game ever) he had two assists and was the game's third star. Can you say season sweep of the Canadiens! (Actually all of Bruins Nation except John Bishop can say it. I say this because John Bishop still hasn't replied to my two e-mails.) Anyways, the Bruins are playing the Canadiens again tonight so we'll see what happens.

Also congratulations to Deval Patrick for winning the democratic primary. Actually I think it's pretty safe to say: Congratulations Deval Patrick on becoming the next governor of Massachusetts. Come on people, Kerry Healey has no chance, I guarentee you the first poll that comes out has Deval Patrick leading with 76% of the vote, Kerry Healey in second place with 15% of the vote, and Christy Mihos in third with 9% of the vote. Just wait Bruins Nation, you'll see.

Who Knew an Atlanta Thrashers fan could be so nice?

Read the article, it'll make you feel better about fellow human beings.

Quickly before the polls close, Go and vote today in your party's primary. I'm sure Deval Patrick, Thomas Reilly, and Chris Gabrielli would all appreciate your vote.

The Boston Bruins last week decided that the website's new blogger would be John Bishop (instead of Ian Moran). You can find the blog at http://www.bostonbruins.com/blog. This new guy, John Bishop (I don't acutally know if he's new) is not off to the best of starts with the President of Bruins Nation.

Two days ago I sent him an email with a simple question and asked him to return the email by either posting a comment on this blog, or by emailing me back. The question was easy: How do you think the Bruins will do against the Canadiens this season? He hasn't given me an answer. I even wrote that I was the president of Bruins Nation. How could you not respond to the president. Anyway he actually is a good blogger and looks to be a huge Bruins fan. So John Bishop, I'm just messing with you.

In case anyone was wondering: I think the Bruins will win all Eight games against the Canadiens.

At 1:00 today the Boston Bruins are playing their first pre-season hockey game against the New Jersey Devils In Lowell! It's at Paul Tsongas Arena (where the Lowell Devils play)

Also I would like to announce that Wily Mo Pena should kill himself. After last night's game against the Yankees he does not deserve to live. It basically looked like he wasn't trying. He made three errors! (they only counted one of them though) The three errors that he made which, I believe, led to two runs were when twice, fly balls hit off his glove and landed, and another time when he just didn't dive for a very catchable ball. Wily Mo Pena also let the team down when he was at bat. Twice in the game he got out with runners in scoring position! Wily Mo Pena was not worth Bronson Arroyo! That was probably the worst trade in theo Epstein's young career.

(I was just kidding by the way. Wily, don't actually kill yourself, just stab yourself in the leg a couple times so you'll be injured and not in the lineup.)

RIP Bart Bradley

P.J. Stock clearly wins this fight!



Also it's a great day. The Red Sox beat the Yankees in game one of the double-double-header, Harvard beat Holy Cross, BC beat BYU, UMass beat Villanova, and UNH beat Stony Brook. And Remember, there is another Red Sox Yankees game tonight at 8.

I can't wait until tomorrow, it's timed so perfectly. at 1:00 there is a Red Sox-Yankees game, at 4:15 there is a Patriots-Jets game, and at 8:00 there is another Red Sox-Yankees game.

I know I can!

Tonight's Red Sox-Yankees game was rained out. That means that tomorrow and Sunday's games are double-headers. 4 games in two days. 4 Red Sox vs Yankees games in two days. It's a Boston sports fan's dream come true. Thank you mother nature.

Also to the anonymous commenter who comented on the last entry, I was trying to sound like Stephen Colbert, not Jon Stewart. Jon Stewart was a good guess though. For the record, the Colbert Report in my book is a 9.8, and the Daily Show is a 9.7! Stephen Colbert should have three Emmy's on his book shelf, the academy of television who chooses the winners of the Emmy's sucks!!!

Boo Hoo, the rookies got cut. Well all I have to say is suck it up Bruins Nation, the veterans are coming, and we don't want our cheeks to be tear-stained when they come. Guys like Brad Isbister, David Tanabe, and Nick Boynton liked cryers. But wait... there not coming to training camp. The real Boston Bruins are showing up in Wilmington, guys like Zdeno Chara, Marc Savard, and Milan Jurcina. So suck back the tears nation and get ready for a wicked season!!

Oh yeah, these rookies are actually coming to training camp:
Chris Collins, Petr Kalus, Martins Karsums, Phil Kessel, David Krejci, Pascal Pelletier, Wacey Rabbit, Tyler Redenbach, Yan Stastny, Nate Thompson, T.J. Trevelyan, Kris Versteeg, Ben Walter, Dusty Demianiuk, Matt Lashoff, Jonathan Sigalet, Mike Brown, Jordan Sigalet.

Thank You Boston Globe Bruins Blog (link can be found on the right) for the nice list of Bruins rookies that haven't been cut, yet.

One last thing, now the Red Sox have to go 17-0. Since I wrote the last blog entry about the Red Sox needing to go 18-1 to make the playoffs, the Red Sox have been 1-1. So now the Red Sox have to go 17-0. Hey, Mr. President here always keep the faith, our magic number is 10 (7 in the AL east) and until it's zero, we have a chance, and if we have a chance, it means we're going to make the playoffs!

I have decided that in order for the Boston Red Sox to make the playoffs, they must win 18 of their last 19 games. That's 18-1 over the next three weeks, and the one loss cannot be to either the Yankees or the Twins.

I am calling it right now. The Red Sox are about to get very hot. They're going to finish off 18-1, beat Detroit in the first round, then the Yankees in the ALCS, and then the Mets in the world series. That's right, the President of Bruins Nation thinks the Red Sox are about to win the world series!

Today Tom Fitzgerald announced his retirement from the National Hockey League. The 38 year old will be the newest Bruins analyst for NESN. Last year with the Boston Bruins Fitzgerald scored 4 goals in 71 games, normally playing on the fourth line. The Boston Globe's Bruins Blog has more...

No hockey posts today...


...Today we remember and mourn the loss of 3,000 American lives. Lives that were abruptly ended on September 11th, 2001.

Peter Chiarelli announced today that the Boston Bruins have signed Wasey Rabbit to a multi-year contract. Wasey Rabbit, a center originaly from Alberta, has played the last three seasons with the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League. As last season's team captain, Rabbit posted career numbers. Lets hope that this season he makes it all the way to Providence. (Don't get mad at me, he's 19, he has plenty of seasons to play with the Bruins.)

Also, training camp started today!!! If anyone wants to know how it's going, than you're going to have to check it out yourselves (it's in Wilmington) because sadly, the president can not make it this year.

Exactly one month ago I wrote a blog entry about how the Red Sox had a failed ninth inning comeback. While writing about this I mentioned that Kevin Youkilis's nickname is "the greek god of walks". I asked the nation if anyone knew why he was called that, and to email me if they knew. Well, no one e-mailed me but I found out the answer today while reading Dan Shaughnessy's book Reversing the Curse. Apparently Kevin Youkilis was dubbed the nickname in Michael Lewis's book Moneyball. So just in case anyone was still curious, that is how Kevin Youkilis got to be named the greek god of walks.

Nothing happening in Bruins Nation right now (except for some informal skating at Wilmington) so I give you a three second hockey fight between Boulerice of the Carolina Hurricanes and Downey of the Dallas Stars.



And Downey makes the entire state of Texas proud with one punch.

Today's Boston Globe reports that Wayne Primeau has had a close to succesful recovery from arthroscopic surgery on his hip. The surgery took place in May and Kevin Paul Dupont from the Boston Globe reports that Wayne Primeau is already skating easier. Primeau said, "I'm a lot better. But I think, like a lot of surgeries, it probably will be a full year before it's totally better." Hopefully Wayne Primeau will be the same force to be reckoned with that he was before his hip went bad.

Also, I am a big fan of P.J. Axelsson. I don't want him to go to Ottawa as some rumors have indicated. This is why I was very pleased to read this in the Boston Globe:

"According to Chiarelli, there is nothing to the rumor out of Ottawa last week that the senators would like to aquire P.J. Axelsson, one of Daniel Alfredsson's longtime pals. At least there is nothing from the Boston side."

P.J. Axelsson is a great hockey player. The President of Bruins Nation would like nothing more than to see P.J. Axelsson retire in Boston.

The Boston Red Sox as of late have been plagued with injuries. One thing everyone needs to know is that guys like Varitek, Wakefield, and Nixon will get better, probably by the end of the season. But for Jon Lester, his recovery is going to take all of his strength. Karen Guregian's article for the Boston Herald puts it best:

Jon Lester is in for the fight of his life. The rookie left-hander was diagnosed with a treatable form of the rare anaplastic large cell lymphoma, according to a statement released by the Red Sox yesterday. Anaplastic large cell lymphoma is an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer that starts in the lymphatic tissue, a part of the body’s immune system. It boasts a better than 50-50 recovery rate, but the treatment may sideline the 22-year-old for at least six months...

Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell, a survivor of testicular cancer himself said this in the article:

“The best thing is, if the doctor’s diagnosis is it’s treatable and curable, take it for what it’s worth,” Lowell said. “Get well and worry about baseball later. . . . I know he’s in a lot of guys’ thoughts. We wish him the best. I hope he can have a quick recovery and be back in time to resume his life. Baseball has to be put on the backburner to a certain degree.”

The bottom line is Jon Lester, get well soon, we're all pulling for you


On a different note I just have to say this: Deion Branch, shut up and play football!

Watch out Bruins nation! Saturday night through Sunday morning tropical storm Ernesto is going to be soaking us. Heavy rains and winds are expected throughout New England.

This really has nothing to do with the Boston Bruins. However if you have tickets to the Boston Red Sox for Saturday September 2nd or Sunday September 3rd note these time changes:

For Saturday September second's game against the Toronto Blue Jays the game time has been moved to 1:00 PM

For Sunday September third's game against the Toronto Blue Jays the game time has been moved to 4:00 PM

I just thought that members of Bruins nation who have Red Sox tickets might not want to go to Fenway and realize the game is over.

The Boston Bruins posted the training camp schedule and the training camp roster today. Rookie training camp starts at 10 AM Saturday September 9th in Wilmington and veteran training camp starts noon on September 14th. Also all training camp practices and scrimmages are free to watch.

Check out the complete training camp schedule here.

Check out the complete training camp roster here.