Bruins Nation

***Game results: The bruins won in a seven round shootout 4-3. Kessel scored the only shootout goal. I hope to have the usual game summary up sometime Friday afternoon.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are going to be bringing their all to the garden tonight, as will the Boston Bruins. The Bruins are 2-0 against the Lightning this season. Both games were one goal wins with one of them ending on a Glen Murray overtime goal. I know tonight's game at the garden is going to be a good one.

Jason York is healthy and will be playing tonight. My guess is he will be playing alongside Milan Jurcina, though it is just a guess. Jason York's addition gives the Bruins 6 defensemen (York, Chara, Alberts, B. Stuart, M. Stuart, and Jurcina). Speaking of defensmen, Paul Mara will not play tonight after getting injured during Tuesday's game.

PJ Axelsson is all better and will play tonight alongside his usual linemates Marc Savard and Glen Murray.

The game's at 7. Go Bruins!

Peter Chiarelli announced today that Nate Thompson was sent back to Providence. Nate Thompson played all of 2 minutes in last night's 4-1 win.

John Bishop of Bish's blog reported from practice today that the great Paul Mara (I'll probably stop calling him that after tomorrow's game) and Jason York are doubtful for tomorrow's game. That probably means that Nathan Dempsey will be recalled from Providence but Chiarelli hasn't said anything yet. Bishop also mentioned that PJ Axelsson is healthy and ready to go as is Brad Stuart.

So some good news and some bad news. I'm still happy about last night though!

What a fantastic game! Boston just made Toronto its b*tch. The Bruins traveled to Toronto, a division rival, and destroyed them twice. A 3-1 win and then a 4-1. So bow down Toronto.

I'm giving you a fair warning. This is going to be a long post. There are a lot of good things to write about. I would highly recommend you read the entire post though, it's going to be a good one.

The Bruins last night were an injured team, I thought it would hurt us, but our guys are in great shape, more minutes didn't phase any of them at all. Last night York was still injured, PJ Axelsson had the flu and didn't play, and Paul Mara got injured in the second period, leaving the Bruins with only five defenders for most of the game. Even with the Bruins injuries the Bruins played amazing. Led by Thomas, Chara, and the Bruins penalty kill, the Bruins walked all over Toronto.

While watching the first period I was skeptical as to whether things were going to go well. Toronto came hard and fast. Maple Leafs players were throwing hits everywhere and the Bruins really couldn't get anything going on offense. Tim Thomas had some huge saves though and the first period ended 0-0.

Now it was the BRuins turn to start a period with some fire, and for the Bruins it paid off. Six minutes into the second period Andrew Alberts got the puck and passed it across the red line to Shean Donovon. Donovon then skated up the left side of the ice towards the goal and shot a beautiful shot right in the top right hand corner of the goal. Andrew Raycroft could do nothing about Donovon's first goal as a Bruin.

Later in the period Paul Mara was checked against the board and inujured what looked to be his hip. He wouldn't return, leaving the Bruins with only 5 defenders.

A few minutes later, Toronto scored on a very iffy goal. A shot was saved by Thomas and bounced off of a Toronto skate and into the goal. The ref originally said the Toronto player kicked the puck into the goal but then after further review the NHL video replay guys overuled the ref, saying that it was an accidental kick, and Lewis sure made the ref know that he had been overuled. Thomas should have had his first shut-out of the season. It was subtle, but definitely a kick. The second period ended tied 1-1.

Two minutes into the third period, Wayne Primeau went into the penalty box for hooking. 19 seconds later, Andrew Alberts went into the penalty box for high sticking. Toronto, the team with the number 5 powerplay in the NHL, had a 5 on 3 advantage for 1 minute and 41 seconds. Zdeno Chara and Brad Stuart were out on the ice the entire penalty kill. And yes, the BRuins killed off the entire penalty. This was all the momentum the Bruins needed. Chara and Stuart did a fantastic job that was accompanied by Tim Thomas making a bunch of nice saves.

A minute after the Bruins killed of the penalty, Petr Tenkrat had the puck in the Maple Leafs zone. He passed it across the ice to a wide open Glen Murray who shot the puck right past Raycroft, giving the Bruins the lead. Murray had a wide open shot because of two reasons. One: Glen Murray, prior to crossing the blue line, beat the Mpale Leafs player trying to cover him, and two: Marc Savard succesfully pulled Hal Gil (yes, that Hal Gil) out of Murray's way. THe goal was a true team effort.

Ten minutes later, Toronto's top defender MCcabe hurt himself after he tripped on the ice, that lead to Marco Sturm having a wide open shot on net. Sturm put the shot right past Raycroft, sealing the win for Boston. Brad Boyes would later get an empty net goal and the Bruins won 4-1.

Tim Thomas was amazing. He won the game for the Bruins. Toronto took 46 shots and Thomas stopped 45 of them. Thomas had 45 saves. All of them were clutch and all of them were great. Also the Bruins are now at .500 for the first time all season. Yes, overtime losses do count as losses and now the Bruins are 11-11. If the Bruins beat Tampa Bay tomorrow, we will be above .500 for the first time this season.

One last thing, the Bruins completely shut down Darcy Tucker. He actually is all talk. He picked a fight with the Bruins on Saturday and got his ass kicked by the great Paul Mara, and then he talked trash to the papers and got owned in last night's game. By the way, I think I'm just going to stick with "the great Paul Mara" 'cause I can't think of a good nickname.

I was just randomely looking through the archives of this blog when I realized that the only way for a member of Bruins Nation to look up a game summary would be to go through the entire months posts. So I decided to create a new web page that would contain a link to every game summary. That web page is here and to the right underneath the archives section. Check it out.

*Update about tonight's game (5:30 PM): Nate Thompson was recalled from Providence and Nathan Dempsey cleared waivers and was assigned to Providence. This means the Bruins are down to just 6 defenders (the two Stuarts, Chara, Mara, Alberts, and Jurcina).

After Mara laid down the law on Tucker, and after Savard did some minor trash talking to the media about Raycroft, tonight's game in Toronto is very important.

Mara had this to say about why he beat up Darcy Tucker: "He ran Z, one of our best players...And then he went after Savvy. We can't have that happening."

Look for some tension between Darcy Tucker and the Bruins tonight. I don't want Mara to fight Tucker, I want the 6-9 Bruins' captain Zdeno Chara to beat the crap out of Tucker.

Also, Marc Savard said some dumb crap about how the Bruins had Andrew Raycroft beat, so either Andrew Raycroft will be really on his game tonight or he will be really off his game.

Keep in mind that on Saturday, the Bruins had their first win by more than one goal against Toronto. Lets see if tonight we can have our second win streak of the season and our second more than one goal win.

Also, I'm still trying to think of a nickname for Paul Mara.

Peter Chiarelli announced it yesterday, I'm just late 'cause I've been busy with other things.

I hope this is only until Brian Finley is healthy. Hannu Toivenen didn't do that well in Providence (he went 1-4-0), but Sauve is clearly worse than Toivenen. Hopefully Tim Thomas will just play all the time. I like Toivenen but he is clearly not ready mentally (he is ready skill wise) for the NHL, and Sauve clearly showed on Friday why he is meant to be an AHL goalie.

It's Timmy's team and I hope it stays that way.

***Also, someone please come up with a good nickname for Paul Mara. He deserves a good nickname. Email me or post a comment with a good nickname if you have one.

Hockeyfights.com put this video of the fight on youtube.

It's a minute and 15 seconds, watch the entire thing. Towards the end of the video there are great replays of Tuckers cheap shot on Zdeno Chara (which was a clear charging penalty) and Tucker pushing Marc Savard to the ice. Of course the video has the entire fight between the great Paul Mara and Darcy Tucker. (You can tell I'm a huge Paul Mara fan right now.)

It is awesome to have players like Paul Mara on the team! I cannot say enough good things about Paul Mara today. Unless someone scores 5 goals before Friday, Paul Mara will be the topic of the Friday player blogging. Toronto played real dirty hockey Saturday night and it was nice to come away with the win. I am proud to be a Bruins fan right now and I am proud to be a fan of Paul Mara.

Everything happened in the first period, everything! Six minutes into the game Chistov passed it in the Maple Leafs zone to Petr Tenkrat who scored on a nice wrist shot to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. It was especially nice to score on Andrew Raycroft. Later in the period the Bruins were on the power play when the puck came to Zdeno Chara at teh Maple Leafs blue line. He passed it to Patrice Bergeron who passed it across the ice to Marc Savard. Marc Savard then shot a beautiful wrist shot that went right past Raycroft. I don't even think Raycroft saw it.

A few minutes later the real action began. Darcy Tucker took a cheap shot on Chara. It was a clear charging penalty (taking more than three strides before hitting a player) and Tucker should have been put in the penalty box immediately. Then after hitting Chara, Tucker just pushed over Marc Savard. Then Paul Mara skated over to Tucker with his gloves already off. Mara then threw some nice punches before they both fell. Both men were penalized! (Mara, because of misconduct and instigator penalties, racked up 17 penalty minutes with that one incident. He got 2 more minutes in the third and ended the game with 19 penalty minutes.) At the end of the first period the Bruins were up 2-0.

Nothing happened in the second period. Absolutely nothing.

In the third period, the Maple Leafs scored in the middle of the period on a very bad goal. It was a tip in that cause four Bruins players in front of the net, including Thomas, to fall over. But it was a goal. If it was my choice, I would only give the Maple Leafs a half a goal. Then a few minutes later, Patrice bergeron had the puck behind the Maple Leafs net and found Brad Boyes right in front of Andrew Raycroft. Boyes scored easily and the Bruins ended the game up 3-1.

Hopefully later I'll be able to put on the blog a video of Mara's fight. In the meantime, I'll end the post by saying Toronto played dirty and the Bruins won!

The Bruins played like crap, they paid the price.

I don't really want to write a whole lot about this game so this will be a quick game summary. The Bruins played terribly. Our puck handling and passing really sucked. Just about every pass in the third and second period was intercepted. It was hard to watch. Our defense couldn't clear squat and our offense couldn't set anything up. It was a poorly played game by the Bruins.

The first period was pretty even. The Hurricanes scored late in the period on the powerplay. (Chara was in the penalty box so the Hurricanes goal didn't shock me.)

In the second period the Bruins gave up two Crap goals nine seconds apart, giving the Hurricanes a 3-0 lead. Then Lewis pulled Thomas and put in the recent call-up Suave (even though the goals were not Thomas's fault). The Bruins seemed a little revitalized and Bergeron scored on the powerplay, ending the period with the Hurricanes up 3-1.

Then the third period came and the Bruins played like crap. I won't even describe the two goals that Suave gave up. Anyway, long story short, the Bruins lost 5-1 in what was arguably their worst played game this season.

A little note: Yesterday's game was the first game that Chara didn't lead the team in minutes. Alberts and Mara played longer. Good luck to the Bruins tonight in Toronto.

For scoring the only goal during Wednesday's shootout, Marco Sturm is the focus of today's player blogging.

Friday November 24th, 2006: Marco Sturm

picture from www.bostonbruins.com

Also the Bruins got slaughtered today by the Carolina Hurricanes. I'll have the game summary up some time later tonight hopefully.

You know what, I'm okay with the Bruins giving up thrid period leads, as long as we keep winning in overtime and shootouts.

Towards the end of the first period, the Penguins got on the scoreboard first when Recchi got the puck at the Bruins blue line. Recchi skated a couple feet forward and shot a wide open shot. I thought the shot was saveable but it went past Brian Finley and into the Bruins net. I guess I can't really blame Finley though. Apparently Finley got hurt sometime in the first period. Finley closed out the period but at the start of the second period, Tim Thomas replaced him. It was later reported that Finley had a lower body injury.

The Bruins made their move in the second period, scoring three goals. The first one came ten minutes into the period on the powerplay. Savard had the puck and passed a great feed right in front of the goal. Apparently Chistov put the puck into the net but it was very hard to tell. It could've been the Penguins goalie who tipped the puck in, it could've been Phil kessel who put the puck into the net, or a Penguins defender could have had an own goal, it was unclear. The official goal however went to the new guy Stan Chistov.

Two minutes later Patrice Bergeron had the puck in the Penguins zone on a two on one breakaway with Marco Sturm. Bergeron then passed it to Sturm right in front of the net who scored, giving the Bruins a 2-1 lead.

Another two minutes later, the Bruins were on the powerplay in the Penguins zone. The Bruins top PP line was passing the puck around when Zdeno Chara got the puck, he drove it to right into the Penguins goal. It was a lightning fast drive, something that Chara has been doing more of recently. Assists on the goal went to Patrice Bergeron and Marc Savard.

The Bruins started the third period up 3-1, but it didn't stay that way. In the middle of the period Glen Murray had an amazing scoring opportunity that consisted of the puck hitting the post twice. The Penguins managed to clear the puck to the Bruins blue line where Brad Stuart was skating towards it. Brad Stuart completely misplayed the puck though and Malkin, a Penguins center, got the puck, skated right in front of the goal and shot a wide open shot past Thomas to score.

Then, with 30 seconds left in the game, the Penguins were on the powerplay when Recchi, skating away from the goal, shot a beautiful backhanded shot into the top left corner of the net, tying the game. This goal was not because of a lapse by the Bruins defense. The Nesn commentators seemed to think Bergeron might have been able to block the shot but I didn't think so. It truly was a perfect shot.

Overtime was fun to watch. Both teams had great scoring chances that were highlighted by fantastic saves from the Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and Bruins goalie Tim Thomas.

Pittsburgh elected to shoot first in the shootout:
P: Michel Ouellet's shot missed the goal.
B: Marco Sturm's shot went through the legs of Fleury and into the net.
P: Evgeni Malkin's shot was saved by Thomas.
B: Patrice Bergeron's shot was saved by Fleury.
P: Sergei Gonchar's (former Bruin) shot hit the post...

... and the Bruins won the game 4-3. Overall it was a good game. This one wasn't like the usual blown third period leads. The Bruins really did give it their all in the third period and the Penguins just managed to get two third period goals. Also a little last minute note, Chara, Alberts, Mara, and Brad Stuart saw a lot of playing time last night. Coach Lewis only put Mark Stuart and Nathan Dempsey out on the ice for 8 minutes. I guess he didn't think Mark Stuart was at a 100% yet.

Well, I'm looking forward to a nice Thanksgiving meal. Have a nice Thanksgiving Bruins Nation.

I have some free time today.

Here is another look at how the AHL teams in New England are doing. There has been some movement since my last AHL update.

Team	Wins	losses	OT	SO	Points
1   Providence Bruins	11	4	1	0	23
2   Portland Pirates	11	6	0	1	23
3   Lowell Devils	9	5	1	1	20
4*   Bridgeport Sound Tigers	8	5	0	3	19
4   Manchester Monarchs	7	6	4	1	19
5   Worcester Sharks	7	5	0	3	17
6   Springfield Falcons	8	9	0	0	16
7   Hartford Wolf Pack	5	10	1	0	11

*Bridgeport is the only New England team not in the Atlantic division. Bridgeport is currently 4th in the Eastern division. All seven other New England AHL teams make up the Atlantic division.

After checking all over the internet for news about the Bruins game tonight here is what I have come up with:

• Sydney Crosby won't be playing tonight. He is out after suffering a groin injury.

• Mark Stuart will be playing tonight. Stuart has been called up again from Providence, but this time instead of being sent back to Providence immediately, he will play. Stuart will most likely play next to Dempsey, taking the place of Milan Jurcina.

• Brian Finley will be playing tonight in goal. Thomas isn't at 100% after suffering some sort of head injury during Monday night's game.

• P.J. Axelsson is a game time decision. Just in case though, the Bruins recalled Yan Stastny from Providence.

That's all folks. Go Bruins!

Every streak must come to an end, and the only win streak the Bruins have had this season has ended at four. It was an excellent win streak that featured great hockey from the Bruins, something this city didn't really see much of in October.

The Florida Panthers now have beaten the Bruins twice. The game though was pretty hard to watch. The Bruins looked like a very weak team. Weak and slow. Tim Thomas was the only reason that the Bruins had a chance at winning.

The first period was highlighted by a bunch of excellent saves by Tim Thomas. However the Panthers did manage to score on a very weak goal. A wussy tip in at the corner of the net that gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at the end of the first period.

The second period was exactly like the first. The Panthers scored their second goal off of a one timer from a good distance away from Thomas.

With the score 2-0, the Bruins started off the third period with a bang. Four minutes into the period Zdeno Chara drove a puck to the goal, Patrice Bergeron got the rebound and shot and missed. Bergeron then got his own rebound behind the net. Him being behind the net made Alex Auld, the Panthers goalie, leave the net wide open. Bergeron then passed the puck to Glen Murray who put the puck into the wide open net. Later in the period, the Bruins scored an own goal (sort of). A Panthers shot hit off the skates of Paul mara and past Tim Thomas. The Panthers had a 3-1 lead. Then a few minutes later, Glen Murray got his second goal of the game. Murray got the puck at the Bruins blue line from Savard and skated down the ice on a breakaway. Murray, now in the Panthers zone, passed it to Brad Stuart. Stuart then passed it back to Murray who then shot the puck and scored. The Bruins cut the Panthers lead to one, but unfortunately it was the last goal of the game and the Bruins 4 game win streak was snapped.

One last thing, there was only a little more than 11,000 fans at the garden last night. That's pathetic. These are Bruins games we're talking about. They should be sold out every game. The next Bruins game is in Pittsburgh tomorrow, then Friday at the garden at noon

Sorry this is so late...

Wow, four in a row! Who would have thought that this Bruins team, a team that always managed to find a way to lose at the beginning of the season, would win 4 in a row. Lets keep the streak going!

In the first period the Bruins got on the board very early. After Thomas saved a Capital's shot, the rebound squirted around a little bit until Savard got control of the puck. He then passed the puck to the side to Glen Murray. Murray then passed it up the middle to a very open P.J. Axelsson. Axelsson then skated across the blue line and passed the puck to Marc Savard. Marc Savard then passed it back to P.J. Axelsson who scored the Bruins first goal. Later in the period, the Capitals scored on a wide open shot that beat Thomas. The first period ended tied 1-1.

Nothing much happened in the second period. In the third period, on the powerplay, Zdeno Chara scored early on a drive that went right past the Capital's goalie, giving the Bruins a 2-1 lead. Later in the period though the Capitals scored on a 5-3 powerplay when Ovechkin sent a hard shot past Thomas. The regular game ended tied 2-2.

In overtime, the Bruins, like the past couple of overtime periods, completely dominated. Halfway through the overtime on the powerplay, Glen Murray won the game when he blocked a Capitals clear attempt, then sent a very smooth wrist shot into the net.

Also I would like to mention that the Bruins at 8-7-2 are not at .500. They are still below 500. 8-7-2 is the same as 8-9. OT losses still count as losses. The Bruins need one more win to get to 500.

Here's to getting to .500 tonight against Florida at the garden. The game is on at 7 tonight, and I know the Bruins are looking for revenge. If you recall game 1, the Panthers spanked the Bruins 8-3.

Scoring three winning goals in three games will give you this honor.

Friday November 17th, 2006: Patrice Bergeron

picture from www.boston.com

Three wins in a row and no longer in last place. I, along with all of Bruins nation, am having a good week.

The major keys to last night's victory are lack of penalties and division of minutes. The Bruins had two penalties in last night's game. Just two, that's incredible. Also only three players (Chara, Alberts, and Mara) played more than 20 minutes last night. (Chara of course had the most for the 16th straight game) The lack of penalty minutes allowed the Bruins to have a solid defense and solid offense throughout the game, and the division of minutes played between all the players in the lineup allowed the Bruins to have fresh legs on the ice all the time. Having players not playing too many minutes was especially key to last night's game because of the Bruins game in Washington. A game that went past overtime and was won in a shootout by the Bruins.

In the first period, the Bruins scored the first goal of the game giving them a 1-0 lead. On the Powerplay, the Bruins won a faceoff in the Toronto zone and the puck was sent back to Paul Mara who shot the puck towards the goal, it was saved. Brad Boyes got the rebound and tried to slip the puck into the net. That was saved but that rebound went to Phil Kessel, who was crashing towards the net. Phil Kessel got the puck and snapped a nice wrist shot right past the Toronto goalie.

No goals were scored in the second period. In the third period Toronto tied up the game on the powerplay. Just like the Bruins goal, Toronto won the faceoff in the Bruins zone and then shot the puck. This time though, the puck zipped by Tim Thomas, who was clearly not ready for the shot, (he was basically standing up, and fell over backwards once the shot went by him.) The very end of the period was intense but the third period ended tied 1-1.

34 seconds into the overtime, Marco Sturm shot the puck and Patrice Bergeron got the rebound. Bergeron then shoots the puck into the back of the net and the Bruins won 2-1.

In the beginning of the season, Phil Kessel and Patrice Bergeron struggled and I really criticized them both. (They did deserve the criticism.) Phil Kessel and Patrice Bergeron really came through last night. Not only last night, but Patrice Bergeron has scored the winning goal in all three of the last Bruins games.

Two in a row! I don't care that the Boston Bruins can only win by one goal, all I care about is the fact that they get the win.

Last night's win against the Capitals was a good solid win. Even though the Bruins gave up a 2-0 lead, the Capitals' goals were crap goals and the Bruins really played a hard, consistent game. Probably the biggest part of the win was the fact that Chara dominated Ovechkin. The Capitals leading point scorer, Ovechkin, was beat by Chara every time he tried to go towards the goal. The Bruins, especially Chara, played superb defense. That was the key to last night's victory.

The Bruins scored the first two goals of the game in the first period. The first goal happened when Glen Murray got the puck at the Bruins blue line and passed the puck to a wide open Phil Kessel at the Capitals blue line. Kessel then skated to the Capitals goal where he flung a wrist shot past the goalie. Then later in the period Brad Stuart, in the Capitals zone, towards the middle of the ice shot a "rocket shot" (as said by the NESN announcer) right past the Capitals goalie and in, giving the Bruins a 2-0 lead. Then just a few minutes later, the Bruins had a powerplay that went bad. At the Capitals blue line the Bruins had the puck stolen and a wide open breakaway gave the Capitals a shorthanded goal.

Then in the second period the Capitals tied up the game on a very nice one timer that Thomas nor the Bruins defense (because of the new NHL rules) could do anything about.

With the game tied the Bruins and Capitals had a very intense and scoreless third period. That was exactly what happened in overtime also. (Zdeno Chara had an amazing overtime, the Capitals got like one shot off while the Bruins had 5)

In the shootout the Capitals shot first and Thomas saved the shot. First for the Bruins was Marco Sturm's shot, it was pretty easily saved. Then Thomas saved the Capitals second shot. Patrice Bergeron shot second and scored a very nice goal. The third Capitals' player's shot was saved by Thomas and the Bruins won

I'm a little worried about tonight's game though because Zdeno Chara might be tired. I know the guy is a beast but he is still human and played 33 minutes in yesterday's game. (Chara has played the most minutes in every Bruins game) Tonight's game is a rematch against the Toronto Maple Leafs who beat us 6-4 last week. The gmae's at 7 at the Garden and on NESN.

Peter Chiarelli today announced that the Boston Bruins have acquired goalie Philippe Suave from the Phoenix Coyotes fot Tyler Redenbach. Suave was then immediately assigned to Providence. Our goalies in Washington tonight will still be Brian Finley and Tim Thomas.

Maybe, just maybe, the Bruins can have a winning streak this season. All we need is two in a row to call it a winning streak.

Sorry for lack of posting, I was pretty busy Sunday and Monday.

Anyway some major transactions for the Bruins have occured. Toivenen got hurt in Providence so Brian Finley had to go to Providence and start in goal (he won). Brian Finley though is back with the big B's and will be the number two goalie in tomorrow's game in Washington against the Capitals. Also coach Lewis has decided to send Matt Lashoff and Yan Stastny to Providence. Lashoff is being sent to Providence because Brad Stuart is healthy. Stastny is being sent to Providence because Lewis thinks he should get more playing time to improve, and Stastny is probably going to get more playing time in Providence then he would in Boston.

The Boston Bruins also announced that the have acquired Stanislav "Stan" Chistov from the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. The 23 year old left winger will either be a fourth liner for Boston or a first liner for Providence. Chiarelli got Chistov for a future third round draft pick. (What a bargain!)

Also, the New England Patriots, my New England Patriots, just acquired Vinny Testaverde. Yes, the hated former Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde. I don't know how this is going to work. I hate Vinny but I love the Pats more. As long as Vinny Testaverde doesn't play, I'll root for the Pats. If Vinny plays, I'll be cheering for both teams.

They're all one goal wins and they're all as sweet as ten goal wins. That's my take on it.

I feel kind of bad that Ottawa didn't get a point out of this game. The game was dead even.
Bruins had four goals. Senators had three.
Bruins went 1-6 on the powerplay. Senators went 1-7.
Bruins won 34 faceoffs. Senators won 34 faceoffs.
Bruins had 29 shots. Senators had 28 shots. And there are many more.

The first period was scoreless. Both goalies came up with big saves, and both offenses really couldn't get anything done.

In the second period, Glen Murray opened the game up with a goal 30 seconds into the period. Chara and Axelsson were credited with assists. Three minutes later Ottawa responded with a goal themselves, tying up the game.

Ten minutes later the fourth line came up big. Yan Stastny came up with the puck right next to the net off of a Mark Mowers pass. Stastny looked up and saw a wide open Petr Tenkrat banging his stick against the ice. Stastny passed to Tenkrat who zipped a wrist shot right into the net, giving the Bruins a 2-1 lead. A few minutes later the Bruins got a pretty lucky goal when Glen murray put a wrist shot through the legs of the Senators goalie. (Let me tell you, if Tim Thomas had let Glen Murray's goal in I would be ranting about how Thomas should be in Providence.) With about a minute left the Senators got one past Thomas and the period ended with the Bruins up 3-2.

The third period was pretty even. A minute and a half into the period the Senators tied up the game. Hard knock hockey ensued for the next ten minutes until Brad Stuart, from the blue line, scorched a slap shot right past the goalie and into the net. The scorekeeper said that Patrice bergeron redirected it into the goal, but I didn't see him touch the puck. (Honestly, I barely saw the puck.)

So the Bruins won their fifth game 4-3. I'm happy. maybe next game (Wednesday at 7 in Washington) we can win by two goals.

Some last minute notes. Brad Stuart couldn't skate this morning and was apparently 50-50. With that being said he played over twenty minutes finishing with a +1. Zdeno Chara also led the team in minutes for the 14th time this season (There has been only 14 games this season, thus Chara has lead in minutes played every game. He really deserves the C on his jersey.)

To last week's NHL first star of the week. Marc Savard has a current five game point streak and has been playing superb hockey as of late.

Friday November 10th, 2006: Marc Savard

picture from www.tsn.ca

Also, to all veterans, thank you for serving.

This one hurts. It was kind of like the Patriots game on Sunday against the Colts. The Pats played like crap but still somehow made the game close, then on the last drive Brady threw an interception and the Pats lost by a touchdown. Last night, the Bruins played like crap throughout the game, somehow made it close, then down by one goal they let in an empty net goal to seal the deal for Toronto.

Anyway I would say the one thing that killed us was puck handling. It would seem that every time a Bruins player got the puck, he would skate 15 feet down the ice and then all of a sudden a Maple Leafs player would have it. They didn't count as giveaways but the Bruins really did give away too many pucks.

In The first period the Maple Leafs scored three goals. It didn't put me in a good mood. Tim Thomas scored three goals on ten shots. Meanwhile the Bruins had 19 shots that Andrew Raycroft (yes, the now Maple Leafs goalie) stopped.

In the second period Brian Finley replaced Tim Thomas, and quickly gave up a Maple Leafs goal. Then a minute later Marco Sturm scored to make the game 4-1. Then Finley gave up another goal a minute later. With the game 5-1 Marc Savard added to his point streak by scoring a goal making the game 5-2 at the end of the 2nd period.

Towards the end of the second period Andrew Raycroft went down with a groin injury and was replaced by Toronto's backup. So to start the final period both teams had thier backup goalies in.

In the third period P.J. Axelsson got the rebound off of a Paul Mara shot on the powerplay and put the puck in the net. Then later in the period on the powerplay again, Wayne Primeau scored making the game 5-4.

With about a minute left in the game Brian Finley skated off the ice giving the Bruins an extra attacker. Then with about 25 seconds left Zdeno Chara had the puck and was knocked down, a clear interference penalty, but the refs didn't call it. The Maple Leafs then got the puck shot it down the ice and into the unprotected Bruins goal. Final score: Maple Leafs 6, Bruins 4.

Last night was Brian Finley's first NHL appearence as a Boston Bruin. It's sort of ironic, the Bruins send Toivenen to Providence and then the very next game Tim Thomas sucked. Also Brad Stuart came back from injury and played twenty minutes last night, ending the game with a -2 (Stuart was on for a first period Maple Leafs goal and a second period Maple Leafs goal).

One last thing. Last night's attendance was around 14,000 at the garden. That's pathetic! This is Boston, the hub of hockey. So nation, start going to the games, I want the garden sold out every game.

I'll probably start doing this more frequently. Here are how the AHL teams in New England are doing.

Team	Wins	losses	OT	SO	Points
1   Providence Bruins	7	2	1	0	15
2   Portland Pirates	7	4	0	1	15
3   Worcester Sharks	5	3	0	2	12
4*   Bridgeport Sound Tigers	5	4	0	2	12
4   Springfield Falcons	5	6	0	0	10
5   Manchester Monarchs	4	4	1	0	9
6   Lowell Devils	4	5	0	1	9
7   Hartford Wolf Pack	3	7	1	0	7

*Bridgeport is the only New England team not in the Atlantic division. Bridgeport is currently 4th in the Eastern division. All seven other New England AHL teams make up the Atlantic division.

Brian Finley will replace Hannu Toivenen as the Boston Bruins' second goalie. Is he good? I don't know. I've never heard of Brian Finley, and I do keep track of good players in Providence. I never thought to keep track of goalies in Providence though because I always figured the Bruins will only have Toivenen and Thomas on the roster. I guess I was wrong. I doubt Finley will get any playing time though.

This is good news, funny news, and good news respectively.

Mark Stuart is recovering from his offseason knee surgery pretty well it seems. Stuart is going to be playing with the Providence Bruins while he gets back to 100%, which is good news. Hannu Toivenen's reasons for going to Providence are bad news for him but very funny news to this blog. Hannu Toivenen has been playing really poorly as of late and I guess it is official now that coach lewis is going to be going with Tim Thomas as our only goalie. Maybe this humiliating ego-busting transaction that coach Lewis and general manager Chiarelli are doing to Toivenen is to teach him a lesson, or maybe Lewis just thinks Toivenen sucks, who knows.

Meanwhile Marc Savard has gotten the high honor of the NHL's first star of the week. Savard, for the week that ended Monday the fifth, led the league in points with eight, recording 3 goals and five assists.

Before I start let me just say how much Versus sucks. I want the Bruins games on NESN, the Verses NHL guys were mediocre at best, with voices that were not meant for television. After the Thrashers scored their first goal in the first period the announcer actually said, "Bang bang score"! At that moment I knew that Bruins games were meant to be on NESN.

We were no match for Atlanta last night, though we were screwed over by the refs. Atlanta last night had 13 power plays compared to the Bruns 5. A difference of that much only leads me to suspect that the refs have family in Atlanta or something. The Bruins don't even play dirty, and they didn't last night. 4 of the 5 Thrasher goals came on the powerplay. Though that isn't a good stat, I don't blame the Bruins penalty kill. They did after all kill 9 penalties.

The Thrashers out played the Bruins in the first period (they had 5 power plays in the first period compared to the Bruins one). The Thrashers had 21 shots compared to the Bruins 8 and they scored two easy powerplay goals.

In the second period the only interesting thing that happened was Paul Mara's slapshot that was redirected into the goal by Patrice Bergeron, cutting the Thrasher lead in half.

Then in the third period the Thrashers scored 3 pretty quick goals, two of them on the powerplay. That gave Atlanta a 5-1 lead. But the Bruins did show some heart and didn;t give up. With a little bit over a minute left, Brad Boyes scored an unassisted short handed goal, and with twenty seconds left, Patrice Bergeron scored his second goal of the game on the powerplay. The comeback though was way too little way too late and the Bruins lost 5-3.

I would say this game is a fluke. the penalties just killed us. the Bruins were not able to play like they had been playing the last couple of games. We'll play better at home on Thursday against Toronto.

Also one last thing, Go and Vote, you can't have a democracy without voters.

Finally, it's our turn for a late in the third period comeback victory.

After Game 8 where the Bruins lost with 1.2 seconds left, and after game 10 where the Bruins gave up 3 third period goals, I'm glad to see the Bruins winning on a last second goal.

It was overall a wierd game and I don't have enough time to describe every goal. 2 goals were scored in the first period, 7 goals in the second period, 1 in the third, and 1 seventeen seconds into overtime. In the second it seemed like the Bruins would score then one minute later Buffalo would score. Toivenen made every Bruins goal worthless because ten seconds later Tampa would score. So in the third Lewis pulled Toivenen, put Thomas in, and Tampa didn't score again.

In the first period Marc Savard scored the Bruins first goal. Then a few minutes later Tampa scored to tie the game up.

In the second period Tampa scored first, a couple minutes later Marc Savard scored his second goal of the game. Minutes later Phil Kessel scored giving the Bruins the lead, then literally ten seconds later Toivenen gave up a goal to the Lightning tying up the game. Four minutes later Tampa Bay scored again giving them a 4-3 lead. A few minutes later, P.J. Axelsson scored tying up the game. Then 27 seconds later Toivenen gave up a crap goal between the legs, letting Tampa Bay have a 5-4 lead after the second period.

Then, in the third period, Tim Thomas came in and the Lightning goals stopped. No goals came in the third period until the Bruins went on the powerplay with a minute left. Lewis also pulled Thomas so the Bruins had a six on four advantage. The Bruins took a shot from the blue line with Zdeno Chara right in front of the goal. The original shot was saved and the rebound bounced up. Then Chara was pushed from behind causing him to dive forward. That led his stick to tip the puck into the goal, and after further review the goal counted and the Bruins were all tied up after the third period.

Because Chara was pushed from behind, the Bruins were able to have a 5-3 advantage in overtime and 17 seconds into the overtime Glen Murray ended the game.

So the Bruins won in overtime 6-5, I was happy and I'm looking forward to tomorrow night's game in Atlanta. Remember nation, the game's on Versus not NESN (Versus is the same channel as what OLN used to be).

Due to the Bruins depressing loss last night, I am not player blogging today like I do every Friday.

I was going to write about how well the Bruins played. I was going ot write about how the number two line carried the team to victory. I was going to write about how we beat the Buffalo Sabres without overtime (something no team has done yet). However, the hockey gods didn't want the Bruins to win. They pulled off a Bill Buckner. They had the game won and then choked.

Here is how the game went: The Bruins basically out skated and out shot the Sabres in the first period but no goals were scored by anyone. In the second period, about a minute and a half in, Marc Savard got the puck from Lashoff nad skated toward the goal on a 2 on 1 odd man rush with P.J. Axelsson. Savard faked a slap shot then dished the puck to P.J. who fired it home giving the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

A couple minutes later Buffalo got their first goal of the game tying the game 1-1. Then later in the period Patrice Bergeron on the powerplay shot a slaphot from the blue line towards the goal (that was surrounded by 3 Bruins players). The shot hit off the post, then bounced in front of the goal. Marc Savard, the farthest away of the three Bruins surrounding the goal seemed surprised that the puck was in front of him, never the less he shot the puck right into the goal giving the Bruins a 2-1 lead.

Then with about a minute left in the period the Sabres had a breakaway, the shot though missed the goal by a mile and P.J. Axelsson got it. He passed it to Marc Savard who shot it hard on goal. The shot was saved and Glen Murray got the rebound and scored, giving the Bruins a 3-1 lead.

Then in the 3rd period, Mowers scored a pretty lucky goal thats hard to describe. It was assisted by Hoggan and Brookbank. It all went downhill from there though.

The Bruins stopped skating and stopped playing offense. They played passive defense and got owned. In the last ten minutes of the game the Bruins gave up three goals to the Sabres and the first three periods ended all tied up 4-4.

Overtime was pretty boring except for a nice Bruins penalty kill in which Zdeno Chara was out there for the whole penalty kill. Then came the shootout. The Bruins started first and Glen Murray's shot was saved. Tim Thomas missed the Sabers first shot and the pressure was on the Bruins. P.J. Axelsson then had his shot saved and the pressure was on Thomas. Thomas made the save and Patrice Bergeron then scored, tying up the shootout with one more Sabres player to go. The Sabres managed to get their shootout shot passed Thomas and the Sabres won the game.

Since this entry is already long, I won't continue with more ranting about how the Bruins choked, I think you get the picture.

Also, I know it doesn't sound like it, but Patrice Bergeron had his worst game of the season. He and Boyes had numerous odd man rushes where Patrice bergeron had the puck, and he either didn't pass it and ended up losing a scoring opportunity, or he would pass it but way off the mark. The entire number one line (Sturm, Bergeron, Boyes) had a poor game actually, it was the number two line (Axelsson, Savard, Murray) that really played well.

I'm getting this from the Boston Globe's Bruins Blog (link on the left right *sorry, I'm tired today).

Sturm, Bergeron, and Boyes will be the top line tonight against Buffalo.
Axelsson, Savard, and Murray will be the number two line.
Primeau, Kessel, and Donovan will be the number three line. (Kessel playing center for the first time in his NHL career.)
Hoggan, Mowers, and Brookbank will be the number four line.

And tonight's defensive pairings will be...

Lashoff and Chara
Alberts and Mara
York and Dempsey

Thomas will start in goal after his performance against Ottawa.

Here's to beating the 10-0-1 Buffalo Sabres!