Bruins Nation

Bruins get defenseman Aaron Ward from the New York Rangers for defenseman Paul Mara. This trade is just a d-man swap, although Dave Lewis has coached Aaron Ward before.

Also TSN (Not the NHL or the Boston Bruins) is reporting that the Bruins have traded Brad Boyes to the St. Louis Blues for defenseman Dennis Wideman. I really didn't think that Brad Boyes would be traded considering he is on a hot streak. This one is a huge shock, I knew Mara was on the chopping block but this one is a real surprise.

I wonder why Lewis and Chiarelli want defensemen. We've recently gotten 3 (Ference, Wideman, Ward), and only 2 (Kobasew and Bochenski) forwards. In my eyes, we need more offense not more Defense, but I'm not the GM or coach so my opinion doesn't matter.

Nothing really special happened in last night's game. It was pretty boring. The game itself really could have gone either way, no one team dominated the other. The only reason the Thrashers won was because a very lucky Marian Hossa shot deflected off the shinpad of Belanger (pronounced Be-lan-jay) in the third period.

Shean Donovan scored right out the gate for the Bruins. The Bruins penalty kill wasn't there last night though and Atlanta tied it up on the power play. Brad Boyes extended his recent hot streak when he was credited with a go-ahead goal late in the first. All three goals weren't anything out of the ordinary.

From there on in the Bruins had no offense. Very little scoring opportunities usually leads to zero goals scored, and that's what happened. Atlanta scored again on the power play, (Bruins were really struggling on the PK) and in the third they scored on a lucky goal that I already mentioned.

One of them Thomas himself kicked in the puck, a rare slip for Thomas. Anyway, the Bruins lost a key game. Next one is against Philadelphia on Thursday.

It looks like the Bruins are going to be making some trades before the deadline. I'll post a little later.

I hate these games late in the season, no matter what happens a team that the Bruins (64 points, 11th place) need to jump over gains two points. Of course there has to be a team to root for though. Toronto (69 points 10th place) or Montreal (70 points 9th place)? What is even worse about a game like this is that one of the teams may gain momentum. Both the Habs and Leafs are slipping in the standings. One small positive that comes out of this lose-lose situation is that no matter what, the teams cannot both win. Only one will come out with two points, instead of possibly both if they were not playing eachother. So who do I root for? The Toronto Maple Leafs, for the sole reason that I hate the Montreal Canadiens.

Also playing tonight of course is the Boston Bruins. They are taking on the Atlanta Thrashers at the garden, and no amount of snow will stop me from going tonight.

Peter Chiarelli is working hard, that's for sure.

He recalled from waivers goalie Joey Macdonald (link)

He assigned Hannu Toivonen and Mark Stuart to Providence (link)

He signed Marco sturm to a four-year deal (link)

and the Boston globe has a page of news all about Chiarelli and the Bruins and what they are doing up until the Tuesday trade deadline. (link)

Florida just had our number this season. We have to put this one behind us and go and win the next one. Last night's game was particularly bad though. No offense or defense.

I won't go period by period like usual because it's pretty depressing. The Florida Panthers jumped out to a 5-0 lead, the Bruins had a little bit of life with two power play goals (Savard and Boyes), however two more Panther goals gave the Bruins a crushing 7-2 loss.

I'm sorry this summary is so short but there isn't much to write about. No defense led to the Panthers taking 52 shots. Meanwhile, especially in the first period, the Bruins offense had barely any scoring opportunities. Florida didn't give the Bruins a chance to win the game. I wish the Bruins would play every game like Florida played last night. Coach Lewis even switched to Toivonen, a man we haven't seen in a while, but the Bruins still mustered nothing.

Lets put this on ebehind us and win tomorrow at the garden against Atlanta.

SEASON SWEEP!!! 4-0-0 against the Tampa Bay Lightning this season. The Bruins beat the lightning 3-2 in game 2, 6-5 after OT in game 11, 4-3 after a shootout in game 23, and 6-2 tonight.

Coach Lewis went with the same exact lines as he did in Tuesday's game in Toronto, and it worked again. I don't blame him for not mixing anything around. Everyone played well today, and everyone made a difference. There is only one thing that I can think of that the Bruins need to work on, and that is shots taken. The Bruins took only 23 shots. Now if we can score 6 goals on only 23 shots every time that's fine, but that is going to be impossible to do when facing decent teams. Other than that the Bruins played great hockey, and without Murray, Bergeron (who skated but did not play), and Alberts for the second straight game.

Under two minutes into the first period, Marco Sturm scored when his rebound saved Phil Kessel from an embarasing lost puck. Even the NESN guys gave kessel a little crap for losing the puck when he went towards the net. Sturm scored though and the Bruins were up 1-0. A few minutes later, a Lightning slap-shot got by Thomas on a Tampa power play and the game was tied. Then Brad Boyes put a rebound in net after a Bobby Allen shot from the blue line and the Bruins had the lead. Lightning goalie Denis was then promptly replaced.

In the second period a poor TB line change gave Savard plenty of time to set up Brad Boyes, who easily shot the puck between the legs of the new Tampa goalie. A few minutes later, Bochenski's shot from the middle of the ice was saved with a rebound that was right in front of the goal. Phil Kessel had to take a couple swipes but he finally put the puck where it belongs and the Bruins had a 4-1 lead going into the break.

Early in the third period on a Bruins power play, good passing in the Lightning zone led to Brandon Bochenski's shot going into the net, giving the Bruins a 5-1 lead. Two seconds after the Bochenski goal, Jeremy Reich got into a fight with Tarnasky. Reich, knowing that Murray and Bergeron are coming back soon, wants to make sure he stays on the team. However he may be out of luck because it looked like he hurt his wrist pretty badly in the scuffle. The Bruins kept beating on the Lightning as Chistov's shot went through the legs of Holmqvist, the Lightning goalie. The Tampa fans got a little cheer as Kuba's shot in traffic got by Thomas, but the Bruins still won the game 6-2, their fourth straight, upping them to eleventh in the eastern conference standings.

Two Last Notes: One. The Bruins now, with over a month left of hockey, already have more wins than all of last season. Two. The Bruins are now officially at .500 with 30 wins and 30 losses.

Next game is tomorrow night (Saturday) against the Florida Panthers.

Check out the amazing all out fight between Ottawa and Buffalo that I'm sure you've already heard about.

You got to love the fact that Ray Emery is smiling throughout the entire fight:



By the Way, Bruins play Tampa tonight at 8:00. The Bruins are 3-0-0 against Tampa. All three by one goal. One of them was after OT, the other after a shootout. So tonight's game should be a good one.

And I've got just the book for you to read. I just finished it and every member of Bruins Nation will love it. It's titled "The Best Boston Sports Arguments: The 100 Most Controversial, Debatable Questions for Die-Hard Boston Fans" by Jim Caple & Steve Buckley.

This book, as the title implies, takes you through and gives you the facts about 100 different Boston related sports arguments, from all four teams. Some of the arguments are random, and some of them are really interesting. Some of the arguments are really serious (I.E. what was the worst call in Boston Sports history (argument 78)), and some of the arguments are hilarious (I.E. Who had the better career Ben Affleck or Lou Merloni (argument 73)). Sometimes Caple and Buckley are dead wrong (They wrote that Joe Dimmagio was better then Ted Williams), and sometimes they write exactly what we've all wanted to say (That Don Zimmer had it coming). Overall it's a must read.

Also, an added bonus if you will, each of the 100 arguments are only 2 or 3 pages long, so you can read only a couple arguments at a time and it won't take long. As Lois Griffin from Family guy would say, "The chapters are really short so you feel smart while reading it."

And yes, the Bruins are adequately represented in this book. you would think that it would be all Red Sox and Patriots, but quite a few chapters are dedicated to Bobby Orr and the big bad Bruins (along with other Bruins teams).

The funny thing is, if you were to look at only parts of the boxscore, you would think that the Bruins were crushed by Toronto. Toronto took 44 shots, whereas the Bruins took only 21. Toronto had 38 face-off wins whereas the Bruins only had 25. Toronto had only three players playing under 10 minutes whereas the Bruins had five (This implies that Toronto was able to spread out ice time more, instead of only having their top skaters in the game), and Toronto killed all five Bruins power plays (Eigth best in the NHL). However the only statistic that matters is goals scored, and the Bruins won that category 3-0.

Last night's game, unlike our previous couple, was a show put on by players who have not been the Bruins' superstars. Axelsson, Chistov, and York were the three goal-scorers. However the big story was the amazing play of Tim Thomas. Playing on zero days rest, he stopped all 44 Maple Leaf's shots and earned himself the NHL first star of the day. (The link will only be good for about a day. Then the next day's three stars will be shown)

In the first period, the Bruins scored early when Chistov's attempt to score led to a Marc Savard rebound. His rebound shot though left the puck stranded in front of the goal, Chistov was then able to put the puck in the net from there and the Bruins took the lead. In the second period, while Ference was serving time for hooking, PJ Axelsson got the puck in the Bruins zone and skated all the way down the ice. He scored by means of a nice slap shot and the bruins were up 2-0 off of a shorthanded goal. The last goal of the game came three minutes later when Jason York's drive from the point went past Andrew Raycroft.

So lets recap, Chistov scored his first goal in over a month, Axelsson scored shorthanded, and Jason York scored his first goal in over two seasons. Tim Thomas said it perfectly when he said, "We needed people to step up and make a difference...And that is exactly what you saw."

The Bruins next two are Friday in Tampa Bay, and Saturday in Sunrise, Florida. The lightning and the Panthers better be worried about the Boston Bruins.

Patrice Bergeron, Glen Murray, and Andrew Alberts will not play in tonight's game in Toronto. Patrice Bergeron is still out with his lower body injury and Glen Murray aggravated his previous groin injury in last night's game in Philly. Alberts though apparently also sustained a lower body injury in Philly.

David Krejci has been recalled from Providence to fill in for Murray. Krejci will be put on the four line (with Chistov and Tenkrat). The four line with Krejci, Chistov, and Tenkrat is going to explode tonight. It's just a guess but I'm thinking that Tenkrat is already hot, Krejci is trying to prove himself to the Bruins, and Chistov is due for a goal.

Tim Thomas will start his tenth straight game. The lines according to Fluto Shinzawa are:

Axelsson-Savard-Boyes
Sturm-Kessel-Bochenski
Reich-Mowers-Donovan
Chistov-Krejci-Tenkrat

Chara-Allen
Mara-Ference
Stuart-York

Thomas

Anyway, go Bruins! I'm looking for revenge against Toronto since that terrible 10-2 loss in Game 38.

Also, the Bruins are 4-1-0 since the 20-6-3 post. So to make the playoffs the Bruins must go 16-5-3.

From Last Saturday's game in Buffalo.

Jeremy Reich vs. Adam Mair:
Here*

Andrew Ference vs. Jochen Hecht:
Here*

From Tuesday's game in Philadelphia.

Paul Mara vs. Mike Richards
Here*

*I had the YouTube videos on the blog but they made everything slower.

It's always nice to see a Bruins player beat up someone else. Nice job Reich, Ference, and Mara.

It seemed that those who were supposed to do well yesterday, did just that. Petr Tenkrat, who has been hot as of late, scored twice. Marco Sturm, Marc Savard, PJ Axelsson, and Brandon Bochenski scored the other four Bruins' goals. And Tim Thomas had another fantastic game.

The Bruins scored the only goal in the first period when Marco Sturm tipped in a Marc Savard shot. In the second period, Philly scored two gaols to take the lead, one of them on a very nice turn-around shot. Within seconds of Philly taking the lead, PJ Axelsson shut up the crowd with his game-tying goal. Then a little later, Petr tenkrat scored two goals in a row. One of them was a great shot, the other was off of a rebound, and the Bruins had a two goal lead. Within seconds though of Tenkrat's second goal of the game, Philly scored and got within one.

In the third period, Brandon Bochenski's bullet of a shot went into the net and the Bruins once again had a two goal lead. Dave Lewis defense and Tim Thomas completely shut down the Flyers and a Marc Savard empty net goal gave the Bruins a 6-3 win.

Overall a great game! I can't wait until tonight's game against Toronto.

One Last Note: The Bruins scored 6 goals on only 18 shots!

They may not win every game, but when this team wins, it's always fun to watch. Saturday night's game was no exception. An eight round shootout after three intense periods and a really intense OT. Buffalo's power play beat us up pretty badly, however they are the best team in the east and they have a damn good powerplay. Though it is bad to give up three PP goals, I'll take a win in Buffalo any day.

Reich and Mair got things started in the first period with their fight. It was immediately followed by a Bruins goal. A delayed penalty led to Marco Sturm racing onto the ice just in time to receive a pass and fire a drive into the net. A Buffalo power play goal tied up the game, and Ference and Hecht fought just before the end of the period. Overall a really good period of hockey.

The Bruins pressured the Sabres really well in the second period and it paid off. Shean Donovan scored his fifth of the season. Then, with Chara in the penalty box, Marc Savard scored a shorthanded goal off of a nice play by Donovan. So the Bruins took a 3-1 lead. A dumb penalty by Marc Savard towards the end of the period led to two power play goals by Buffalo. One of them by Chris Drury, the other by Daniel Briere. The game is all tied up going into the third. The third period was hard-fought but ended with the game tied 3-3.

The Bruins played a fantastic overtime but couldn't get anything by Ryan Miller and the game went into a shootout.

This shoootout summary will be quicker than usual:
Tim Thomas made tremendous saves in order against Daniel Briere, Drew Stafford, Thomas Vanek, Jason Pominville, Chris Drury, Derek Roy, Clark Macarthur, and Jochen Hecht. Ryan Miller was able to stop Marco Sturm (the puck hit the post!), Glen Murray, Phil Kessel, Brandon Bochenski, Marc Savard, Zdeno Chara, and Brad Boyes. But...Petr Tenkrat scored to give the Bruins the win. Tenkrat is clutch! As he proved Saturday night and last Saturday night.

One Last Note: This is 200th Bruins Nation blog post. Go Bruins!

The Player of the week is Petr Tenkrat.

This is for his very clutch shootout goal against the New York Islanders on Saturday. Both Chara and bergeron's shootout goals were clutch, but not as clutch as Tenkrat's. That is because if Tenkrat misses, the bruins lose. Both Bergeron and Chara had the luxury of not being the Bruins' last hope.

Back to third period disasters, are we boys. Last night’s game was very close and looked to be going to OT. The Bruins and Islanders were even through the first two periods, but another third period Bruins disaster led to three New York goals in the third, to give them the decisive victory.

New York got very lucky when they got their first goal of the game in the first period. A shot was redirected under the pad of Thomas. Then in the second period, in the first minute of the period on the power play, a great play by the Bruins led to the tying goal. First Zdeno Chara passed the puck across the ice to Phil Kessel. He passed it back across the ice to Marc Savard. Savard then passed the puck to Glen Murray who was in front of the goal. Murray then shot the puck between Dipietro’s legs and into the net.

In the third period, Tim Thomas was making all sorts of saves, but that couldn’t counter the fact that the rest of the Bruins gave up. NYI’s first goal came when an Islander put a long rebound back in net. Then later, NYI had a two on one during transition with Ference being the only Bruin back. Ference screwed up. Ference got faked out and NYI had an easy goal. He should have dove down onto the ice at an angle where he could block the pass or shot. (Much easier said than done, I can’t blame Ference for not playing the puck perfectly, however he was completely faked out and gave NYI an easy shot.) NYI finished off the Bruins with an empty net goal and the Bruins are now that much farther from the playoffs. I still have faith that the Bruins will get hot and make the playoffs. Remember the 20-6-3 post that I wrote a week ago, well now the Bruins need to go 18-5-3 to make the playoffs.

One Last Note: I may not post as frequently as I would like to this week, and the game summaries may be a couple days late

the Bruins play the New York Islanders tonight. This is the first game of a six game road trip. the Bruins have recalled Mark Stuart for the trip so they will have seven defensemen.

Thomas is starting tonight, Murray is in, back from injury, Bergeron is out though with a lower body injury. If Bergeron comes back the Bruins will have 13 forwards and 7 defensemen, a good number for a long road trip.

Here is the fight between Reich and Greene:

What a great way to honor Johny Bucyk. The players who have been playing well as of late played another outstanding game. We had two PP goals, we killed seven penalties, Thomas got a shutout, and Ferrence had a great game with the Bruins.

Brandon Bochenski started the scoring when he scored on a 5 on 3 power play. Marco Sturm added another for the Bruins on the power play and the Bruins were up two. Before the two goals though, Jeremy Reich beat up Greene, the leading penalty taker for the Oilers, it was a quick fight but Reich clearly won.

Dave Lewis passive style hockey finally worked, and the Bruins played fantastic defense the entire rest of the game. Marco Sturm scored another goal on an empty net and the Bruins won 3-0.

Ference did a great job playing alongside Alberts, his first game with the Bruins was a huge success. Lets hope Kobasew is just a good when he is back from injury. Meanwhile, like I said, the players who have been playing well, the ones on a hot streak, played fantastic on Tuesday night. Bochenski scored, Sturm scored twice, Bergeron had two assists, and Petr Tenkrat, who had what I would call the most clutch play of the season so far (his shootout goal in Game 54) also played a fantastic game.

This was just a fun overall game to watch, We should have more Johny Bucyk games.

Zdeno Chara won the shootout! Chara, our enormous defensemen netted the winning goal. Now that's cool. Saturday night's game at the garden was great. We saw a comeback win that would have entertained even those who had never heard of hockey.

NYI started of the scoring first when they scored very early in the first. Islanders fans, plenty of whom were there, were psyched, thinking they were going to see a blowout in Boston. Marco Sturm soon shut them up though with his goal, and Patrice Bergeron, minutes later, shot a slapshot on the power play to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead. In the second period, NYI scored again, basically off the face-off to tie the game.

NYI scored early again in the third period to give them a lead. Down the stretch though, on the power play, Marco Sturm tied it up. Later, it looked like the Bruins scored but the goal was waved off and the game went into OT.

The Bruins more or less played a passive OT. They couldn't really go with the 3-1 formation because Zdeno Chara looked really tired. He racked up a lot of ice time and it showed. More than once he missed the puck on a simple pass. Chara more than made up for his blunders in the shootout. Whcih followed a relatively boring OT:

NYI: Miroslav Satan's shot saved by Thomas
B: Marco Sturm's shot was saved
NYI Viktor Kozlov scored on TT
B: Patrice Bergeron answered right back with a goal
NYI: Andy Hilbert's (former Bruin) shot saved
B: Phil Kessel's shot saved (his first shootout miss)
NYI: Trent Hunter shootout saved
B: Brandon Bochenski shootout saved
NYI: Jason Blake shootout saved
B: Marc Savard shootout saved
NYI: Mike Sillinger shootout saved
B: Brad Boyes shootout saved
NYI: Randy Robitaille shot scored
B: Petr Tenkrat scored a very clutch goal on a beautiful back-hand shot
NYI: Jeff Tambellini shootout saved
Boston P.J. Axelsson shootout saved
NYI: Tom Poti shootout saved
B: Zdeno Chara scored to win the game when he faked a slap shot and then just swiftly put the puck in the net.

And the Bruins took 2 hard-earned points from the Islanders.

One Last Note: The Islander's fans have a great cheer. Inbetween verses of the Chicken dance song, they all yell "The Rangers Suck". It's pretty funny.

I have no time now so this is going to be very quick. I'll have the usual game summary later. The Bruins beat the Islanders in a 9 round shootout, with Zdeno Chara scoring the winning shootout goal. Marco Sturm had a great game with two goals. Bergeron also had a goal and a shootout goal. Petr Tenkrat though is my MVP for his very clutch shootout goal with the game on the line.

Also, Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau were traded to the Calgary Flames for defensemen Andrew Ference and right-winger Chuck Kobasew. Stuart and Primeau, both free agents at the end of this season, were on the chopping block for financial reasons and talent reasons. Though I don't think Stuart and Primeau have had particularly bad years, they have not played as well as Bruins Nation members have hoped. Also, with both of them being free agents at the end of the season, and Chiarelli not being able to cut a contract deal, it was very likely both of them were going to walk at the end of the season, yielding the Bruins squat.

Andrew Ferrence and Chuck Kobasew are both talented players who are contractually obligated to the Bruins until at least the end of next season. Ferrence is a hard hitting 27 year old defensemen with good skating ability. And Kobasew is a fast 24 year old winger, a quality Dave Lewis will be sure to take advantage of. Kobasew is injured however and will most likely not be in a game for a couple of weeks.

I got to go! More will come...

With 29 games remaining, I say the Bruins need to go 20-6-3 to be sure to get into the playoffs. That would give them 95 points. I know that it's likely teams with below 95 points will make the playoffs, but if the Bruins do go 20-6-3, they'll be sure to get in and not have to rely on other teams. Needless to say, the way the Bruins have been playing lately, going 20-6-3 would take a miracle. However, I have faith in the Boston Bruins.

Tonight's game againt the New York Islanders, a game in which I'll be in attendance, is almost a must-win. The Islanders are currently 10th while we're 13th. Grabbing two points from the Islanders would be great.

Glen Murray, who aggravated an already injured groin on Thursday, will not play tonight. Brandon Bochenski will take his spot. Tim Thomas is making his fifth start in a row tonight, his first against the Islanders. Toivonen is 0-1-1 against the Islanders this season. Also, it unknown at this time among the bloggers whether Chistov or Tenkrat will sit this one out. My guess is that Lewis will flip a coin. Here are the projected lines from John Bishop for tonight's game:

Axelsson - Savard - Bochenski
Sturm - Bergeron - Kessel
Reich - Primeau - Donovan
Mowers - Boyes - Tenkrat/Chistov


Mara - Chara
Alberts - Stuart
Allen - York

All that's left to say is Go Bruins!

The player of the week is Brandon Bochenski. He scored three goals in his first two games with the Bruins. The Bruins were looking for a shooter who could add something special to our struggling offense and Chiarelli found it. He came through so far with this trade. I still think that we need another big trade to make the playoffs, and then make a run in the playoffs. Anyway, Bochenski gave the Bruins a much needed offensive boost. That is why he is this week's Bruins Nation player of the week for the week of 2/2/07 - 2/9/07.

Wow, we played really well for the entire game except the final five minutes in the second period. Sadly, in order to win games in the NHL, a team need to play well for all 60 minutes! Brandon Bochenski played really well again. He is really clicking with the Bruins. Ray Whitney stole the show though. His natural hat-trick crushed the Bruins.

Five minutes into the great, with the Bruins playing great, Paul Mara's bad angle shot hit of the goalie Ward. The rebound bounced in front of the net to Brandon Bochenski, who shot the puck into the net, giving the Bruins an early 1-0 lead.

The second period was going very well but then we completely crashed and burned. Nothing too interesting happened until Alberts got into a fight with Walker. Walker beat the crap out of a much bigger Alberts. It's embarrassing how the 6' 4" Alberts just cannot fight. Over the offseason he should take some boxing lessons. The link to a youtube video of the fight is here. I won't put the fight on the blog because it is very humiliating.

Later in the period, Ray Whitney dominated the Bruins. First, after Thomas failed to gather in the puck, Whitney had an easy shot from right in front of the net. A minute later Whitney scored again. Then 31 second later, Whitney gave the hurricanes a 3-1 lead. He scored three goals in 1:40, a natural hat-trick (3 consecutive goals) in only two shifts. Later, with 3 seconds left in the period, guess who haunted the Bruins again? Yes, Ray Whitney. He didn't score the goal but his drive was tipped above Thomas's pads by Justin Williams to give the Hurricanes a 3 goal lead. Carolina scored four goals in under five minutes!

In the third period, the Bruins had a little hope when Bochenski put the rebound of an Axelsson shot into the net. Giving him, and the Bruins, their second goal of the game. That was all the Bruins could muster though. A Carolina empty net goal sealed the deal and the Bruins lost a pathetic game 5-2.

One Last Note: Both Glen Murray and Marco Sturm were good to go for last night's game. Murray though aggravated his lower body injury and will not play tomorrow night against New York. Last night both Tenkrat and Chistov were healthy scratches.

Enjoy!

Good win team, good win. Before I start though, I would like to welcome Brandon Bochenski to the Boston Bruins. His performance last night was outstanding! Also, Phil Kessel came through in the clutch again. He now has 3 shootout wins!

The first period was pretty boring. The only real intersting thing was Reich's fight. He decided that he didn't want to go back to Providence, so he made sure of the fact that he's staying by beating up Capital's winger Ben Clymer. Reich destroyed Clymer.

The Bruins got on the board in the second period when Brandon Bochenski's nifty shot went into the net. It was very quick off of a faceoff, a great way to start one's bruins career.

Twenty one seconds into the third period, A failed Bruins clear attempt led to a slapshot passing Thomas, tying up the game. The Capitals then took the lead when a shot off of a far rebound went into a near empty net. Boston tied up the game when on the power play (Ovechkin in the box) Bergeron scored. Bergeron's goal was a nice wrist shot off of a nice across ice pass from Savard. So the Caps and Bruins went into overtime.

Lewis surprisingly had the Bruins play very passive in the overtime, always having two defensemen on the ice. Personally I really like the Savard-Bergeron-Axelsson-Chara overtime line. Anyway, no scores in the overtime and the game went into a shootout.

W: Alexander Semin's shot got by Thomas
B: Brandon Bochenski's shot hit the post and bounced out
W: Alexander Ovechkin's shot missed
B: Patrice Bergeron's shot scored
W: Eric Fehr's shot was stuffed by Thomas
B: Phil Kessel's shot scored

A win is a win. This team played great last night, and that was without Sturm and Murray. I feel bad for whoever has to go to Providence though once they return. There isn't anybody after last night's game who I think is significantly worse than anyone else.

The Bruins have Carolina again on Thursday night, should be a good one.

Update: I was kind of close with my guesses on what the lines would be. Here are the real lines for tonight's game against Washington:
Axelsson-Savard-Bochenski
Boyes-Bergeron-Kessel
Reich-Primeau-Donovan
Chistov-Mowers-Tenkrat
*As you can tell, Glen Murray is not playing. He is out for this game with a groin injury.

Brandon Bochenski was recalled from Providence, and David Krejci was assigned to Providence. (Link here) The recently acquired Bochenski will get his first ice time as a Bruin. Krejci got very unlucky though. In the first period of his first game in the NHL he suffered a concussion after a cheap hit and is now being demoted.

Jeremy Reich, Providence's tough guy has had an intreresting past couple of days. He was sent to Providence on Sunday, only to be recalled for fear that Glen Murray may be injured.

Marco Sturm is still recovering from a concussion. There is no timetable yet for his return. Glen Murray may be injured too. He is said to be a gametime decision however as aforementioned, Reich has been recalled from Providence just in case.

Milan Jurcina, now a capital, is working out well in Washington and will be reuniting with the Bruins on the ice tonight. Jurcina played over twenty minutes in Washington's last game.

Tim Thomas will get the start tonight. Here is my guess at the lines for tonight:

With Murray	Without Murray
Boyes-Savard-Murray Axelsson-Bergeron-Kessel Mowers-Primeau-Donovan Tenkrat-Chistov-Bochenski	Axelsson-Savard-Boyes Donovan-Bergeron-Kessel Mowers-Primeau-Bochenski   Tenkrat-Chistov-Reich
Mara-Chara Alberts-Stuart Allen-York

Also, BC will play BU in the Beanpot championships on Monday. This comes after BU crushed Northeastern 4-0, and BC edged out Harvard 3-1. My predictions for the NU-BU game were pretty good, however my Harvard upsetting BC prediction was just completely wrong.

In my book, the Beanpot tournament is the second greatest hockey tournament in the world, second only to the olympics. (The olympics are actually falling in interest, the Beanpot may be number one in a couple years) Every year Harvard, Northeastern, Boston College, and Boston University play in a tournament for bragging rights in the city of Boston. For any of the four teams, no other game during the season is more important than the two games of the beanpot. If I were Ted Denato, or any other beanpot coach, I would rather win these two games of the season than the national championship.

Tomorrow, the Beanpot begins at 5:00 with Boston University vs. Northeastern and continues at 8:00 with Harvard vs. Boston College. Both games held at the TD Banknorth garden. A week from tomorrow is the championship game for the winners of the two semi-final games, and the consilation game for the losers of the two semi-final games. Here are my predictions:

Boston University 4 Northeastern 2. BU always wins this tournament and NU never does. Northeastern, I think will give more of a fight than usual, but BU will still win.

Harvard 5 Boston College 4. Yes, I am predicting this huge upset. Remember though, Harvard's first win of their season was a 4-0 win over BC. BC has learned from that game, but I think Denato's boys will be playing their hearts out, especially after how close last year's first round game was. Harvard last year was a puck-hitting-the-crossbar away from beating BU.

Boston College 4 Northeastern 1. BC is just a much better team than Northeastern, period.

Harvard 3 Boston Universtiy 2 OT. Harvard is going to win in overtime after one of the greatest beanpot finals ever played.

Finally! Two points. It took us a while to start playing some decent hockey, but we finally did. Last night didn't showcase fantastic hockey, but it was good enough for the win and that's what counts.

The main thing I liked about last night's game was that the Bruins didn't give up. Over the course of the last five games, especially the blowouts against New York and Buffalo, the Bruins basically gave up when they were down. Last night the Bruins found themselves down by two at the end of the first period and they didn't give up. And when momentum shifted towards Carolina at the end of the third period and into overtime, the Bruins still didn't give up, and they ended up winning the game.

Very early in the first period, Carolina got the lead when Brad Stuart completely screwed up in the neutral zone. Erik Cole managed to get the puck and skate down the ice to Thomas, and with a nice swift shot he easily scored. Erik Cole haunted the Bruins again late in the first when he scored to give Carolina a two goal lead. I was really mad when this goal happened because right before Cole's shot, a hurricane player rammed into Thomas knocking him down.

Thirty seconds into the second period, on the power play, Chara's drive was saved, the rebound squirmed in front of the net and Glen Murray managed to shoot the puck in. Then, with under two minutes left in the second, Marc Savard cleared the puck as Brad Boyes' penalty expired. Boyes raced onto the ice, got the puck, and had a wide open lane to the goal. He finished off the play with a nice wrist shot and Boyes scored his first goal since December 26th, ending his drought.

In the middle of the third, Zdeno Chara's drive was saved, but Glen Murray once again got the rebound and scored, giving the Bruins the lead. Then late in the third, a bunch of undisciplined penalties gave teh Hurricanes over two minutes with a 5 on 3 man advantage. Carolina scored on a one-timer and the game went into overtime.

In overtime, Erik Staal's blatant tripping penalty gave the Bruins a power play. Lewis went with Bergeron, Murray, Savard, and Chara. Three forwards and a defenseman, and it paid off. Zdeno Chara's scorching drive scored and the Bruins had their first win since the all-star break.

One last note: Zdeno Chara was on the ice for all four Bruins goals. His drive scored one, and set up both Glen Murray goals.

Update:
I was damn close when I guessed the lines for tonight's game. The lines are actually:
Boyes - Savard - Murray
Axelsson - Bergeron - Kessel
Mowers - Primeau - Donovan
Reich - Chistov - Tenkrat

Mara - Chara
Alberts - Stuart
Allen - York

Thomas

Also, Chiarelli announced that the Bruins have acquired Brandon Bochenski for Providence winger Kris Versteeg and a draft pick.

Original post:
The Boston Bruins announced today that Jeremy Reich has been called up for tonight's game in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Reich is in for Marco Sturm, though will most likely not play on the same line. Both Sturm and Krejci are out with concussions. I don't understand why GM Chiarelli went with Reich. Providence does have some decent forwards. They have Petr Kalus, Jeff Hoggan, Nate Thompson, and a few others that I have heard of, but I've never heard of Jeremy Reich. Anyway, lets hope he's good.

Here is my guess on what tonight's lines will be:
Tenkrat - Savard - Murray
Axelsson - Bergeron - Kessel
Mowers - Primeau - Donovan
Chistov - Boyes - Reich
Once again let me reiterate, The lines are just a guess, nothimg more.

I'm done with the rhyming. I need to figure out a new Player of the week gimmick.

Anyway, the Player Of The Week is Brad Boyes, for his fight against Toni Lydman.

Overall, the Bruins had a really crappy week. We need to start playing better if we're going to go places. Remember though, the season is long from over, we still have 32 games left to play. Hopefully this week will be a lot better, this week will start tonight at 8:30 in North Carolina.

I dare somebody to say that Brad Boyes lost this fight.

A much better game! Even though the garden seemed half empty, and a quarter of the fans there were Buffalo fans, it was still a fun game to go to. This was not the Bruins beating themselves like in the previous three games, this was just the Bruins losing to the best team in the league. The Bruins were firing the entire game, they played very aggressively, and put on a lot of huge hits. The passing wasn't quite there but it was an overall okay game for the Bruins.

In the first period, the Bruins scored two minutes into the game when Marco Sturm got the puck to trickle in between the legs of Biron.

The second period was far more interesting then the first. Chris Drury scored two goals in the first half of the period, one of them off of Brad Stuart's skate. Right after Buffalo took the lead, Lydman and Boyes, yes Brad Boyes, squared off in a fantastic fight. They each started throwing some punches then Boyes managed to grab Lydman's jersey and throw it over his head. Boyes then repeatedly pummeled Lydman with punches. It was by far the best fight of the season for the Bruins. It was textbook, when they teach kids to fight in "hockey school" in the future, they are going to show a video of Brad Boyes' fight, it was that perfect. The refs had to stop the fight after a while because Boyes was humiliating Lydman.

In the third period, with the Bruins still down, the defense let Pominville take a wide open slapshot that went past Thomas. Thomas, I thought at the time could have saved it, but after seeing replays of it, that shot was damn fast! The Bruins mustered two real good scoring attempts, but Biron saved them both and the Bruins lost 3-1.

If we play like we did last night, we'll beat Carolina tomorrow!

One last note: This was Brad Boyes' first NHL fight, so technically he is undefeated in that category, which is very impressive for a second year player.

Speak of the devil! I just wrote not twenty minutes ago about how the Boston Globe was reporting that Jurcina may be traded. I decided after writing the Game 49 game summary to check to see if their was any news about tonight's game. Well look what I found. Milan Jurcina earlier today was traded to the Washington Capitals for a fourth round pick in the 2008 draft.

The Bruins have plenty of good defense so Jurcina's loss doesn't really hurt the team, it's just that I think Jurcina will become a very good defensemen someday. He has a lot of potential. He has a great drive, a lot of power, and is only 23. I really can't see us getting someone of equal or greater value in the fourth round of the draft. Anyway, what Chiarelli needs to be doing is trading our good players for other good players. We've already traded Stastny and Jurcina for draft picks, when what we need is some talent now so we can get out of this 2007 slump. (The Bruins are 3-9-1 in the year 2007)


Game 50 tonight is at the garden against the Buffalo Sabres. I'll be there cheering for the Bruins because like most Bruins fans, I am not a fair-weather fan, and will be rooting for the Bruins even if they have a 50 game losing streak.

Here are the Lines according to Bish.
Sturm - Savard - Murray
Axelsson - Bergeron - Kessel
Mowers - Primeau - Donovan
Chistov - Boyes - Tenkrat

Chara - Alberts
Stuart - Mara
Allen - York

Thomas

Krejci has a concussion from a very dirty hit put on him during Tuesday's game. I hope somebody tonight puts a nice hit on Mair for what he did to Krejci in his first NHL game.

We got nothing. This is crazy! It's one thing to have a four game losing streak where the games are somewhat close, but the last four Bruins games have been 3-0, 3-1, 6-1, and last night's 7-1 loss in Buffalo.

Last night's game was pathetic. Buffalo hit the ice running, got the lead, and never looked back. Meanwhile, the Bruins were happy to eat the Sabres' dust.

Buffalo scored two early goals in the first period. Buffalo's first came after Chara and Donovan were called on undisciplined penalites. Buffalo easily got the puck in the net on a 5 on 3 power play. A couple minutes later, Drury scored for Buffalo on the power play again. Towards the end of the period, Glen Murray's drive went in on a 5 on 3 power play. It was truly a lucky goal. The drive should have been saved, and the only reason Buffalo was two men down was because of a cheap shot that injured Krejci (I agree, it sucks to get injured in your first NHL game).

It went downhill from their. The Sabres had an amazing second period in which Daniel Briere scored two goals and Jason Pominville had a shorthanded goal. That along with another goal on Toivonen put Buffalo up by 5. In the third period, Briere added his third of the game and Buffalo won 7-1.

One last Note: Wednesday's Boston Globe says that Milan Jurcina may be traded.