bruins 3 - lightning 1

The Bruins rolled out their fourth-straight win tonight against the Lightning, and Manny Fernandez recorded his first respectable win in a while for the Black, White and Gold.

Zdeno Chara registered a Gordie Howe hat-trick (fight, goal and assist) in a larger than life performance, and players like Lucic, Wheeler and Bergeron showed themselves in fine playoff form.

While it may not feel like a major accomplishment to dominate a team so far outside the playoff picture (Tampa Bay currently has 24 wins in 76 games this season), it is very important for the Bruins to come out flying in every game as the playoffs approach.

While I admit that tonight I was also watching the Panthers / Senators and the Blackhawks / Canadiens games in an effort to see who the B's may play if they lock up the first place in the Eastern Conference, I feel more comfortable with the Bruins simply playing well enough to decide their own fate.

And other sports cliches.

Either way, it was great to see the Bruins (and Fernandez) play such an impressive game - especially after the two wins this weekend.

The Bruins welcome the Senators to Boston on Thursday night.

bruins go two-for-two through the weekend

Last night's shoot-em-up in Toronto was blocked for us Bruins fans in Montreal; we were left to watch the Canadiens and Sabres as the rest of the country watched the Festival of Red Lights in TO.

In Saturday night's game, neither goalie was particularly effective, as Pogge and Joseph let in 7 goals, and Manny Fernandez - still struggling to find his form - let in 5. However, despite the porous goaltending, the Bruins' firepower won the night, which was a welcomed change given how hard it has been for the team to score lately. As the adage says, the team that scores more goals wins, and the Bruins won, 7-5.

Tonight's match against the Flyers was carried nationwide on NHL Network, and was a very entertaining game. The Flyers scored first, but the B's roared back after a fight between Montador and Carcillo, and potted three unanswered goals - two by Lucic. They added another in the third period, and the game remained 4-2 until inside the final 2 minutes, when Philly scored and drew to within one goal. However, despite some scary moments, the B's were able to hold on and win the game 4-3.

Tim Thomas was, as usual, unorthodox and unbelievable, making at least two saves by diving across the open goal-mouth and deflecting the puck aside - in one instance losing his helmet, stick and blocker in the process. Totally awesome.

Mark Recchi (who, according to my Toronto correspondents, is "kind of hot") continued his strong play of late, registering the winning goal in tonight's match-up, and Dennis Wideman had shifts that were some of the best I've seen any defender play this year.

On the whole, a couple of solid games with crisp passing, powerplay execution, and good overall team chemistry...and not a moment too soon. The Bruins have seven games remaining before the playoffs, and are starting to show the form necessary to succeed in the post-season.

The Bruins' next game is Tuesday, at home, against the Lightning.

catching up with the bruins

What's it like to be a Bruins fan while living in Montreal? Well, it's busy.

I've been taking French classes (C'est bon, mais un peu difficile) and taking on a few more freelance writing gigs. Between the two - and a dash of a little thing I call "life" - I've been following the B's, but not posting much.

Added to that, the Bruins are in a very strange pocket of the schedule, which saw them playing last sunday against the Devils, but not playing again until this coming Saturday.

All of this to simply explain the silence on the Black White and Gold. But here's what's been happening:

The Bruins went one-and-one during weekend matinees a few weeks ago, one-and-one the following weekend (repeatedly blowing leads against the Penguins in the second game), and sprinkled in between, some wins and losses. They are basically playing ramshackle, .500 hockey, but have been so inconsistent, it's difficult to know what club we will see in the post-season.

This past weekend, the Bruins were able to convincingly win against the surging New Jersey Devils, in one of the better games I've seen the Broons play in recent memory. The Bruins' best players were actually their best players, and the whole team played that relentless-forecheck game that I've been praising for about half a season now.

Added to this was the goaltender battle between Tim Thomas and Martin Brodeur (who has looked okay lately, I guess, coming back from an injury and posting several wins, a couple of shutouts and breaking the record for most wins by any goalie in history). However, on Sunday, he was bested by the guy that nobody thought could be a starter in the NHL. He looked lucky sometimes, but as they adage goes - you have to be good, to be lucky.

This last game was a major test for the Bruins. Jersey are second in the Conference, and have enough momentum that they could end up in the hunt for the President's Trophy, if other teams oblige. However, the Bruins played the Devils hard, largely neutralizing Elias, Langenbruner and minimizing the impact that Brodeur could have on the game. It was the first game in at least two months where I've seen the B's play the full 60-minutes at top speed.

With the Bruins enjoying a six day break (longer than any vacation I took for at least 10 years, for which I blame someone...mostly me), it remains to be seen how sharp they will be on the flip side. However, given how well they played when it mattered, against a team that should be taken seriously, I look forward to Saturday's game against the Maple Leafs.

Which, as always, I recognize could be words I learn to regret.

bruins 5 - senators 3

The Bruins had a lot more jump tonight against a resurgent Ottawa team, who had won their previous four straight games and have played far better hockey under new Coach Cory Clouston.

For their part, the Bruins returned to old form for large portions of the game. I gather there was some heat in the Boston media about how the Bruins' players let Thomas get run with impunity by Novotny in the game against the Blue Jackets, but tonight's squad played a more physical game and battled hard in the corners.

However, taking a 3-1 lead into the third period, and extending it to 4-1 while I was talking to my mother on the phone, should have put the Bruins in a less complicated position to win.

The Senators came back with two quick goals and for several minutes rolled waves of players at the B's 1-2-2 set up. Ottawa had solid chances too, but with Sens' goalie / former Bruin Alex Auld on the bench, the Bruins were mercifully able to chip it out and pot the empty net goal.

Claude Julien, on the difficulties the team had in the third period, including poor decisions that led to two goals…

"It’s not something that’s new; it’s something that players should know, and that first goal in the third that made it 4-2, we had three veteran players caught low, in between [Mark Recchi] and [Chuck] Kobasew and [Patrice Bergeron], and then we gave them almost a three-on-two, four-on-three, and they capitalized on it, so those are the kinds of things, you know, that if your third man is high, you’re not getting outnumbered in that situation, and you’re keeping the game at 4-1, and we kind of gave them some momentum. And they came back off the draw, and a quick play, and all of a sudden, it’s 4-3."

Of Note: Milan Lucic looked motivated tonight, playing on a line with David Krejci and Michael Ryder, who also showed up tonight for the first time in a bit.

bruins 0 - blue jackets 2

Last night's Bruins game was one that I could not track down online, so I had to rely on highlights. And I did not like what I saw. The Jackets were out-hitting, out-shooting and basically dominating the B's, sending dudes flying and getting to loose pucks.

Steve Mason registered his league-leading 9th shutout, whereas the Bruins have dropped 5 of their last 6 games.

Of note: Phil Kessel received a clean hit and left the game in the first period (he would return) and Tim Thomas was absolutely run by Jiri Novotny, breaking Thomas' mask and forcing the netminder to use Manny Fernandez's helmet. What disturbed me was that there was no penalty call on the play (despite it being an obvious and deliberate body-check) and NO Bruin decided to teach Novotny a lesson.

This is, I feel, part of the larger issue with this team right now. They are not fighting for pucks, not fighting for space in front of the net, and frankly are not even fighting for each other. If it hasn't been clear from earlier posts, I am very frustrated with the Bruins' lack of consistent effort lately, and am not sure how many losses it will take for them to figure out what they need to do to win.

bruins are not playing well...but who is?

A quick post to point out Scott Cullen's weekly Power Rankings article on the TSN page.

I like Scott Cullen for his "off-season game plan" pieces, but in this article, he points out something very important about the Bruins' play of late: they may not be playing very well, but thanks to equally terrible play by New Jersey, Washington, San Jose and the Red Wings, the Bruins retain their first-overall position.

Small victories (when other victories seem hard to come by).

bruins go one-and-one in weekend games

The Bruins were able to claw their way back into their matinee against the Rangers this afternoon, having come from 3-1 to tie it up in the third period, but alas, they could not hold off the Ranger offense, and lost 4-3.

Manny Fernandez got the start, and from the highlights, looked confused on at least two of the Ranger goals (one of which he put into his own net). This brings his current losing streak to 5 games, after having posted a 10-1 record for a good part of the season.

Coach Julien was told of Fernandez accepting blame for today's loss and had the following to say in his defense:

''He's hard on himself, that's the way he is....if everyone is (as) hard on themselves like that, and then they go out to correct, we'll be okay.''

Yesterday's match-up between the Bruins and Blackhawks had the Bruins up 4-1 before Chicago mounted a comeback, bringing the game to 4-3 before Alexsson's empty net goal sealed the deal for the B's. Tim Thomas registered the win, and was especially heroic in the final 6 minutes of the match.

Mark Recchi (seen above in the danger zone) scored his first two goals as a Bruin in yesterday's game (and looked great doing it), whereas ex-Maple Leaf Nik Antropov scored for the Rangers in today's match, showing the impact of the trade deadline in concrete results.

The Bruins actually played better over the last two games than they have played lately, but neither game resulted in wins I would call confident. The B's are still unable to play a full 60 minutes of their uptempo style of attack, and whenever they take their foot off the gas, their opponents gain the upper hand.

With the current rush from New Jersey and Washington, I think the Bruins will be hard-pressed to maintain their current first-place in the East position; however, this is a situation where I am sure every Bruin would be comfortable with just entering the playoffs on a competitive streak, putting wins together with a consistent effort.

bruins 1 - coyotes 2

It has been an incredibly long day that started at 6.30 am, and there are still many more things to take care of before bed, so I will keep this brief.

The lowly Phoenix Coyotes beat the Bruins tonight 2-1 in Boston. The Coyotes picked up some new and interesting players at the trade deadline, but really, so did the Bruins and I had expected the result to be more favourable.

The loss gives the B's 9 losses in the last 12 games, and I for one and sick of it. While they may have over-performed earlier this season, they are grossly under-performing now and increasingly at risk of blowing an otherwise magical season with their sloppy play.

If the Bruins were a friend of mine, they are now at the stage where I would drag them out of the bar and rough them up a bit for their consistently stupid actions. Why. Don't. You. Smarten. Up. You. Bag. Of. Trash....

I was really hoping that some new blood in the locker room would inspire the team to better performances. Apparently not. But maybe they do need some blood spilled in that locker room....

bruins at the nhl trading deadline

If you somehow missed it, the NHL trading deadline was this afternoon. Perhaps you also slept through the 200000 hours of coverage over the last few days. I am sure you can get very detailed information about it somewhere.

The Bruins picks of Mark Recchi and Steve Montador bring experience - a euphemism for veteran, itself a euphemism for old - and skill to a team that is fairly new to the playoffs. In the case of Recchi, the Bruins have added the highest level of playoff success to the team.

I agree with the sentiment expressed by Tony Massarotti in the Boston Globe: this is not the year to throw away top flight players like Kessel, Krejci, Wheeler, et al., for a ton of rental players at the ends of their contracts. This is a Bruins club that has been pretty well crafted but is young and needs time to develop. In fact, I would say deserves the time to develop to its full potential. We beleaguered fans certainly deserve that.

Recchi won a cup in 91 and most recently in 2006 - he's a left-handed shot, which the Bruins lost with Sturm's injury, and he's obviously a passionate playoff performer. It's a good pick-up that could go either way, just as this team does.

Montador I know less about, though I remember him playing with Calgary when they had the scariest defense corps in the West (Leopold, Regehr, Montador, that curly haired weirdo that played for Carolina, Phaneuf and, I think, Daryll Strawberry). He's a hardnosed player, and my impression is that he can be prone to bad penalties, but he may be a bit of an insurance policy in the 'grit' department.

Going away from the Bruins are Nokelainen to the Ducks, Karsums, Lashoff to Tampa Bay. All three are good players, and could have excellent success with the new clubs. Long-time readers will know I am a fan of the rangy Nokelainen, but he's coming to the age where it will soon be clear if he's a diamond in the rough, or just the rough.

The Bruins also got a second-round draft pick with Recchi's deal. Krejci and Lucic were second-round picks, by way of example of the potential importance of this to the overall measurement of the deal.

Hopefully the team will start to gel again now that the deadline has passed, and those young minds can relax and play some solid hockey. They've been consistently inconsistent lately, dropping a lead and ultimately the win against Philly last night, blowing out the Ducks and Panthers a couple games earlier. Perhaps the addition of new firepower and tenacity will breathe some energy back into their game, and help re-form the hard-forecheck, all attack defense identity they've maintained for most of the season.

Or perhaps we'll be back here in a few weeks, asking why we didn't blow this team up, or at least trade for Strawberry.

bruins 3 - capitals 4 (OT)

The Bruins repeatedly played catch-up in yesterday's matinee affair against the Caps, going down 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, and ultimately 4-3 in Overtime.

However, Zdeno Chara's 100th career goal with only 4 minutes left in the 3rd period salvaged a point for the Bruins, who maintain an 8 point lead over Washington for first in the Eastern Conference.

The Capitals have won 3 of the 4 meetings between the two clubs this year - the only team in the NHL to have such a record - and added more fuel to an already impressive run of late.

Tim Thomas played a solid game, despite letting in a TERRIBLE game-winner (Alexander Semin's slapshot came from at least centre, catching Thomas unprepared through the wickets), and in all honesty, I liked the fact the Bruins were tenacious enough to keep tying the game up after each Washington goal.

Matt Hunwick potted another goal for the Bruins, making a legitimate case for staying with the big club rather than going back to the minors (particularly with recent injuries to the younger core), and Marc Savard had three assists in the loss.

Note that despite how the NHL chooses to view such Overtime losses (ie: awarding a point) these are still losses! The B's would not get a point in the playoffs, and while it may be hardline, I think this simple win / loss dichotomy is the only one that matters as we bank into the final 20 games of the Season.

The B's next match will be a challenge as well, facing the Flyers in Boston, on Tuesday.