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 2 - sharks 5

The much ballyhooed First-in-East-versus-First-in-West, or if you prefer, Joe-Thornton's-Return-to-Boston game happened last night, and the Sharks came out on top.

The Bruins led the game 2-1 entering the third period, but two lucky bounces gave the Sharks the tie and the lead, and they eventually iced the game with an empty net goal.

Which is not to say the Sharks did not deserve the win - they absolutely did. The Bruins were hitting and getting tons of shots in the first period, which diminished in the second, and diminished further in the third. The Sharks, for their part, seemed surprised to find their effort matched in the first period, and by sustaining their offense as the Bruins dipped, they were able to mount the comeback.

This was only the second Sharks game I had seen this year, and they are an impressive bunch. Goalie Evgeni Nabokov was equal parts blase and amazing, and Dan Boyle is worth all the hype he's received this year.

As for the battle between Chara and Thornton, it's hard to say who won. Chara had an alright night, but became more scrambly as the game went by (primarily due to an increased level of forecheck pressure), while Thornton got a goal, but one that merely deflected off his foot.

Making matters worse, the Bruins lost Chuck Kobasew for a good portion of the game, and lost Pettri Nokelainen with a serious eye-injury (he was high-sticked by Dan Boyle, and the play was not called).

The Bruins players see the game as a lesson learned, according to Coach Julien:

"That’s the way our players react. They look at it as lesson learned, I think they were disappointed because when we went into the third period with a lead and thought we could continue to compete. But it took a few mistakes and again just not having enough, I guess enough energy to push back, having to play with a short bench and they just didn’t have it tonight. And unfortunately against a team like that it’s already pretty hard to play against them with a full lineup and when you have to shorten your bench because of injuries, [that] certainly doesn’t help matters. Give them credit, guys, they played a real good game, they played a patient game. We had a good first period, but as the game went on they started picking up their game and we had our hands full."

This was the Bruins second straight loss. I realize I didn't post anything about Saturday night's loss to Philly, but I was away for the weekend. It felt like old news by the time I had returned.

bruins 5 - thrashers 4

In a complete reversal from their previous two games, tonight the Bruins spotted their opponents a two-goal lead and then had to claw their way back.

Milan Lucic registered his first career shutout in a monster of a game, helping the Bruins break their three-game losing streak.

Manny Fernandez got his second win for the Black, White and Gold - his first at home - and Michael Ryder continued his point-per-game pace.

Petteri Nokelainen played tonight, after being a healthy scratch against the Leafs.

Despite my earlier post about partially measuring the team via their wins-losses against the Thrashers, the jury is still out on this club. The penalty kill still seems to be a major liability.

bruins re-up petteri nokelainen

Young forward Petteri Nokelainen has apparently re-signed with the Bruins, according to Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe.

This makes me very happy. Nokelainen is a rangy kid with good hands, that, I think, will be able to use his size to gain space as his game develops. He had a commanding presence during the year, especially in the 7-playoff games against the Habs, playing with a surprising amount of grit.

His numbers weren't great for the 2007-2008 season, but I think he's got a tremendous amount of potential, and also think its a good sign that the Bruins brass recognize his assets-in-the-rough.