Archive for the 'Bruins' Category

4/16 Links

Published
by
Matt Saler
on April 16, 2008
in Avalanche, Bruins, Canadiens, Fabian Brunnstrom, Flames, Flyers, Links, Playoffs, Sharks, Sidney Crosby, Stars and Wild
. 0 Comments

Update (3:57 PM): “Is the President’s Daughter Dating a Ranger?” asks Eric McErlain. - Matt

Update (3:49 PM): Tom Benjamin has more thoughts on the firing of Dave Nonis. Meanwhile, Nonis defends his actions as Vancouver’s GM. - Matt

Update (12:13 PM): According to the Washington Post’s Tarik El-Bashir, former Red Wing Sergei Fedorov will play between Alexander Ovechkin and Viktor Kozlov tomorrow night in Philadelphia.

Rookie Niklas Backstrom has been moved down to the second line. - Matt

Update (8:31 AM): George Malik has the latest on the Brunnstrom saga. - Matt

… The Sidney Crosby Beard Watch: Day 8.

… The Sharks avoided going down 3-1 in their series with Calgary last night with a 3-2 comeback win.

… And San Jose’s Evgeni Nabokov continued his excellent post-season by … allowing two goals on ten shots. Maybe playing him in 77 games was a mistake, Ron Wilson.

… The Avalanche took apart the Wild 5-1 last night. It was the first time in the series that the game did not go to overtime. It’s now tied up 2-2.

… Anaheim staved off a Dallas sweep last night with a 4-2 win on the road. Ah well.

… The Caps are having trouble carrying through on their impressive regular season finish. They dropped another game to Philadelphia last night, falling behind 2-1 in their series. They must now win on the road and display some defensive ability in the process.

… Montreal did what we hope the Wings will do tonight: go up 3-1 in their series.

4/14 Links

Published
by
Matt Saler
on April 14, 2008
in Bruins, Canadiens, Capitals, Devils, Fabian Brunnstrom, Flames, Flyers, Links, Playoffs, Rangers and Sean Avery
. 1 Comment

Update (4:18 PM): Ansar Khan has more on Fabian Brunnstrom’s decision to spurn winning in favor of playing time. - Matt

Update (4:16 PM): Mike Chen provides some perspective on the Avery Rule. - Matt

Update (3:54 PM): Further followup: the “Sean Avery Rule” is now official. - Matt

Update (12:39 PM): Highly-touted Red Wings prospect Dick Axelsson has gotten in trouble with the law in Sweden. As a result, he’s been kicked off the national team for the world championships and it looks like this may hurt his chances of coming over to North America this summer. (via Snapshots) - Matt

Update (11:27 AM): Followup: Bettman says the League will look at making what Avery did unsportsmanlike conduct or goaltender intereference.

Good. Just so long as they don’t do anything further to limit proper screening as practiced by Tomas Holmstrom. - Matt

Update (11:17 AM): Followup: Ken Holland confirms that the Wings are out of the running for Fabian Brunnstrom. - Matt

Update (10:11 AM): A new low for the Senators. (via Going Five Hole) - Matt

… Over at Abel to Yzerman, IwoCPO is considering taking a more serious tone. The result is about what you’d expect.

… James Mirtle comments on the latest Sean Avery shenanigan.

Judging by that replay, Avery has completely foregone the whole team concept. He basically took himself completely out of active participation the power play with his mimicry of Brodeur there.

… The Flames staged a major comeback last night in San Jose. I have to say, I loved reading that this morning.

… Kulka has footage of the hit that helped change the momentum in favor of the Flames.

… The Devils were one of two teams that avoided going down 3-0 in their series yesterday. They beat the Rangers 4-3 in the first overtime.

… The Bruins also avoided a 3-0 hole yesterday by defeating Montreal 2-1 in the first overtime.

… Philadelphia evened up their series with Washington yesterday with a 2-0 win on the road. During the period and a half or so that I was able to catch, Martin Biron was incredible and the Caps were more like a bunch of individuals than a team.

4/11 Links

Published
by
Matt Saler
on April 11, 2008
in Bruins, Canadiens, Ducks, Flames, Hockey Bloggers, Links, Sean Avery and Sharks
. 0 Comments

Update (2:42 PM): Be sure to stop by On Frozen Blog for a great video of highlights from the Caps’ season. There is surprisingly little Ovechkin in it, which just shows that the team has things going for it beyond #8. - Matt

Update (2:33 PM): George Malik wraps up media and player reactions to the game over at Snapshots. Be sure to catch the part about the crowd toward the bottom. - Matt

Update (2:30 PM): Ansar Khan reports that Darren Helm was returned to Grand Rapids so he can appear in the two remaining Griffins games, which will be played at home tonight and tomorrow. - Matt

Update (1:49 PM): Helene St. James reports that the Red Wings’ lineup will be the same for Game 2. - Matt

Update (12:57 PM): James Mirtle has a great piece posted on Ted Leonsis that touches on the successful rebuilding year in Washington.

The Caps will play their first playoff game of the Alexander Ovechkin era tonight.  - Matt

… IwoCPO passes on some observations from Game 1.

… The Free Press has a great gallery of pictures from the game. The Detroit News’ is here.

… The vaunted Ducks lost 4-0 to the Stars, a team that struggled down the stretch, last night. I love it.

Apparently, they ran into trouble when they started taking dumb penalties. In other words, when they played that abomination they call their “style.”

… The Sharks evened things up with the Flames last night, shutting them out 2-0 in the second game in as many nights. Unfortunate.

… Is this result at all surprising?

… “What kind of dress would ex-Red Wing Sean Avery wear if he were a woman?” Find out here.

… CBC’s Elliotte Friedman has a great piece on the problems with the Senators.

… As a Michigan fan, this made me sad.

Wings 3, Bruins 1

Published
by
Matt Saler
on February 3, 2008
in 2007-2008, Bruins and Game Reports
. 4 Comments

Detroit came back from a one-goal deficit in the second period to beat the Bruins 3-1 last night  in Boston. The win was their 40th of the season and extended their unbeaten streak to seven games.

If the first period was any indication, the Red Wings were headed for a long night. They came out flat and looked very much like a team that had played a hard-fought game 24 hours before. They were fortunate to have Chris Osgood in net making saves that kept them in it while the Bruins carried the attack. Although the teams finished 10-9 Boston in shots, the Wings seemed to be noticeably outplayed.

They began the second period looking better, but it wasn’t until after they killed off a lengthy 5-on-3 that they really seemed to wake up. With two of the team’s top penalty killers, Nick Lidstrom and Andreas Lilja, in the box, the Wings managed to stave off a determined Bruins team and the resulting boost gave them the jump they needed to tie things up.

Despite the fact that they elevated their play following the big kill, it took the Wings until 15:04 of the second to get on the board. That was largely due to the strong play of Tim Thomas, who was only cracked by a lightning-fast play off a draw from Pavel Datsyuk to Henrik Zetterberg.

Pavel Datsyuk made it 2-1 Detroit after knocking in the rebound of a Zetterberg shot at 1:53 of the third period. The goal snapped a nine-game goalless streak for the Red Wing forward.

Brian Rafalski added to the Wings lead with a blast at 14:02, just eight seconds after the start of a power play. Tomas Holmstrom provided the screen out front.

Chris Osgood finished with 22 saves and improved to 22-3-2 on the season.

Andreas Lilja played a strong game despite an ill-advised holding penalty early in the second.

Tomas Holmstrom looked especially physical and ornery as he dealt out some big hits throughout the game.

An encouraging win for the Wings, who, despite playing the night before, seemed to get stronger as the game went on rather than the reverse. They rebounded from a slow start and found a way to win, which is a good sign as they head down the stretch to the playoffs.

They will face the Wild in Minnesota on Tuesday.

Links

GameDay: @ Boston (27-19-5, 59 Pts) 7:00 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on February 2, 2008
in 2007-2008, Bruins and GameDay
. 3 Comments

Update (1:01 PM): Writing at a newly-redesigned Red Wings Corner, Bruce MacLeod reports Dallas Drake will dress tonight after being a healthy scratch against Colorado.

He also says there’s a possibility that Aaron Downey could remain  in the lineup, if Babcock decides the makeup of Boston’s roster demands the presence of an enforcer.  In that case, MacLeod says, either Tomas Kopecky or Kirk Maltby will be scratched. Given Kopecky’s play of late, I’d have to think Maltby would be the odd man out.

It looks like Nick Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski will start out together tonight. That would likely mean Brett Lebda and Chris Chelios would share time with Andreas Lilja. Chelios will also likely be paired with young Derek Meech. - Matt

Update (12:47 PM): The Boston Globe’s Fluto Shinzawa confirms that Marco Sturm will be in the lineup and that Tim Thomas will start tonight.

He also provides projected lines and pairings for the Bruins:

Sturm-Savard-Kessel
Lucic-Metropolit-Kobasew
Axelsson-Krejci-Schaefer
Reich-Nokelainen-Thornton

Chara-Wideman
Stuart-Ward
Ference-Hnidy

Also, Ansar Khan notes that this is the first time the Wings have made the trip to Boston since 2004. They lost 2-1 in overtime on January 10 of that year. - Matt

Tonight is the only meeting this season between the Detroit Red Wings and the Boston Bruins. The Bruins won the last meeting, 6-3, on March 11th, 2007.

The referees tonight will be Mike Hasenfratz (30) and Marc Joanette (25). The linesmen will be  David Brisebois (96) and Pat Dapuzzo (60).

The Bruins are 8-3-1 in 2008, with their losses coming to Carolina, Montreal (twice), and Toronto (SO). They have won their last three, however, beginning with a 4-1 decision over the Islanders on January 24th. They returned from the All Star Break with a 3-1 win over Nashville on the 29th and followed that up with a 4-1 win in Ottawa on the 31st. Tonight is their final game against Western Conference opponents this season, against whom they are 6-3-0.

Boston is third place in the Northeast Division with 59 points, nine behind the leader Ottawa. They currently occupy the seventh seed in the East, but are within a point of the fifth-place team, Pittsburgh. The eighth-place Rangers are just one point behind them.

Marc Savard leads the team with 59 points, 46 of which are assists. Marco Sturm’s 34 points are second-best. Six Bruins have 10 or more goals: Chuck Kobasew (18), Marco Sturm (17), Phil Kessel (14), Savard (13), Glen Metropolit (10), Glen Murrary (10). PJ Axelsson is not far behind with nine.

The Bruins will be without Bobby Allen (back), Glen Murrary (hip flexor strain), Andrew Alberts (post-concussion syndrome), and Patrice Bergeron (concussion, broken nose). Manny Fernandez is also unavailable due to a December 12th knee surgery.  The Freep lists Marco Sturm (illness) as questionable, but the Boston Globe reports that he is expected to play.

Tim Thomas will get the start for the Bruins. He is the league leader in save-percentage at .931.

For the Bruins’ perspective, be sure to stop by The Bear Cave (preview here),  Bruins Blog,  Bruins Nation,  The Bruins Report,  Five For Writing, Ghosts of the Garden,  The Old Bruins Fan,  so.very.obsessed.,  The Spoked B, and  WickedBruinsFan’s Blog.

The Wings improved to 10-2-1 in 2008 with a hard-fought 2-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche last night at Joe Louis Arena.  Despite outshooting the Avs by a wide margin (they finished 35-15), the Wings couldn’t get the puck in the net until 17:40 of the third period. Peter Budaj was a wall.

They caught a break late in the second period when a Milan Hejduk goal was waived off when the official ruled Scott Hannan had interfered with Dominik Hasek. The ref failed to notice that Hannan had been pushed into the Red Wing goaltender by Brett Lebda in a battle for position. Once the goal was waived off, however, it was not reviewable.

Henrik Zetterberg finally got the Wings late in the third with his 30th goal of the season. Coming from behind the net, he tried slamming it in and was helped by the stick of the Colorado defenseman, who redirected the puck up and through Budaj. Kris Draper added an empty net goal at 19:47. It was just his fourth in his last 37 games.

Dominik Hasek earned his 80th career shutout, but did not have to do much as the Colorado game-plan for two periods was something of an offense-less variation on the Anaheim strategy: they tried to use physical play to get under the Wings’ skin and force them to frustration. They were largely unsuccessful. In the third period, their strategy changed and they started to focus more on offensive hockey, finishing with 11 shots in the final twenty minutes.

After seeing how tightly the Avs have played the Wings in their last two games, I have to say that I do not find the prospect of playing them in the first round very attractive. Even as depleted as they were, they very nearly took a point out of that game, and could have easily won, despite being outplayed.

The win gave Detroit 82 points  and extended their league lead over the idle Ottawa Senators to 14 points.

Pavel Datsyuk notched two assists* last night, bringing his total to 46 on the season. He has eight assists in his last five games, but has not scored a goal himself since the Wings’ 1-0 win over Colorado on the 8th. That’s nine goalless games. Tonight’s a great chance for Pavel to snap out of that semi-slump and get some All Star redemption at the same time.

The Wings will be without Niklas Kronwall (sternoclavicular joint sprain) tonight. Derek Meech will get his third straight game in the lineup.

Aaron Downey played last night and because I missed the pre-game coverage and most of the first period, I’m somewhat out of the loop as to why. I assume it had to do with resting Dallas Drake and with having a tough guy in the lineup against Colorado. Drake should be back in tonight.

Projected lines:

Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom
Samuelsson-Franzen-Cleary
Hudler-Filppula-Kopecky
Drake-Draper-Maltby

I noticed Babcock mixed things up as the game went on last night, but the above will probably be his starting point.

Projected pairings:

Lidstrom-Lilja
Lebda/Chelios-Rafalski
Chelios-Meech

The pairings seemed pretty fluid last night, so we can definitely expect to see a departure from these.

Chris Osgood will get the start tonight. His his .926 save-percentage is good for second in the League.

For more of the Wings’ perspective, see Snapshots, Abel to Yzerman, HockeyTownTodd, Behind the Jersey, No Pun Intended, Red Wings Nation, yzerman is god, Detroit Hockey, LetsGoWings, and Winging It In Motown.

Todd has his pre-game numbers posted and OklahomaWingNut’s GDT is up at Kulka’s Forums.

Tonight will be a good test of the Wings’ patience, as they will have to deal with a very defensively-minded team that is backed up by another strong goaltender. If the Bruins are intent on keeping the pace of the game down, that should suit the Wings, who will be in something of an energy conservation mode after playing last night.

Al Strachan recently wrote a piece in The Hockey News calling the Bruins “boring,” but if this game is anything like most other Original Six match-ups, there should be enough emotion to make it interesting.

*One of which came on Draper’s empty net goal. Return

Wings 3, Bruins 6

Published
by
Matt Saler
on March 12, 2007
in 2006-2007, Bruins and Game Reports
. 9 Comments

I don’t have a lot to say about the game yesterday. I just watched it casually and only noted a few things.

Negatives:

Goal #1: Kris Draper loses a faceoff and then the net isn’t cleared by Mathieu Schneider. Marco Sturm took a shot from the right-side boards and it beat Hasek, who probably only saw it at the last second because of the screen thrown by Brandon Bochenski.

Goal #2: On the power play because of a trapezoid penalty by Dominik Hasek, the Bruins again benefited by the Wings’ inability to clear the net. A centering pass by Marc Savard was easily tipped in by Sturm, despite the fact that Chris Chelios was standing right there.

Goal #3: The Wings give up two straight 2-on-1 breaks and the Bruins capitalized on the second. A beautiful turnover by Pavel Datsyuk at center led directly to the break, which was made worse when Datsyuk collided with Niklas Kronwall on the red line. Petr Tenkrat carried the puck in and beat Hasek with a slapper over his right shoulder.

Goal #4: The Wings watch a shoot-in by Aaron Ward V-bounce off the backboards and let Patrice Brisebois walk right in and slam dunk the puck into the net, which had been vacated by Dominik “I think I’ll go for a stroll” Hasek. Great puck pursuit by Andreas Lilja and Nicklas Lidstrom on that one.

Goal #5: Chuck Kobasew became the latest beneficiary of the Wings’ inability to clear the net as he stood to Hasek’s left and knocked in the rebound of a Marc Savard shot.

Goal #6: I don’t know what to say about this one except that it was just a nice play by the Boston Bruins, who made two of the best defensemen in NHL history look foolish. Marc Savard broke in, sent it to Chuck Kobasew, who cut across in the slot and the puck seamlessly transfered to Phil Kessel going the other way while Chris Chelios kept watching Kobasew. Kessel tucked the puck in his feet to avoid Nick Lidstrom and the two Red Wings defensemen were caught with their backs to the play. Kessel lost control of the puck and it squirted to Hasek’s left, but he beat Datsyuk to it and flipped it into the net.

And those are just the negatives for which I can provide replays. There were many others, one of the most memorable being something the Wings had no control over. A Robert Lang shot somehow made it through Thomas and started trickling toward the net, but Lang bumped the Bruin defenseman and he fell hard, knocking off the net before the puck got to it. The play was obviously ruled no goal, which I think was the right call because it didn’t look to me like the puck was on it’s way in. It may have hit the post and given the Wings a chance at knocking it in, though. I do think that the Bruins player went down far too easily, so I’m a bit disappointed the officials did not call a penalty on the play.

Positives:

Darry Bootland’s fight: It was good to see Booter get one, and hopefully it won’t be the last. He definitely brings another element to the team.

Jiri Hudler’s goal: He showed some great persistence on the play, from his initial puck pursuit to the final all-out effort at scoring. Tim Thomas played the puck behind the net and Hudler had an unimpeded route into the zone as the two Bruin defensemen collided in the middle. Jiri kept at it along the sideboards and ended up picking it up. He brought it out to the to the slot and took a shot which was blocked. He got the puck right back, however, and released another shot, which went in because Thomas had committed to the first.

Jiri Hudler’s assist on Robert Lang’s goal: On a fast break with Lang, Hudler carried the puck in. He was surrounded by three Bruins players and was hauled down by Andrew Alberts, but as he fell, he got the puck across to Lang, who put it across Thomas’ body and into the net. Another great effort by Hudler.

The Bruins, needing to keep their playoff hopes alive, put on a playoff-like performance and earned playoff-like goals. The Wings, on the other hand, needed the points to close the lead on Nashville, but more importantly, needed to get their play back on track. They failed on both counts. Tim Thomas played a solid game, but the Wings lost this game because they underachieved. They did not follow up on their shots and did not capitalize on their chances. The Bruins did and were the better team for it yesterday. The Wings know it and have been saying all the right things to the papers as a result. Let’s see if they fix it by Tuesday. If they don’t, it’ll be ugly in Nashville tomorrow.

GameDay: vs. Boston (32-31-5, 69 Pts) 12:30 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on March 11, 2007
in 2006-2007, Bruins and GameDay
. 0 Comments

This afternoon, these two Original Six teams will meet for the one and only time this season.

The Bruins are 2-3-1 so far in March, with their only wins coming in a pair, beginning with Montreal on the 3rd and ending with New Jersey the next night. Since then, they’ve played three games and lost each of them. First, they were shutout at home by Colorado, then they lost by a goal to Minnesota two days later. They are coming off a matinee4-1 loss to Martin Biron and the Philadelphia Flyers yesterday afternoon.

The Bruins, as far as the playoffs go, are very much on the outside looking in. They are currently ranked 13th in the Eastern Conference, as Florida leap-frogged them yesterday with their win, and are six points behind in a very tight race for that 8th seed.

Since Joey MacDonald started yesterday against Philadelphia, Tim Thomas will be in net today.

The Wings are 3-0-1 in March thus far, having won their last two after dropping a game a week ago to Colorado in overtime. They followed that loss up with a win over Nashville on Tuesday and continued by beating the LA Kings Friday night. Today’s game marks the end of a five-game homestand that began the month. The team will travel next to Nashville to play the Preds on Tuesday before returning home for a rematch the next night.

With Nashville’s win last night over Columbus, the Wings fell three points back of the Preds for the Central Division lead. They are currently at 4th place in the Conference, and would play Dallas, who has a precarious hold on the 5-seed, if the playoffs were starting today.

Dominik Hasek will be in net this afternoon for the Wings. It will be his second start after a week-long injury hiatus.

Tomas Holmstrom is slated to return to the lineup, according to Ansar Khan. He will take the place of Johan Franzen, who will sit out with an “upper body” injury sustained, apparently, in the game Tuesday night against the Predators. Although there was no practice on Wednesday, he did not feel well enough to skate on Thursday. He did play against the Kings, but left the game not long after Pavel Datsyuk’s second-period goal. There is not timetable for his return.

Khan also writes that Danny Markov will also sit out with an upper body injury. He is expected to return Tuesday against Nashville. Andreas Lilja will take his place in the lineup.

As for the Wings’ other wounded: Henrik Zetterberg, according to Khan, who has it from Piet Van Zant, is progressing, but has not skated yet and it’s not known when he will be able to. His recovery time was originally projected to be 2-3 weeks, beginning February 28th, but it appears that 3-4 weeks is a better estimate. No news on Dan Cleary (knee sprain) or Todd Bertuzzi (back).

This is yet another important game for the Wings, who need to elevate their play beyond the level at which they began Friday’s game against the Kings. They’ve started their last three or four games flat and that is a habit they need to break themselves of before it bites them. Points are very important and the best way for them to get them is to earn them with high-quality play. The Bruins will be clinging to their dim playoff hopes and will put up a good effort as a result. The Wings need to do the same. An early start is not an excuse to come out flat, even with the time change for Daylight Savings Time.

Bruins Sign Mark Mowers

Published
by
Brian List
on July 6, 2006
in Bruins, Links and Mark Mowers
. 0 Comments

Mowers had 4 goals and 11 assists in 46 games last season, and was +13. He joins Dave Lewis in Boston, where there is speculation Brendan Shanahan is also heading.

Link

Dave Lewis to be Named Head Coach of Boston Bruins

Published
by
Brian List
on June 28, 2006
in Bruins, Dave Lewis and Links
. 0 Comments

It looks like Dave Lewis finally caught a coaching break. After getting fired late in the summer last year, he was unable to find a coaching position due to the timing of his departure and team stances after the lockout. He worked as a scout with the Wings for the past season. But it looks like the Boston Bruins are going to hire him as their new head coach, after recently firing Mike Sullivan. Congratulations, Dave!