Derek Morris sucks; B's win

"I never quite understood the hatred you had for Derek Morris until now. I am jumping on that bandwagon, and as a matter of fact, I'll be driving that bandwagon." - The contributor known as "Minnesota", during the OT session of tonight's game vs Ottawa.

See, until today, Minnesota was not in tune with my and Row 12's dislike for Derek Morris. We saw the signs. We knew the shortcomings - $3.3M for a guy who is a little bit better offensively than Wideman, but lacking in his defensive skillz.
Tonight, with under a minute left and Ottawa's goalie pulled, Milan Michalek skated right around/through Derek Morris and scored a soft goal on Tim Thomas. The game was tied at 3, and went to a shootout where Michael Ryder scored the winning goal.
Goal & assist for Krejci. The return of the Matrix?
random crap

• The poor sap on the Devils who blocked Chara's shot last night? broken leg.
• Kessel went end-to-end to score a goal for Toronto last night. I'd post a link, but you really don't need to see it.
  

Trap vs. Shootout vs. Punch to the 'Nads: I choose the 'Nad Punch.

Wednesday's game at the Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota vs. the Wild was a lot of what you'd expect. See, the Wild feature one of the NHL's worse offenses (next to our Bruins). So both teams struggled to score. They have limited offense (Koivu, Brunette, some guy named Kobasew, Belanger) and a good goalie. Rask was pretty good in net, though he tends to think he's Brodeur and starts trying to handle the puck. It leads to heart-attack moments where Wide-uh-man or Ference do not understand what he's trying to do, and suddenly the net is open and the defense pair is confused. Keep it simple, Tuukka. Of course, this game went to a shootout after being tied, 1-1. Bruins goal by Bitzus Christ. The Bruins won the shootout. Bergeron, he's got some skillz.
Black Friday's game vs the Devils felt like the same type of game. More limited offense, exceptional goaltending, and 1-1 going into the shootout. Wheels scored the B's goal after a nifty pass from Lord Bitz. Brodeur, after setting the NHL record for all-time minutes played, stood on his head in the 3rd as the Bruins finally woke up and started crashing the net. Wheels scored, but Langenbrunner beat Rask between the pads to win it.
So a rough 2-game set for the B's - playing two defensive teams when your own offense is scuffling can't be easy. I'm pleased with getting 3 of 4 points out of it. The team is slowly inching its way up the league standings. It does suck to lose Looch for a few more weeks as his ankle sprain heals - he changed the identity of the team as soon as he was back on the ice.
random crap

• Kobasew had a hat trick today for the Wild.
• The Mayor was in town today.
• Alex Ovechkin boarded Kaleta Wednesday night. Kaleta had it coming, and I suspect most of the league was glad Kaleta got hit.
• Bitz' hit on Zanin at about 0:57. video also features his goal.
• Thornton got in a fight today, he fought Andrew Peters. Wasn't much of a fight, just a lot of grappling. Thornton couldn't get his punching hand free.
• Joey Kocur vs. Jim Kyte Legendary bout. I've always characterized the Winnipeg Jets as the Hartford Whalers of Canadian Hockey. They got about 8 pasty-white loser fans, which is why they got relocated to Confederate Hockey land.
• Speaking of losers, saw a Rob DiMaio shirt in the stands today. Not as notorious as when I spotted an Alex Zhamnov jersey last year, but still pretty bad. Imagine being that sucka fan who bought a Zhamnov jersey. Now wear it to a game 2 years later after he was bought out due to some phantom ankle injury. wow.
  
• According to today's poster/roster hand-out thing, Patrice Bergeron's full name is Patrice Bergeron-Cleary. Now you know where this came from, as he revealed his Irish side by pounding on Josh Gorges during last year's playoffs. It's always interesting when anyone fights, but when someone who usually doesn't fight gets all pissed and pounds on someone, it adds extra juice to the game. Patrice - a southpaw, hits Gorges in the neck on his 3rd or 4th punch for the KO.
  

Horrible.

Here's Hal Gill, sucking as usual. Clearly, not the greatest Hab.
(Getty Images, www.zimbio.com; used 100% without permission)

Need a reason to barf this Thanksgiving? TSN is deep-kissing the Habs this week by having a "who is the greatest Canadien" spiel on their site.

• I'd go with Rocket Richard or Jean Beliveau
• I'm gonna go hurl now.
  

3 in a row

Last night, the B's celebrated Savvy's returned with a 4-2 win over the Blues. Savvy had no points in the game, but Bergeron exploded for 4 assists. Goals by Wheels, Looch, Sturm (a shorthanded one thanks to Bergeron intercepting the goalie's aerial pass with his hand), and Recchi. Rask was solid in net. The Bruins actually scored twice on the power play, 2nd unit both times. Bitz got in a fight with Barret Jackman. Jackman got the takedown - no really good blows were landed by either guy.
random crap:

• Blues got a d-man named "Polak". Not too often you got a person whose last name is an ethnic slur.
• Felt like 1995 for a moment last night with Tkachuk & Recchi scoring goals.

Sid the Kid, Marian Gaborik, and...PHIL KESSEL?!?!?

The apocalypse is upon us....

http://panthers.nhl.com/

2 OT Wins in a Row

So maybe, just maybe, we've turned the corner?

Friday night, the B's hung with Buffalo and earned a 2-1 OT win. This one did not get to a shootout, as Patrice Bergeron tipped a Chara wrist shot from the blue line after a Bergeron face-off win.
Bitz/Looch had monster games, and are gelling quite nicely with Begin. Bitzus Christ showed off the rarely-used 6th gear in his Tremec T56 and threaded a nice, Savard-like pass to Looch on a 2-on-1 rush to beat Ryan Miller. Assist on that goal also went to Rask, who was a monster in net (.962 SvPct), beaten only by a tipped shot on a power play.
random crap:

• Bruins are 3rd in the league in face-off wins, behind San Jose & Chicago. Patrice Bergeron is 9th in the league, winning 57% of his face-offs. League leader is Paul Gaustad (BUF) with a winning pct of 63.3%.
  
• Our power play is still ranked 29th (only the Blues are worse), and our PK has fallen to 5th, behind Chicago, San Jose, St. Louis, and the Rangers.
• Rod Brind'Amour is last in the league in plus/minus - he is -18. HORRIBLE. A colleague of mine from Quebec translates his name to "loves a little beef".
• Maple Leaf Suck Watch: They are still sucking and still in last place.
• If the B's beat St. Looey on Monday, they move into a tie with Buffalo for first place in the Northeast Division.
• The Marchand Experiment comes to a merciful end, as he, along with Trent Whitfield, was sent back down to Providence.
• I can only watch either Eli or Peyton right now. Thanks, NFL.
  

Finally.

So, it's pretty bad that the B's gave up ANOTHER goal in the waning seconds with their opponent's goalie pulled. Luckily, Rask was up to the task in the OT session, allowing the B's to challenge the Thrash to a shootout. Peverley shot high, Kozlov got stuffed (24 for 42 in shootouts; that's crazy), and Kovalchuk got stoned. On the Bruins' side, Wheels choked and Bergeron tapped into his inner Datsyuk, faking out the Thrash goalie pretty bad and depositing the puck into an empty net.
The rest of the game was pretty exciting stuff, especially compared to Monday night's game. The Thrash were running around pretty good, and spent what seemed like the entire 3rd period on the power play. LOOCH IS BACK. The team seemed to have extra jump with Looch back on their side. Sturm had 1 goal tonight, but could have had a hat trick in the 1st period alone. Ryder had 2 goals, the 2nd one of which was a nasty snap shot that was typical of Ryder. Maybe this is the turning point? Seems like every time they win, I ask myself..."is this it, is this the turning point where they go 11-0-1 and take control of the NHL?" And they lose the next game.
random crap:

• There's rumors out there that Savard is, or will be, re-signed for 7 years, for about $30-35 million total, with buyout options in the last 2 years.
• Nobody at the Atlanta game tonight. There were the dreaded thundersticks in the crowd.
• Gotta say - how cheezy can the song selections be at the Fleet Center these days? I mean, does "Rock 'n Roll All Nite" strike fear into the heart of your opponent? And do we really need to hear "Welcome to the Jungle" or "Crazy Train"? Their constant play at sporting events ruins some otherwise good songs. B's get it right occasionally - playing "Seek & Destroy" whenever Looch or Thornton fight, or "Black Betty", or even "Nut Rocker" during warmups. Could do without the Linkin Park ("New Divide"), though.
• Game tomorrow night in Buffalo.
• Confederate Flag Hockey: Atlanta's just full of castoffs, huh? Christophe Schubert, sent packin' by Ottawa; Marty Reasoner, hated in Edmonton & Boston; Nik Antropov, a player too lazy for even the Maple Leafs; Maxim Afinogenov, hated in Buffalo; Peverley, a Predator castoff; and Jim Slater just sucks.
• Maple Leaf Suck Watch: The Canes beat the Leafs tonight, 6-5, in a shootout. They are back in last place.
  

Jumping off the balcony..

Seriously? God we need a spark. The B's brought some fire in the 3rd, but once again can't find the (insert every expletive you've ever heard here) back of the net.

Now we are on the road for four. Atlanta, Buffalo, Saint Louis, and Minnesota before returning home for the triumphant return of me to Boston for Black Friday. I'll be opening Sully's at 10am, and will be heard from anywhere around 311. Be sure to say hello.

Prediction- Bruins gel on this road trip and scratch out 3 of 4 wins.

Let's Go The Bruins...

Making Amends

Four score and seven years ago....(minus 83) the Boston Bruins brought in a new coach, Uncle Dave Lewis. One year post lockout, the B's brought in all sorts of new blood on the ice as well including Chara and Savard. But Uncle Dave needed something familiar, something comforting. Little did Lewis know, he brought along my arch enemy for the next 82 games. Now with the arrival and crappy play of Derek Morris, I am ready to give up the grudge I've held for 3 years, all over 78 regular season games in a last place year.

Mark Mowers, born in Decatur, GA and raised in White Plains, NY. Already with this combination, the first thing that comes to mind is not NHLer. Well Mark attended the University of New Hampshire where he had 85 goals, 112 assists for 197 points in his 4 years stay. Mowers was also the Wildcats Captain his senior season, which ended by a loss to Michigan in the Frozen Four semifinals. Mowers earned many team awards such as MVP, Most Exciting Player, and Best Defensive Forward during his tenure at UNH. Surprisingly Mowers was also an All-Amercian in 1998. All of this to go along with Hockey East Rookie of the Year 1995, All Hockey East 1996 and 1997, and other New England Hockey awards. Turns out Mowers was pretty decent college hockey talent. Too bad for me that someone decided he could play at the NHL level. Mowers now skates for HC Fribourg-Gotteron in Switzerland with 0-12-12 totals in 15 games this year. And lastly Mowers married a UNH gymnast, Jana Reardon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySAmpYnVqrU

Way to go Mark, I forgive you.
Let's Go The Bruins.
P.S.- Tell me he's not Beaver Cleaver's long lost twin.

Horrible.

Tonight was a perfect example of "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory". The Bruins had come back to lead the Pens...and with only 0.4 seconds left - only to lose it in OT, 6-5. The game was over. 44.1 seconds left - and Paella forgets to shoot for the empty net...then Begin misses an empty net attempt...then Bergeron's stick breaks on an empty net attempt. Horrible. Then Wideman has a brain fart on a Pittsburgh clear-in, and Pascal Depuis scores an easy goal to win it in OT. Most Horrible.
random crap

• Good to see some scoring. Krejci (close in, off a rebound), Wheels, Sturm (deflecting a Chara slapshot with the inside of his left thigh), Morris (he still sucks), and Ryder (wicked shot) had goals.
• You better believe that Jack Edwards made a comment regarding composite sticks and Bergeron's stick breaking in the final seconds. He also commented on Godard's "fisting ability".
  
• More crazy saves by Thomas, two on breakaways by Malkin & Crosby each. Yeah, he let up 5 goals, but the final score could have been a lot worse.
• 

• I'm telling you, the Marchand Experiment has to end. He shanked an empty-net opportunity.
• The NHL's secret flow chart for determining suspensions.
  
• 

• Maple Leaf Suck Watch: They lost tonight, 5-2 to Calgary. 29th in the league with 11 points. 30th in the league is Carolina with 8 points.
• Evgeni Malkin hails from one of the most polluted cities on the planet, Magnitogorsk. Mutant? Sweartagawd he's got a couple eyes on the back of his head. I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.
• Looch was at the NESN desk in between periods. Ya know how Howie Carr's got that "Wizard of Uhs" thing with Ted Kennedy? Play a Ted K. clip, and count the "uh"s? Winner gets a gift cert to the Kowloon or something? Well, he should switch that game over to Looch.
  

Panthers Get Lucky

It's been said before, and it bears repeating: The shootout just ain't worth it. Yeah, I got sour grapes after last night's shootout loss to the Panthers. The Bruins pretty much dominated the game, and Florida just sat back while Vokoun did all of the work. The overtime session was dominated by the Bruins, and then the shootout came and Cory Stillman (he still plays?) stuffed a weak one past Thomas. It's just lame how a team that dominates a game, but runs into a hot goalie, can end up on the short end in the point column. This game should have ended in a tie and each team receiving one point. But since the NHL thinks the "untapped market" of the mid-latitude/southern USA needs to see "a winner", they've decided to tack this onto the game. The shootout needs to go the way of the FoxTrax puck. And ya know what else is irritating about the shootout? The fact that after each one, everyone has to listen to everyone whine about how they like/hate the shootout.
random crap

• Tim Thomas made yet another "holy shit!" save in the first period. Tim's game in the past few weeks has been really slutty, something like a GAA of 0.98 in the past 8 games. You know who else has been playing ridiculous goal this season so far? Ryan Miller of Buffalo. US-born goaltenders for the win!
• While I'm whining about the shootout - too many dekes by Bergeron & Wheeler. They both ran out of room. Chara should have skated to within 10' of Vokoun and blasted one, nevermind trying to do any moves.
• Speaking of Wheels, he's starting to get on my shit list. He seems to be becoming a little bit of a selfish player, skating with his head down and not looking around for his linemates. I'd rather the Bruins kept Savard than Wheeler.
  
• Minnesota first suggested it over a week ago, and I now agree. The Brad Marchand experiment had ended; send the pest back down to Providence and maybe bring him up next year.
• No fights in the section last night, nothing to really take note of, though there were some pre-teens who just discovered the f-word and were pretty vocal about it. It was like they each had received, just that afternoon, a Fisher-Price "My first f-bomb pull-string talking doll" or something.
  
• More problems last night with the line changes. Minnesota was pretty upset by the Dave Lewis-ery going on at the B's bench. Another too-many-men penalty, plus the game against the Pens featured some poor line changes.
  

I HATE THE SHOOTOUT!?!?!

And so does the damn shootout...Timmy makes the save of his life, and then the B's fall. Are you kidding me? Go figure. The shootout, which was suppose to make hockey more exciting in the confederate flag states, and we get beat by a damn Florida team in the shootout.

Highlights of the game? The Thornton fight? Maybe?

Come on Bruins. Come on.

Can Bruins Avoid the Trap?

Tonight is your classic trap game. Playing a struggling, sad-sack team at home coming off two solid home wins against strong competition. This Florida team boasts what I consider the worst defensive corps in the league, much like the Lightning did last season in my opinion and how did they end up? With the #2 overall selection in this year's draft - that's where. I think the Panthers are headed for the same fate and the Bruins need to help them on their way tonight by showing up and doing what they've been doing ever since Chiarelli rattled their cages with the Kobasew/Paille moves - which is play stifling defense.

They are playing a team whose leading scorer is none other than Steve Reinprecht. He hasn't been close to leading a team in scoring since he left my hated Wisconsin Badgers and turned pro back in 2000. This is how bad this team is.

-I'm predicting a 3 point night for David Krejci who needs something to get him going. The guy has only 5 points in 15 games.
-We could see Lootch in a week - I just hope he is first-two-seasons Lootch and not first-six-games Lootch when he does lace 'em up again
-Mark Stuart is a stud and I take every opportunity to praise the guy - lock him up Chiarelli a la the Lootch and Tuukka deals

B's March Over The Penguins

In between the plentiful debates regarding Sidney Crosby's gender, numerous shout-downs, and an almost-fight, the Bruins put together a pretty tight game to defeat another top-ranked team and shut out the Pens, 3-0. Highlights included Hunwick's almost-not-a-goal, ruled a goal by the officials (Minnesota was sitting in the Sportsdeck and said it was pretty obvious; from 311, I could barely tell it went in.) after replay; Paella finally finishing on a breakaway attempt; and Bergeron scoring with 3.5 seconds left while the B's were shorthanded, 6-on-4. Lots of injuries on the Pens' side - Malkin, Talbot, Gonchar, Letang were not playing. Crosby was stuck skating with, ah, Ruslan Fedotenko and some other shiftless bastid. I'm sorry folks, but I've had Ruslan Fedotenko on my fantasy team (briefly) - here's a guy who is so bad, even the Islanders opted to not re-sign him. If Fedotenko skated with Orr, Bourque as his d-men and Gretzky & Crosby as his fellow forwards, he'd still find a way to suck.
Almost had a fight in 311 last night. Some chump in Row 12 (not the scribe known as "Row 12" who contributes to this blog) started jawing at somebody in Row 13 about something, and the Row 12 guy walked down the row to confront Row 13 guy. Oh yeah, alcohol may have been involved. So yeah, the pudgy Row 12 guy actually slipped and stepped on my back while confronting Row 13 guy. Then the Fleet Baybank BankBoston rent-a-cops showed up and escorted the dudes out.
random crap:

• Good to see Mark Stuart crunch Brooks Orpik against the boards. Orpik spent the rest of the shift hunched over near Fleury, then skated to the locker room and did not return for the rest of the game. Stuart wins that battle 100 times out of a 100. Orpik is a turd.
• Despite the student-night mentality of the section last night, no real good chants originated from the section. Just taunts of "Flllleeeeuuuuurrrryyyyyyy", and the aforementioned "Does Crosby have a vagina?"-type debates.
  
• 2nd on the team in points so far this season? Steve Begin (2-8-10)
• Tied for 3rd on the team in plus/minus? Lord Byron Bitz himself (+3).

Fantasy Hockey Update

The first 5 weeks are in the books for the inaugural season of Section 311 Fantasy Hockey. The league has 13 members who are Bruins season ticket holders and 1 who is in Texas (I wonder who that is?). Of the 13 STH's, only one of these is outside of Section 311. He's in 309 so that's close enough. There are 12 scoring categories in which you compete against a different opponent every week. Here is an update on how your favorite blog contributors are doing:

Minnesota - 37-20-3 (1st place - Byron Division)
Morale Officer - 32-25-3 (3rd place - Bitz Division)
Row 12 - 30-25-5 (3rd place - Byron Division)
The Mayor - 21-32-7 (5th place - Bitz Division)

Row 12 benefited from his opponent being in Ireland and missing the lineup deadline on Monday and scored an 11-1 thrashing of the Bruise Brothers. The Mayor actually improved his record last week with a sound 7-3-2 defeat of The Panama Red's. Yours truly scored an 8-3-1 win over one of the newest members of Section 311, the owner of The Baby Squirrels. Finally, the Morale Officer also won the week with an 8-4 defeat of The Bitzy Cats. Bitzy's sweet moves in front of the net on Saturday night were not enough to muster more than 4 points out of the matchup.

So, it was a good week for all four of the bloggers, but our mayor has a lot of catching up to do.

Looking ahead, it's a big week for the Morale Officer as he takes on the man he is chasing for first in the Bitz Division. The Mayor gets a crack at the lowly Baby Squirrels who I just finished dispatching, while Row 12 takes on his former roommate. I am up against Z's B's who currently sit just 4 games behind me in 2nd place in the Byron Division.

Currently in last place overall sits the guy who is notorious for not showing up to games until sometime in the 2nd period (including this past Thursday against the Habs). It's fitting that he is in dead last with a miserable 13-44-3 record on the season.

In the coming weeks, I'll keep you apprised of the blogger's progress and start criticizing/applauding managerial moves made in the league.

Anything to sell tickets...

After attending the Stars/B's game in Dallas a few weeks ago, I received this postcard in the mail. You read that correctly. I can purchase 5 games for half price, and if the Stars win that game, I get another free game, up to 5 free games.

Wow.

B's Rattle Sabres

I love being right.

The Bruins bared their teeth last night in a game that featured 3 fighting majors and some slashing. Shawn Thornton took on the league's punching bag, Steve Montador, and beat him. Then he took on Paul Gaustad, who had been being a pest all night, and beat him, too. Stuart threw Jochen Hecht down in a fit of caveman fury. I think Stuart held back a little because Hecht was wearing a face-shield. And the Bruins won the game. Okay, so we faced their rookie goalie in his first NHL game, and maybe Buffalo was playing its second straight game in as many nights, so the path was cleared for us, but I'll take it. Paella must have had at least a billion scoring chances and converted on none. Noted Minnesota, "He shoulda had 8 goals tonight." Lord Byron Bitz scored a goal (pretty goal line dangle), Sturm scored (finally a goal that went off the post and in instead of out - check out HubHockey for classic SturmFace), Chara (a freakin' BOMB from the blue line with Recchin Ball screening Enron, er, Enroth), and The Recchin Ball (tipped a wrist shot/pass from Dmo). Bergeron could have had a few goals, but tried to get too pretty with the stickwork and ran out of room both times.
random crap:

• Best comment of the night came from a fan a few rows back, "Buffalo sucks - the Bills suck, the Sabres suck, you guys have never won anything, so what's happening here should be no surprise."
• Has hockeyfights.com ever been award "top 100 websites of all time" by Time Magazine, or something? It should at least be in the, say, top 15, if you ask me.
  

K-Tap now a Habs Fan???

Career minor leaguer Jay Leach was claimed off waivers from NJ today by the Habs.
Jay Leach is Kathryn Tappen's husband. It's likely that Leach will play for MTL's AHL team, the Hamilton Bulldogs. Expect K-Tap to get a lot more guff than usual from the studio crew.

Inter-Ference

Last night, Maxim Lapierre was takin' liberties in the crease on Tim Thomas. Andrew Ference pulled him aside and basically tried to get him to fight. Grappling him, pointing a finger at him, telling him what his mom did last night for the team, and all that stuff. LaPierre kept his gloves on. No fight, no penalties (actually, matching penalties away from the play).
This is yet another portion of the Bruins' game that has gone wrong. There have been 8 fighting majors from the Bruins this year, and none since the Ottawa game (in which there were 3 fights). That's 5 games without a fight, and only 1 win (Edmonton). While my fighting-majors-leads-to-wins analysis isn't complete, early indications show that a Shawn Thornton fight = win. So somebody tell Shawn that Thomas Vanek has been talking smack about him, and maybe we'll get the blood flowing again vs. the Sabres. If you're not going to score goals, fine; but if you're going to lose, then kill a few of your opponents. Our penalty kill is not that bad, we can take it.
random crap:

• Dane Byers (LB's cousin) was suspended 1 game for instigating. The apple does not fall far from the tree, folks.
• Check out Jack Edwards' Phil Kessel impression. For those who haven't seen it yet, Kessel was hit by Mattias Ohlund in his Maple Laff debut.
• Minnesota reports in with this depressing stat: Thru 9 home games last season, the Bruins were 7-1-1, scoring 38 goals and giving up 20. Thru 9 home games this season, the Bruins are 4-4-1, scoring 22 goals and giving up 24. Consider that last year we witnessed at 14-game home winning streak. This season, we go crazy over our 1st goal in 192 minutes.
  
• Yeah, that's Sobotka tied for 2nd on the team in hits with 29 (Chara is first with 35). Note that he's played half the games as anyone else on the team.
• Maple Leafs suck watch: Tied for 30th (last) in the league with Carolina. These 2 HORRIBLE teams play each other tonight.
• Terry O'Reilly pounds on Dave "Tiger" Williams.
• Hal Gill did not play last night. So disappointing, not being able to chant "Hal Gill sucks". It still amuses me how his homecomings are usually met with loud chants of how much he sucks. He probably says he doesn't care, but I hope a little bit of him dies inside each time he hears it.
  
• The contributor formerly known as "Section 311" is now "Morale Officer".
  

What the hell is going on?

Well...First the highlights.

-Bruins score. Anyone else think we should just pull the goalie more? It seems to generate our only offense.
-Tukka has signed for 2 more years.

And the rest-

-As soon as that non-goal went in, you could see the goal was lifted off the moorings. Heartbreaker.

-I hate the shootout. Still.

- Honestly. Why the hell was Recchi shooting 3rd in the SO? I LOVE Recchi. It just didn't make any sense. Are we that banged up? Clearly the breakaway isn't Recchi's best move. Now if it was a screen/tip in contest, I'd take him any day of the week. I guess we didn't have anyone else. Chara for a bomb? As soon as I heard Recchi's name, I knew it wasn't going to end well.

- Seriously, what the hell is going on w/ Bergeron's Fu-man-chu?

-Also, after the non-goal, Patrice looked at Julien, and said the goal was lifted up.

-I got an interesting text during the game saying, "they are worse than they were 2 years ago." The truth in that statement is 2 years ago we didn't expect the B's to score. It was all defense. Now? They just can't score.

-Great point by another of our infamous blog contributors. Savvy is licking his chops at this lack of offense. How much is that going to boost his contract? We need him BAD.

-I should have bet my life on the under in that game last night.

Well, Saturday night vs. Buffalo.

Tonight...B's/Habs...

The greatest rivalry in sports is renewed again tonight.
Will the Bruins score?
Will Laraque play with his back injury?
Will Bitz return?
Will hordes of Habs fans get booed out of Sully's Tap?
WILL THE BRUINS SCORE?

BREAKING NEWS KREJCI HAS SWINE FLU!

prediction 8-1 Habs.

It's time...

CAN'T PUT THE PUCK IN THE NET! ANOTHER PENALTY! 2-0 WINGS WITH 6 MINUTES TO PLAY....

Power Outage

Let me sum up the B's offense:









yup. Blank. B's lose, 1-0. 0 for 5 on the powerless play. Minnesota has suggested more than once that the Bruins should start declining penalties like in football. And Lundqvist always looks unstoppable to me. The Bruins just haven't really figured him out yet. He is 11-3-2 against Boston in his career with a GAA well under 2 (Yahoo! has him at 1.42, but that was before today's shutout.) The B's best chance probably came when Sturm shanked a backhand after he got Lundqvist to go down on a breakaway. The Sobotka crash line wasn't as good today, and yeah, the team skated well, but a minor defensive blunder (Wheels) and a Chara screen led to Gaborik's goal. I was going to start a rant about how many members of the New York Rangers are just complete pieces of shit (Avery, Brash, Dubinsky, Callahan, Nigel Dawes - even though he plays for the Flames now, Nigel Dawes is still a putz), but then I remembered that even New York hates the Rangers.
random crap:

• Andrew Ladd of the Blackhawks smokes Matt D'Agostini. It warms the cockles of my heart to see any Canadien get their shit re-arranged, but damn.
• I'm actually bothering to watch the Celtics play, uh, the New Orleans somethings. New Orleans Jazz? The NBA has relaxed their traveling rules, but I can't tell the difference. Everyone's walking out there. Man, the NBA game is a shit game and has been ever since Reggie Lewis died.
  
• Not like it matters to anyone, really, but MSG's pretty overrated if ya ask me. MSG needs to see the recchin ball soon. Built in 1968, it's been renovated a few times, and will be renovated again in 2012. Just knock that thing down and start over. In an age where new arenas get built even if there are no teams to fill it, you'd think they would have razed/rebuilt MSG at least once in the past 40+ years.
  

B's Strike Oil

The B's have been doing this win-lose pattern all season, being consistently inconsistent. However, it appears that the tide has somewhat turned, as the B's turned in their 2nd straight tight, hard-fought game at home yesterday when they shut out the Oilers, 2-0. Both goals were scored by the Paella-Sobotka-Wheels line. The first goal showed the REAL Sobotka that we know - the player who plays 5x bigger than he is - just completely fearless. He fought Theo Peckham along the boards, keeping possession, until he broke free and threw a blind pass out in front which Wheels shot into the net. The second goal also featured Sobotka & Wheels crashing the net. Rask had a couple good saves, but really didn't have to work too hard. Sobotka has played only 5 games, yet already is tied for 3rd on the team in hits with 19.
random crap:

• Coming soon: An attempt to correlate fighting majors and Bruins wins. I'm convinced their early season malaise is due to the fact that they really haven't beat anyone down yet.
• The Rangers aren't playing so hot these days, so today's matinee should be interesting - mainly whether or not the B's can replicate the past 2 performances.
• Former B's update: For the Minnesota Wild, Shane Hnidy has 0-3-3 totals with 18PIM; Chuck Kobasew has 1-2-3 totals with 6PIM; Perennial punching bag Steve Montador has 0-3-3 totals with 15PIM with the first-place Sabres (who lost yesterday to the Isle, 5-0); Brad Boyes has 2-4-6 totals with 0PIM and 0 PP goals with St. Louis; P.J. Axelsson has 3-7-10 totals, with 29PIM (what?) in 15 games with Frolunda of the Swedish Elite League, if I read their statistik page right; Brandon Bochenski leads the Tampa Bay Lighting's farm affiliate (Norfolk Admirals) in scoring with 6-2-8 totals; Also playing with BranBo is Matt Lashoff (1-1-2, 29PIM, -6) and Martins Karsums (0-0-0, 10 shots). Thanks for the Recchin Ball and the draft pick, you chumps.
  
• Recently, Contributor Minnesota spied a Phil Kessel shirt with #81 on the back, his name taped over in masking tape, and "2010 first round pick" written on the tape. That's got the makings of a good t-shirt there.
• Speaking of which, Maple Leafs suck watch: 1-7-4 for 6 points, good for 30th (dead last) in the league. Taylor Hall, folks. Keep an eye on him.
  
• Spotted a Whaler fan in the building yesterday - wearing his #77 Paul Coffey jersey. He had his young daughter with him, and even she was ashamed - she was trying to distance herself from him, but he kept tugging on her arm as they were leaving. There were some B's fans who were giving him shit, and rightfully so - Whaler fans are second-class citizens.