Line Brawl

I've only been whining for about 2 years that the B's needed a line brawl. Yet I was not at last night's game, I gave my ticket to a 311'er who was bringing family to the game. So I had to watch it on TV. "LINE BRAWL, there it is, holy shit" as I leapt up from the couch and my face 4" from the screen as Ference was bloodied after going after Meyer who had kinda hit Lootch a little high. Horton threw some bombs on Kane, Savard clung for dear life vs. Little in a fight that should have never happened, McQuaid couldn't find a dance partner, Lootch sucka-punched Meyer, will each probably get a game.
Thornton starts the game off with a super-long fight vs. Boulton, a pretty much expected event when Boston plays Atlanta. He ended up scoring 2 goals with his parents in attendance, no less. Crowd chanting, "we want Thornton", in the post-game, Thornton was just hoping it was louder than the "we want Bitz" chant.
B's play Atlanta next week, let's see what happens. Maybe there will actually be Thrashers fans in attendance, just to see what happens.
Oh yeah, Ryder scored on typical Ryder snap-shot, Paille with 2 assists, Wheeler not looking nearly as retarded as before, Bergy re-discovers his one-on-one mojo and schooled Pavelec for a shortie.

B's slap away Caps, 3-2

Reversal for the B's in this game, as they started out fast and faded as the game wore on. As you know, the past month of Bruins games has featured slow starts with some great goaltending to keep them in the game, only to have them wake up in the 3rd period and eke out a win or an OTL. Well, this game they came out real strong and scored 3 quick goals - Bergeron on a nice feed from Wheeler (!) and then Ference from the point (first goal in about 1000 games), and then Wheeler (!) scored. Then the B's figured they had worked hard enough and just let the Caps run at them, especially in the 3rd period, where the Caps outshot the B's, 26-2.
Amusing moment, the Caps called a timeout in the 1st period and then on the ensuing faceoff, Matt Bradley went after McQuaid. Nope.




McQuaid pretty much owns him in this fight.

I still find it remarkable that Andrew Ference is not injured yet. I mean, the dude is made of pure crystal; his body will shatter into a fine dust at any moment. When's he going to get injured so we can bring up Bartkowski? Speaking of the young d-men, Kampfer is generally looking okay out there "Remember when we thought Hunwick looked good?", noted Minnesota. Ryan Spooner update - traded from the Peterborough Petes to the Kingston Frontenacs. 19-17-36 totals in 36 games, good for 33rd in the league in scoring. Kingston's logo is an 8-spoked "K" with colors of black 'n gold.

Kraytch-Bombs

That's right, kids. In a game that pretty much sucked, there was a shining light:

Krejci dropped 'em and got 3 good rights in against Fried Calamari:

Ugh

So, yeah, uh, 2 back-to-back 1-goal losses to Adams Division rivals (Habs & Sabes).

I got nuthin', as usual. They play the Caps on Saturday night. The Caps are in freefall.





That's Caps coach Bruce Boudreau as an extra in the movie Slapshot. He's #7.

I Hate the Flyers

In a game that was a lot more close than the score indicates, the B's struggled to a 5-2 win the other night vs. the Islanders. Earlier in the week, they had beaten the Sabres, 3-2 in OT. Last night, they squandered a bunch of opportunities (kept missing the net) and lost to the Flyers in OT, 2-1.

• How 'bout that Lootch, huh? 15 goals this far into the season, granted 4 of them are empty nettaz, but he's projected to score, er, 77 goals this season.
• League Punching Bag Steve Montador took on Boychuk and it yielded the same result - Montador got beaten by the 'Chuk. Montador should really just have his hands cut off at the wrists and the stubs cauterized, he should not be fighting, nevermind playing hockey. Yeah, I know that, for some reason, he's highly-ranked in the league on plus/minus, but the guy sucks. We've seen it. He shows up, sure, but he sucks. Here, Boychuk slapped him down with uppercuts after Monty put his head down, wishing for his life to be over and for some higher power to save him from the beatdown.
  
• Blake Wheeler still sucks. The December '10 issue of the New England Hockey Journal has "a day in the life of Blake Wheeler". Let me sum it up for you: He takes it easy, eats food, takes it easy, plays with his dogs, takes it easy, takes a nap, comes to the rink, takes a nap during the game, goes offside about 10 times, misses the net about 40 times, makes a few self-passes, takes it easy, wimps out in the corners, takes it easy again, goes home, sleeps. Blake, you're living the fuckin' dream here, getting paid some $2M to basically chill out all day.
  
• Jody Shelley wiped out McQuaid on an icing during the Flyers game. Shelley got 5 minutes and the game for it, but of course the B's powerless play didn't do anything. Carcillo also took a run at Savard. No Bruins took any opportunity to slap the Flyers around at all, though Lootch did shove Powe around during the 3rd period. Carcillo needs pills if he isn't already on them.
  
• Mike Richards, the Flyers' version of Bergeron, skated down the wing and was probably eyeing the clock, "yeah, I'll stick a dagger in their heart here" and beat Thomas with 3.0 seconds left. Thomas had stopped virtually everything else all night. Kinda kills ya when the softies go in, but he makes ridiculous stops all other times of the evening.
• McQuaid handled himself nicely vs. the Islanders' noble gas, Zenon Konopka, in a fight Thursday night. 5-2
  
• Are the B's still paying for Dave Lewis' contract?
• Speaking of coaches, yup, Craig Berube is an assistant coach for the Flyers. I remember him best when he was with the Caps, he was just a bastid.
  
• Someone in 311 keeps rippin' ass. It ain't me.
• Yeah, last night, had a Flyer fan doing play-by-play for everyone: "c'mon Carle, don't mess up here"; "shoot it again, Pronger!"; "Powe, what are you doing?"; plus got some ERRRR, DUH insight on what makes teams win in OT ("the faster team usually wins"). If Row 12 had attended the game, I think there mighta been some static. And I would have welcomed that static. Entirely TOO MANY Flyers fans at the game last night. We had this one Snooki come up the stairs, realize she was in the wrong section, everyone chanted "asshole!" to her, she emphatically threw down her plate of half-eaten pizza, made some classy comment, everyone booed her and started chanting "bitch!". She went up the correct aisle a few moments later, over by 312, strapped the feed-bag on, and continued to watch the game while her boyfriend rubbed bronzer on his face. She was wearing a Gagne shirt, I believe. Oddly, Philly fans now seem to delight in their basic rowdiness and have to make efforts to equal (or top) their reputation as the most evil, disrespectful fans in the league. In the end, it's like watching Always Sunny - just a bunch of really dumb, selfish people shouting at each other...and you watch in horror. Yeah, don't get me wrong, I'd like to throw batteries at JD Drew, too, sometimes, but gee whiz. Actually JD Drew is the Sox analog to Blake Wheeler - all this god-given talent, etc. and then there's just no pulse. You just wake up a few years later and you realize you just had this all-foam, no-beer guy sucking up roster space, cap money, and stealing oxygen. Once in awhile, you see the talent shine through, and you put them in the lineup because of the potential for something good to happen, but in the end, Drew/Wheeler just takes you to the precipice "maybe NOW he'll heat up and be the player we know he can be", and instead, he goes 0 for 2 with 2 walks. "but, but, but, his OBP [plus/minus]!!!"
  
• Spied a Jeremy Reich #53 Bruins jersey last night at the turnstiles.
• Horton finally scored last night, shot a wicked wrista past Boucher.
• World Juniors in a few weeks. USA is favored, which means Canada will win.
  

Savvy Returns; Thomas beats 'Ning

Yesterday was pretty eventful day in Bruinsland.

• The B's absolutely smoked the Lightning last night. They won, 8-1, buoyed by the return of Savard and helped the gaffes by Lightning goaltender Mike Smith. The best part was the fact that the Bruins finally got off on a good start, instead of waiting until the 3rd period to wake up and start playing.
• Sturm was traded yesterday, then he wasn't. I heard on Dale & Holley at about 12:45pm that Sturm was gone to the Kings for a conditional pick, but by the early evening, he was still in Boston. I dunno. Sturm had that ridiculous goal in Game 6 vs. Montreal where he stole Roman Hamrlik's lunch money twice, faked out Price, and won the game. We'll always have that, I guess. Plus the Winter Classic winning goal.
• Savvy made his return last night as well. He did some tricky stuff, but not quite up to speed yet.
• Thornton scored another goal last night, 45 to go. Towards the end of the game, he was looking to go with anyone, started talking trash and whacking people to see who would take him on.
• Seidenberg looked like he almost felt guilty for scoring that goal where he faked the dump-in and ripped a snap shot into the goal.